Think Outside the Box

It’s a commonly-held ambition to think outside the box.

But how does one do it? It’s not nearly as complicated as you might think.

As Nobel Laureate Paul Nurse (2001 Prize for Medicine) said in his Nobel Inspiration Initiative Lecture, “You have to read other sorts of papers that are a bit outside your area, so somehow you’ll link something. If you just read the papers that are in your area, everybody is often thinking the same thing. If you read a paper over here, then sometimes you look upon the problem differently… Read other things outside your immediate area, see if that stimulates (ideas). Creativity is putting things together that you don’t often put together.”

Sounds a lot like what fellow Nobel winner Richard Feynman did. But it’s not only for Nobel-caliber breakthroughs! It’s a fantastic mindset for courting run-of-the-mill business breakthroughs, too!

Our friend Claudia Kotchka, former Head of Design Innovation at Proctor & Gamble, told me and Perry she’d use a similar tactic to think outside the box: “I read a lot. I try to read things that aren’t related to my field. I even go to conferences that aren’t in my field! Coming from marketing, I would go to design conferences… I even went to a psychotherapy conference!”

If it’s that easy, why don’t we do it?

Why don’t you read outside your field? Why don’t you attend seemingly-unrelated conferences? Because it’s not efficient!

The only thing you have to give up is your sense of efficiency. As is the case with so many tactics for breakthrough thinking, you have to be willing to indulge a little irresponsibility.

If you have no time to get out of the box, you will not be able to think out of the box, either.

Related: Visit Other Fields
Related: Make Connections
Related: Don’t Be Efficient
Related: Be Irresponsible

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