Wednesday, July 18, 2012

The secret of thinking outside the box

The research assignment starts. Three months of the study of creativity. As I learn things I will try to find gems to put up here. Here's a quick one first off on 'how to think outside the box' something that we as managers get asked to do on occasion.

The answer is simple, don't. You can't think outside the box, that would be like creating knowledge from nowhere. Everything we learn we learn though others or through experience, there is no out of the box.

The secret to creative thinking is to 'think in other boxes'. What is the essential problem? Has someone else dealt with this type of thing before? What did they do in that situation? What else do I have in my body of knowledge that relates to this type of issue?

Idea sourced from Hargadon, A. 2006. Creativity that Works. In The Handbook of Organizational Creativity.

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