The Power of Thinking INSIDE the Box
We've all heard the phrase "think outside the box" so many times that it has lost all meaning. While I strongly support the idea of "thinking outside the silo," we need to bring ourselves back to basics. Starting with design constraints, the box, is a necessity.
Design constraints represent the edges of a project, whether in relation to capital, collaborators, physical space, etc. After constraints are identified, innovative strategies can be used to expand them where the need for expansion exists. But it doesn't always exist. Imagination goes a long way toward doing more with less.
A few years ago, a friend of mine returned from a trip to Africa, where she spent time in a village that didn't have toothbrushes for sale. When she got back to the United States and found herself under the glaring fluorescent lights of the dental care aisle in a massive supermarket, she was overwhelmed by the sheer number of options. Is it necessary to have so many different toothbrushes and types of toothpaste? Similarly, blue sky thinking, while extremely powerful in the right context, or in the brainstorming phase, cripples progress later, in the absence of a box.
If all options are available, how do you start to narrow down the possibilities? How do you separate a marketable idea, for example, from a fantasy? Even if your idea starts off with a wild fantasy, every step of the execution of that idea will benefit from design constraints, a box, to keep it realistic, on time and on budget.
The first thing I do at the onset of a project is to ask for the box. Then I go about the process of figuring out how the box can be made bigger, smaller, more transparent, more equipped with the things the team needs to make an idea real. The shape, size and contents of that box may change, but when you don't have a box, you run the risk of losing touch with reality, and there's nothing that can kill a great idea more quickly than losing it in the execution phase.
Retired International Civil Servant
9 年It also shows that no matter how much wealth we have, we can only use a little; we need the discipline to narrow down things, choose appropriately and get to work. Dreaming and brain storming is good but we have to leave that and keep what is useful.
escape artist, inventor of whimsy, designer with dirty hands
10 年Truth. Without a basic structure in which to hang our new ideas, what are we doing? We may think outside the box, but we still have to operate inside the box. And if you're a ninja or McGuyver, you can take what's in the box and apply it in ways nobody else thought of before. Some people can do more with a lot less - when designing anything, you should start with them and the basic guidelines the box comes with. Great read, Mrs. King.
Driver at Fraser Chrysler
11 年When I started to read your article it reminded me of my conscious thoughts in a drug store the other day. The drug store is there to aid us with our health, yet there are so many products on the shelf that have been proven to be harmful to our health. I THINK IF A NEW DYNAMIC DRUG STORE was to emerge and only sell and distribute products that are beneficial to our health, they could make an impact. We live in a more educated time when we can google and read about things that are harmful. We need to focus on living better. If I knew I could go to a store and purchase anything in this store and know 100 % the products are beneficial and will not harm me. I would give them all of my business. Sincerely Lynn Worthington
Chief Doer
11 年Outside the box, inside the box, under the box! Creative thinking that is innovative, relative and timely will always remain in vogue, regardless of how we frame the "box".