Thinking Outside the Box as a creativity booster: tips, examples

Think Outside the Box

Move out your comfort zone to discover innovative solutions

Thinking Outside the Box - 3-step process

"The box" is a cell of
voluntary mental self-imprisonment.
Outside-the-box thinkers are jail breakers.

Vadim

Inventor
Author
Founder

Thinking outside the box means approaching challenges and problems in new, innovative ways; conceptualizing problems in non-conventional ways; perceiving situations differently; and searching for non-obvious solutions.

First and foremost, be a value creator – your outside-the-box ideas make you a thought leader only if they create value for others.

~ Vadim Kotelnikov

What 'Thinking Outside the Box' Means

To think outside the box is to look wider and further and to try not thinking of the obvious things, but to try thinking of the things beyond them.

In business, 'thinking outside-the-box' can mean, for instance, looking beyond your industry's boundaries and existing markets to the customer's real needs. >>>

Break Rules

Tips for Challenging Assumption

Creative Dissatisfaction

Entrepreneurial Serendipity

This puzzle illustrates the value of outside-the-box thinking. Join the 9 dots with 4 straight lines without lifting the pen. It is only by thinking outside that the box the solution can be found.

A startup business plan is not a box to act within, it is a seed to grow.
~ Vadim Kotelnikov

InnoBall (Innovation Brainball)

InnoBall simulation game is to help implement outside-the-box ideas, design a victorious journey out of the comfort zone and achieve amazing results. InnoBall engages all team members in the change initiative and inspire, enthuse, unite and empower all involved.. More

New Market for an Old Product

This is a creative challenge offered to contestants at the Innompic Games to boost their entrepreneurial creativity. Simple outside-the-box diversification and marketing ideas can bring big − sometimes huge − returns.

BLISSful Inventor

Creative Dissatisfaction

Challenge Assumption

Think outside the box while designing your life.

The notion 'thinking outside the box' is a very powerful concept worthy of deeper consideration in today's complex and rapidly changing world driven by creativity and innovation.

Step Out of Your Shoes

Stepping out of your everyday shoes and into the shoes of a stranger may help you think differently.

For an innovator, an out-of-comfort zone is a comfort zone

VadiK

Inventor
Author
Founder

Never forget that knowledge plays to opposite roles ‒ it serves as a fertile soil for generating new ideas and entraps people in old ways of seeing and thinking.

Once you rid yourself of conventional thinking you can get on with creating something truly innovative.

'The Box' − a set of self-imposed limitations

'The Box' is a metaphor that symbolizes a set of any self-imposed cognitive limitations.

These self-imposed cognitive limitations can be internal, individual or external, shared. Knowledge structures, the way of thinking and what a person thinks about are individual limitations. Paradigms and a widely accepted model providing the context for understanding and decision-making in a particular field are shared limitations. А collection of two sets of internal and shared interactive mental models form 'The Box'.

Know Your Internal Enemies

Uncreative Person: 10 Lack-Ofs

Danger of Categorization

7 Habits of Highly Ineffective People

How Escape Rooms Increase Innovation and Creativity in Kids

The distance between a big problem and a great creative solution can be uncoverable or very short – it all depends on your mindset.

Vadim

Inventor
Author
Founder

Challenge Assumptions

To grow as a proactive futurist, disruptive innopreneur and/or thought leader, recognize that everyone, including yourself, has ingrained assumptions about every situation, and keep in mind that so-called common knowledge may not be correct... More

Make Conscious Assumptions. Making conscious assumptions is a key tool of a creative thinker. Assumptive thinking is like using a tentative step .. More

Think Differently

Adopt a Different Point of View

Ask Searching Questions

Creativity requires an inquisitive mind. Don't take anything for granted. Unless you ask lots of "Why?" and "What If"? questions, you won't generate creative insights... More

Song "I Have a Difference To Make!"

Leave Your Comfort Zone

Thinking outside the box and stepping out of your comfort zone is the most important first step towards extraordinary achievements... More

SuperThinker

Breakthrough Thinker

Think Differently

The only way to get ahead is
to find errors in conventional wisdom.

Larry Ellison

Silicon Valley

In Silicon Valley, companies challenge the status quo and encourage creative out-of-the-box thinking mixed with pragmatic business judgment.

Unilever

Unilever used a designer to shake up the status quo: one division had to turn the employees' eating area into an outdoor-picnic environment. The experiment was designed to encourage workers to think out of the box.

Example → Problem Solving: American vs. Russian Approach

Insight and Highersight

Insight helps you understand what's inside the box.

HIGHERsight helps you see farther and understand what's outside the box.

THANK-YOU messages from users of e-Coach

Surfing e-Coach is a highly rewarding investment of time because it inspires creativity, and creativity is the greatest reward.

Michael
Zelin

USA

Thank you for helping me boost my cross-functional creativity and thus win the prestigious Miss Innovation World award.

Manisha Acharia

India

The e-Coach produces a 'bomb effect'!

Mikael Henzler

Germany

Your creative mind is great to be near.

Bert Falls

USA

I love the all-win concept and environment of Innompic Games. It inspires open-minded creativity and makes constructive competition contests joyful and fun.

Satyajit Mittal

India

E-Coach! Don’t ask me what’s here because the answer is, Everything. And lots of fascinating original stuff too. E-Coach is sure to brighten up your day. Brilliant!

Eric Garner