11

The four walls of the box

It is not difficult to push out the four walls of the box, but to do so is absolutely necessary in order to be creative. We are born with these walls and they have a tendency to grow inwards over the years if we do not actively push them outwards. They are:

• Conventions and rules
• Common sense
• Physiology
• Consciousness

The walls of the box have been given names in order to emphasize some of the conditions that tend to limit creative thinking and which we must therefore work on. You might recognize them from the discussion on the creative person in Chapter 9.

In order to expand the box, you have to work in the four different directions shown in Figure 11.1. The first wall consists of conventions and rules. It is easy to get the idea that things have to be done in a particular way. The biggest danger is not from ‘real’ conventions and rules that someone else has established, and which we must adapt to in the form of laws, standard industry practice or social codes. Rather it is those conventions and rules that we create, often unconsciously, for ourselves, and which tend to be ‘truer’ (harder to break) than those created by others.

It is in our nature to seek out structures and patterns for our ways of thinking (the brain loves thought tunnels and riverbeds) and to limit the risks attached to our activity. This is so natural to us that we are often unconscious of it, and in many cases experience it as an external obstacle when in fact the wall is inside our heads. We stated earlier that creative people are characteristically both conservative (traditional) and rebellious. This means that they can push out the wall of rules and conventions because they have the drive to break conventions and rules (rebellion) while at the same time knowing where to push (knowledge of traditions).

Figure 11.1

The second wall is the wall of common sense. Common sense is one of the most destructive concepts in existence, and should be banned from common usage in any language. Few expressions can have caused as much damage as ‘a bit of common sense tells you that!’ In fact the expression is an oxymoron, a juxtaposition of two opposites. Common sense is restricting and in no way sensible. Presumably it is because we are basically stupid that we feel such a need to be smart, or rather appear smart to other people and (not least) to ourselves. So we are constantly seeking the ‘right’ answer and get stuck with a logical solution. But the problem is that there is rarely just one right answer and that there are almost always several logics and many logical solutions. But our ‘common sense’ prevents us from seeing this, and thus confines our thinking in a box which is altogether too small. In Chapter 9 we explained that he or she combines humility with pride. This means that you can push out the wall of common sense by being open to alternatives and investing in several solutions.

The third wall of the box is physiology. It might seem trivial because it is so fundamental, but that is precisely why it is also important. The brain has certain physiological limitations. It is divided into two halves, and has a certain size. We cannot affect this, but we can affect the chemical composition of the brain by providing the right conditions and forcing it to make small readjustments. For example: the division of the brain into two halves structures our thought processes in two ways and limits exchange between them, roughly as though the parts of a puzzle were divided into two boxes, instead of being collected in the same box. This means that not all the pieces of the puzzle can be combined. Recall the number series with possible combinations on page 111 and you will realize that this kind of separation implies an enormous limitation on thought and the creative process. We also noted earlier that the creative person combines masculine and feminine qualities. This is an expression of the fact that the physiological wall has been forced out and the cooperation between the two halves of the brain increased.

The last wall of the box is consciousness. Of course consciousness has its physical limitations (for example, we require at least an eighteenth of a second to distinguish an external information impulse), but the wall of the box lies well inside what the capacities of the brain allow. As a Swede I am tempted to think that my consciousness is made in Sweden, it is so attached to the idea of ‘not too much and not too little’. It does not want to process too much information, or too little. But in fact many people have problems with both concentration and focus, and with taking in several impressions at once and seeing new perspectives. We have noted earlier that the creative person combines both energy and relaxation. In this way, the line of consciousness between focused concentration and open reception of impressions can be extended.

Chapters 12 to 15 present exercises for pushing out each of these walls. The choice of chapter for the different exercises is based on the author's experience of how the exercises function best, but of course you must not feel bound by these divisions.

Get smarter through training: about the exercises

To become a successful business innovator, you must expand the box. While the items you fill the box with, and how you shake it (which you can read about later in the book), concerns creative business innovation in particular, expansion of the box is common to many forms of creative thinking. There are a great many books about how to expand the box and, consequently, many thoroughly tried and tested exercises that can be used.

You may recognize some of the exercises. While the great number of books and exercises is a big advantage, they can also be a hindrance in the particular case of creative business innovation. The exercises are very general and difficult to apply to a business context, which is why so many people know about them and so few use them.

My aim is to enable you to gain new confidence in the exercises by acquiring deeper insight into how they should be used and the specific role they play in expanding the box in the effort to become a creative business innovator.

Most of the exercises are good, and can be used in a number of ways. In the first place, they provide excellent training in expanding the box and establishing new thought patterns, which is their main purpose. This works in the same way as when you have to train a muscle to execute a new kind of movement before that movement can become powerful (roughly like training the chest muscles to work at raising and lowering the body before you can become good at doing press-ups – the first steps in weightlifting teach the muscles the movements rather than increase their size), or when you are able to play more and better music on the guitar, the more chords you learn.

Another function of the exercises is to point out a weakness in your thinking – a wall of the box. As we saw earlier, creative people are well aware of the walls of their boxes, and in this way can constantly develop their thinking. By finding the wall, you then know where to apply pressure to expand the box.

The exercises are excellent for measuring, with a certain regularity, how far the box has been expanded since last time. As with weightlifting or guitar-playing, you will get better the more you practice. But it requires a little patience and, above all, you must understand the point of sitting and ploughing through dots and coat hangers or whatever.

Apart from functioning as training, the exercises also fill an important recurring role as metaphors. Merely thinking the thought ‘sell the brick’ or ‘bow-tie in an elevator’ has great power when you have got stuck, or when you need to motivate yourself or others for some task. Try sitting down with one or more of the exercises as a short break from the task you are engaged in, and you will see that it creates completely fresh lines of thought when you return to the tasks, and generates energy for your work. The creative process is about following a rule or a routine with an uncertain outcome, and you need to be constantly reminded of this in order not to get stuck. When you think about your solutions to the exercises, you are also reminded that nothing is impossible, but that some things are simply more difficult than others.

The exercises are very useful when you want to motivate other people or when you want to illustrate a certain point. Precisely because they are so general, they are very easy to understand and most people can relate to them. You can link them to almost any question and use them as a teaching aid in your work. You might, for example, want to simplify communication so that everyone can understand the essence of the work you are doing together. Irrespective of how complicated the matter at hand may be, the essence of it is usually very simple and it is very liberating to gain this insight instead of getting obstructed by details or the complexity of the whole picture. The exercises can also function as a common language, to motivate one another or find new routines.

A final area of use for the exercises is for epiphanies (what is sometimes called the ‘Aha’ experience). Whether or not people have seen the exercises before, they usually have an epiphany when they try to solve them. This is an excellent way of breaking the ice in a new context, and opening the way for debate and fresh thinking. When people realize that there are imperfections in their own thought processes, they are often immediately more receptive to the thoughts of others.