On "Out of the Box Thinking"

There is modern slogan in management, on the virtue of "Out of the Box Thinking".

It is similar to the notion of "Paradigm Shift" in philosophy of science, where a drastic change in basic assumptions must be changed in order to make greater advances in science.

Management with the "out of the box thinking" works on the same line of reasoning, that sometimes, a completely new way of thinking can change the nature of business drastically. Those who first achieve the new way of thinking tend to gain competitive edge in business.

So management want to recognize and promote "out of the box thinking" in businesses.

But in my experience, this is nearly impossible.

On the contrary, "out of the box thinking" are typically ignored and typically went unsupported, until many of such thinking die in management.

Why?

Because it is very difficult for people to recognize "out of the box thinking" from someone else.

When I was in management, when I had a truly new thought "out of the box", I knew I was "out of the box", because most of the other managers can't understand what I was talking about.

They were "in the box", and they couldn't see me any more, literally NOT knowing where I was coming from when I spoke of the new ideas.

They could not relate to my ideas any more, because I was "out of the box".

I have been in meetings, where I tried to convince 20 or so managers of new problems and new solutions, and I get 20 blank faces staring back at me.

Pure "out of the box" ideas simply do not work. No one can understand them, except the guy who thought of them. So no one will support them, devote time and money to them, or find ways to help them.

And because there are too many of these "out of the box" ideas, and not all of them will necessarily result in success.

In reality, what must happen is, the most successful revolutionaries of business managers, seek to keep "one leg in the box, one leg out of the box".

They must keep grounded in the box, and try to move a little bit out of the box over time.

This allows them to better convince their colleagues of the merits of their ideas, giving them something to relate to.

But this process is often too slow to be truly useful, as there is only so FAR that the "box" will be allowed to stretched, and so FAR a single person can keep his/her stance with "one leg in the box, one leg out". It limits the radicalness of the new ideas.

Some revolutionaries, like Edwards Deming, had to literally abandon the "box", and go find supporters among people who had "no box".

The lesson here, is that for management to truly embrace "out of the box thinking", they need to learn to make a few Leaps of Faith on the most radical of their employees.

Given that truly radical new ideas often cannot be understood by the average human being, it is not necessary for the management bureaucracy to "study" the New radical ideas too much. The simple reality is that "Studying" a new idea too much will kill the new idea with bureaucracy.

And for employees who might think that they have "out of the box" ideas, beware of management, and do not put too much hope in their slogan of "out of the box thinking".

Majority of new ideas will not receive any support from any management.

But do not give up hope either. The simple trick is, you have to try to sell your new ideas to a lot of different managements, until someone listens.

Sometimes your local managers don't get it, but someone else might.

It may require you to change your jobs to make the new ideas happen.

Or it may indeed require you to use your own expenses and resources to make them happen, without the help of any large corporations.

But that is the reality of "out of the box thinking". You should not be confused to think that just because "out of the box thinking" is a common corporate slogan, it will make it easier for innovators.

It remains largely a "slogan".