Try thinking INSIDE the box — to increase brilliant innovation
by ken winston caine
We’re always told to think outside the box. But it’s about time someone spoke up for the box. Because, paradoxically, thinking inside a box can spark creativity, not squelch it. So maybe you don’t need to think out of the box. Maybe you just need a new one to think in.
– Dan Heath and Chip Heath, December 2007 Fast Company
Reconsider the absolute boundaries.
Define them.
Reconsider the ultimate objective. The ultimate objectives for all concerned.
And set a goal to vastly and remarkably improve upon the status quo.
Define cool.
And, based on that, redefine your box.
Once you know the rules, find new ways to game them, massage them, expand them, express them.
Unleash your intuition, your intuitive intelligence, your creativity. Allow the squeeze of the box’s confines to force brilliance and innovation.
Encourage brilliance and innovation within the confines of the clearly redefined box.
To the extent that you can, formally or informally, fill your box with other innovators who know and understand the rules. Intermingle ideas, experiments, breakthroughs and boondoggles. Reward experimentation and encourage rampant and widespread open-sourcedness and intermingling of ideas within the box.
But keep the box closed. The work secret. Until you are ready to dazzle the world with the results.
Leaks are inevitable. And those will build buzz and excitement.
This is the recipe for a Creative Lab. A Project Genius team. For sizzling synergy.
