I'm not sure when or where the phrase "think outside the box" originated. As I remember, my first exposure came with the introduction of the nine-dot puzzle. The idea was to draw no more than four lines without lifting your pencil that crossed through all nine dots. Most people stopped the lines on a dot, With that restriction, the problem is impossible to solve. But, if you extend the lines beyond the dots, the problem can be solved. Thus, in order to solve the problem you had to think outside the box. (By the way, there are many other creative solutions to the puzzle without thinking outside the box.)



I must admit that I used this example in the 1980s in training. However, I quickly realized that thinking outside the box wasn't the challenge. The real challenge, especially to business, is thinking creatively inside the box. That's where most of the real work gets done, and the most productive innovation.

There is something about the tension of a closed system and creativity. An artist painting a picture has the two-dimensional surface that is framed. Writers start with a blank slate and the limitations of the language. Sculptors start with a piece of stone or clay.

The Roman's use of the square in battle was innovative and almost impenetrable for many years. Fortresses are almost always rectangular. Forming a circle for defense, as in "Circle the wagons". What happened inside the circle or rectangle was essential to survival.

I wonder why the phrase was not "Think outside the circle". Circles have been around for a very long time. And, we're finding that a circle of people still has enormous power.

What I'm discovering is that it's not the network of people or the links between people that is key. I'm finding that it is the space between that's important. But, more about that later.

The seminar highlighted below by Mark Fox puts a different twist on things. You can think outside the box, inside the box or in another box. Thinking in another box is a very appropriate metaphor for business. It will probably result in distinctive innovation, a source of great wealth.

I've attended Mark's seminar twice and found that I learned things both times. He has a unique way of looking at creativity with a fresh new set of techniques.

One of the real powers of his seminar is that people who think they are not creative, or just strong left brain dominate people, can really learn a lot and improve the creativity. Plus, they'll love the techniques. Not that right brain dominant people won't learn something, they will. It'll teach them some disciplines that can use to better call up their creativity on demand.

As an added bonus, you get to travel to central Texas in the winter. Now I can't guarantee you fine weather, we do get cold spells here, but often mid January is delightful. And, you get to visit the new campus of the Wizard of Ads that sits on a hilltop. It's an incredible project that's worth the trip in itself.

Hope you and those you love have happy holidays and a prosperous New Year.

Paul Schumann

Click for Thoughtful and Insightful Essays on Books

Seriously. Learn the SIG Methodology and the tools will work just as well in your home as they do in your business.

Mark L. Fox is a leading authority on practical creative thinking techniques for business, with a degree in Chemical Engineering and an MBA. Mark has held top management positions in Rocket Science, Aircraft Hydraulics, Engineering Services, Customer Service, Software and e-Business. He has held positions ranging from Management and Operations to Sales and Marketing to Research and Development.

Some of Mark's unique accomplishments include receiving NASA's highest recognition of "Launch Honoree" at the age of 23, increasing e-business sales by 600 percent in one year, and being the youngest person ever promoted to the position of Chief Engineer on the Space Shuttle program (at the age of 31.) Mark was also the Chairman of the Orbital Debris committee and an eight-time collegiate All American in Marksmanship. Mark also designed and built a 10,000-pound rocket, and flies his own experimental airplane as well as hot air balloons.

Mark's interest in creative thinking began in the early days of his career when practical, creative-thought training was simply not to be found. So Mark developed his own program. And it really works.

Don't miss this one-day course on January 12, 2006.

Price for this one-day course: $1,000.00
As always, Wizard Academy Graduates receive a 50 percent discount.

Register Now



Creating an Innovation Commons

An innovation commons is a space (physical or virtual) that enables innovation through the mutual and interdependent creativity of its members. It is an open system but it can be bounded. In an innovation commons everyone is expected to contribute. Anyone may be able to use the results. Members who don't build a positive reputation in the commons may be shunned. It is fluid & flexible. An innovation commons is abundant resource system, whereas most commons are scarce resource systems. An innovation commons is scaleable.

Other names that people have used to describe this type of system are open source, open innovation, democratic innovation, inclusive innovation, peer to peer (P2P), smart mobs and free agent collaboration. I think that the innovation commons concept, whatever it ends up being named, is one of the most important developments in how people work together.

Some attempts at creating an innovation commons have been successful, but most have failed. Why? What are principles of a successful innovation commons?

The goal of the Innovation Commons Network project is to shed some light on the factors that would make an innovation commons successful. The Innovation Commons Network, international group of over 70 people have been working in an innovation commons, to develop an understanding of conditions that would help assure an innovation commons' success.

In this seminar at the ACA Conference, I will be give an overview of the project, and share the results to date. These results will include our research on values and principles.

Paul Schumann is a consultant with expertise in creativity and innovation. He is the founder and director of the Innovation Commons Network, an international group of volunteers collaborating to understand the concept of an innovation commons. He had a thirty year career with IBM in three very different arenas - as a technologist and technology manager in semiconductor technology, as an internal entrepreneur creating the first independent business unit within IBM, and as a cultural change agent developing a more creative and innovative culture. Since retiring from IBM he has been consultant as a business futurist with programs in creativity and innovation. He is the founding president of the Central Texas Chapter of the World Future Society (www.CenTexWFS.org). More information about Paul can be found on his web sites ,www.innovationcommons.net, www.theinnovationroadmap.com and ;www.glocalvantage.com and his blogs www.innovationcommons.blogspot.com, www.illuminatedinnovant.blogspot.com and www.theinnovationroadmap.com/Travelogue/blogger.html.

To find out more about the American Creativity Association and register for the conference March 22 - 25, 2006, click below.

To have this seminar presented to your company or nonprofit, contact Paul Schumann. (512.302.1935).

Find Out More About the ACA Conference and Register