The term thinking outside the box is a catchy American phrase. It has
become the posterchild for a concept, that suggests that there are
those amongst us who are not bound by traditional thinkings, ideas and
concepts. But they are in fact innovative enough to employ new methods
to accomplish old tasks.
These types of people reached an elite status of interest. They are
very desirable, particularly in the corporate levels, because they are
trendsetters, and not mere followers, of the traditions of those that
proceeded them.
It's not easy to think outside the box. You get a lot of people
talking crud about you, when you don't fit in. When you don't do
things the way everybody else does them, you are very controversial.
But if you are going to be a leader, you need to go somewhere, where
no one else has gone, and do something that no one has done, and set
your face as flint, and know that criticism is not necessarily a
crisis. It can often be a gateway that opens up a new way of thinking.
What you resist persists, and what you allow to be, disappears.
Thinking outside the box without understanding the box is a pelutant
exercise in resistance.
The exhortation to think outside the box has become ubiquitous in
business. So much that it has become the new box inside of which
everyone thinks.
It pays lip service to the notion of transformation without really
understanding the difference between transformation and change, and
often without tolerance for the real thinking that must occur for an
idea to be truly outside the existing paradigm.
But worse than that, the advice is backwards. You cannot possibly
think outside the box unless you understand the nature of the box that
bounds your current thinking.
You must come to know that nature deeply. You must have real insight
into it. You must accept it, embrace it at some level, before it will
ever release you.
