Encourage out of the box thinking

Instead of thinking outside the box, get rid of the box.

?-        Deepak Chopra

“You have to change your thinking if you desire to have a future

                         different from your present.” 

                                               -    Germany Kent

Leaders create other leaders, not people who do only what the are told or instructed to do. A good comparison to that is leaders are like eagles, you don’t see them flock or spend all their time looking for the approval of others. You often find them alone or in small groups. They are constantly looking for new ways to get to the next level and excel. People who think outside the box are the creative minds that continue to move the world forward. They are the inventors, the developers, and the creators of some of the most innovative inventions ideas and processes that have had a major impact on our world today. Albert Einstein and the “Theory of Relativity” or E=MC2, was thought to be mad or insane when he came forth with his discovery, it was deemed to be impossible by most.

When Christopher Columbus purported that the world was round and not flat, he too was called insane and a drunkard until he sailed to the West Indies. He did not discover America, as is taught in the history books to many, but his out of the box thinking allowed the nations he represented to have access to new worlds and trade routes.

Dr. Charles Drew discovered that by utilizing platelets and blood you could develop plasma that have saved lives and changed medical science he had to experiment and He too defied the odds and forced the world to change its comfortable way of thing by utilizing new techniques and his discoveries as he thought outside the box and by challenged the traditional ways of medical science.

One of my favorite stories is that of Dr. Vivien Thomas and Dr. Charles Blaylock who also challenged medical science and the theory that no one should touch the heart in operating on needy patients. They developed a procedure that changed medical science forever and cured the blue baby syndrome, that had taken many lives. They not only challenged medical science, but because Dr. Blaylock was white, and Vivien Thomas was black they challenged the standard that a black man was not capable of discovering new medical procedures, especially by performing any kind of procedure on a white patient.

Many times, thinking and doing things outside the box can be very controversial. It’s not normal. It’s uncomfortable. It’s often frowned upon due to existing thinking or customs whether they are right or wrong.

Thinking outside the box requires exploring things that had previously been deemed impossible. Everything was impossible, until somebody did it.

Inventors. Scholars, Doctors, Scientists and other thought leaders all walked on the cutting edge. They were doubted, chastised, ostracized and even deaminized as they struggled to do things that had never been successfully done before.

As a leader you may often find yourself in a similar situation. The challenges often come from multiple directions. Your superiors, who may have a different agenda that is more important to them and maybe more urgent to the larger picture. This does not mean that you can’t continue to pursue your vision, it only means that you have to find the time and resources to fulfil both projects. It may require extra time and energy on your part, and you may not always have the all of the expertise of the members of your team readily available to you. Push on you can accomplish what some may deem as the impossible if you keep your focus and stay the course.

As a leader it is our responsibility to create an environment where these kinds of individuals not only exist, but flourish. We have to encourage them to take the risks necessary to move our businesses and the human race forward. Here’s to the Crazy Ones, they think outside the box and to most of them there is no box!