In Defense of Inside the Box Thinking

Content Strategy and Words for Business on the Web • • Feature Post Sales vs. Marketing

« Coming Soon - The Age of Conversation 2.0 | Blog Home | How to Sell Your Way through the Recession »

In Defense of Inside the Box Thinking

By Brad Shorr | January 29, 2008

Ironically, outside the box thinking has been so highly praised by so many people for so long, its superiority to inside the box thinking has become conventional wisdom.

Today, it goes without saying that outside the box thinking leads to smart business decisions, and inside the box thinking leads to dumb ones.

However, I would argue that more often than not, the reverse is true.

How many bad outside the box ideas does it take to produce one good one? Plenty. But for an idea to gain inside the box status, it must have performed pretty well over a pretty long period of time.

I’m not saying companies should abandon creative thinking. On the contrary, companies need to stay on their mental toes more than ever because business is changing faster than ever.

But an idea should not be accepted merely because it is new any more than it should be rejected merely because it is old. My feeling is, think creatively, test diligently, challenge old ways of thinking but challenge new ways of thinking even harder.

What do you think - is that a formula for success or stagnation?
____________________________________________________________________

The cartoon at top was done for my client, Bill Welter. Bill’s extremely cool company, Adaptive Strategies, “helps organizations prepare their collective minds for the future.” Bill uses the cartoon for presentations, and he was nice enough to let me use it here in another context.

Related:

4 Responses to “In Defense of Inside the Box Thinking”

Robert Hruzek Says:
January 29th, 2008 at 8:26 am
Gee, Brad…

I thing you’ve got a timely idea here; one that flies in the face of conventional wisdom. In other words, an out-of-the-box idea if there ever was one!
Brad Shorr Says:
January 29th, 2008 at 8:45 am
Robert, I guess inside the box is the new out of the box. And congratulations on your new gig!
Jeanne Dininni Says:
January 31st, 2008 at 12:14 am
Brad,

Challenging, is, by definition, the antithesis of stagnation, since it’s a very active process. It takes energy, thought, questioning, and as you state, testing, to challenge an idea.

There can be good and bad in any idea, whether new or old, inside-the-box or outside-the-box. Many inside-the-box ideas are tried and true; yet who knows how much these could be improved if the right questions are asked and the right avenues explored?

And when new ideas come, who can know how reliable they’ll ultimately prove to be without sufficient testing and experimenting? In fact, who’s to say that a combination of the new and the old won’t be the best choice? Maybe it would be best to simply ignore the box completely!

Jeanne
Brad Shorr Says:
January 31st, 2008 at 6:25 am
Jeanne, sage advice. Maybe “the box” is merely a distraction.