Thinking Outside the Box

We all think outside the box. Nobody thinks inside the box anymore, except the other guy. We are all big thinker “now a days”. We wake up now and eat “paradigm shifts” (paradigm is now my least favorite word) for breakfast. The big picture, that is all we think about.

How many times do we tell ourselves to stay in the box? How many times do we tell others to do the same? Organizations and individuals are guilty of this. Come on, how many of us work for a Company that wants people to think outside the box. Then the instant somebody does, and it is discovered, out come the policy books. Out comes the lectures. Out comes the personnel folders. The hunt for the innocent begins.

I have a few examples of “in the box thinking”. IBM invented the PC. However they saw it as a simple device for programmers of mainframe systems (their box). They saw the total market for the PC to be around 100,000. That is 100,000 over the entire life of the product (not in one day, like now). That is why they used Intel’s processor and Microsoft’s Operating System. Who needed to worry about a mere 100,000 units. Little did they know that Microsoft would go on to become a bigger company than IBM, or spawn the likes of Dell, Compaq, Adobe, Symantec, etc.. By the time IBM woke up, Pandora’s box was open and a whole new industry was created, and they did not even know it until it was too late. They stayed in the box.

Our Schools are under pressure to improve. Plan upon plan is generated. Yet the only truly major changes over the last 100 years have been: blackboards in the schools (white boards now), prevalent and cheap paper, and indoor plumbing. We want “Paradigm Shifts”, but where are they?

How many of us are stuck inside of the boxes we have created on our own? How many of our own barriers have we erected within ourselves, or our companies. “I can’t do that.” “I don’t have the money.” “What would people think?”

It is time for us all to stop talking about “paradigm shifts” and it’s time to do something. O.K., keep it within reason, keep it legal. You know what I mean.

Here are a few small things to help you get started:
>> Change staff meeting times. Better yet, cancel them unless you have something important to communicate. Now there would be a productivity booster.
>> Stop staff meetings, use email for updates.
>> Take a different way to work. Try a new jogging/walking route.
>> Take a class, in something, anything….
>> Help a charity.
>> Reward someone you find doing something unique, productive, a new way….
>> Turn your computer off for the day. Leave your cell phone off for a week….
>> Break your routine. Find a way.

And please, let’s quit with the “Paradigm Shifts”. Let’s start with baby steps…..