Boxes don’t hamper creativity
by Miki Saxon
Image credit: NASA
Everybody has a box.
That’s right and no matter how hard you try you’ll never really think outside it.
Heresy? No.
The idea that boxes are bad is a function of how you interpret them.
It’s not the box that matters, but its size and how you address that.
Steve Jobs’ and Steven Spielberg’s boxes are immense, far larger than most, yet they both continue to enlarge them.
And therein lays one of the secrets of a creative organization.
It’s not about encouraging your people to “think outside the box,” it’s helping each to understand their box and how to enlarge it.
Because that’s how it works.
As soon as you get outside your own box, a new one forms. Once you totally use up its content and find its sides you go outside that box, a new one forms and the process begins again.
If you work at it, this process continues throughout your life—although some never start it and some get comfortable in a certain box and retain it.
But the most wonderful thing about boxes is that it’s always your choice—within your control to make it happen.
There will always be a box, but with effort you can enlarge it enough to encompass galaxies—and even entire universes.
It’s all yours for the choosing.
Have you hugged (and enlarged) your box lately?
August 5th, 2008 at 7:29 am
I’m hoping for a little box growth soon. I’m forcing myself to take time and think daily about who I am and what I want to do with that.
August 5th, 2008 at 9:52 am
Hi Luke, it’s a lot easier to just roll along,allow circumstances to dictate your growth and then complain about what’s been done to you.
That said, there are lots of way to make the exploration fun instead of having to force it. Maybe time to talk again?
August 6th, 2008 at 2:59 am
Hello Miki,
Congratulations on a much-needed breath of fresh air on this often tiresome cliche of a topic. The “think outside the box” mantra started out well-meaning enough, but inevitably became over-focused on what doing it said about the individual than about the problem at hand. And you are right on the mark to say that we must reframe the box to the problem, even to the point of including – seeking out – new problems, not to mention expanding the intellectual terrain in which we can discover solutions to them.
Excellent – thanks!
August 6th, 2008 at 9:39 am
Thanks, Jim. I’ve always believed that the most wonderful thing about boxes is that used correctly they can help us grow, rather than hinder us.