How about recycling “thinking outside the box”? 

I do not know about you, but I am tired of hearing the term “think outside the box”. It is supposed to encourage abandoning old-fashioned and railroad track straight thinking. Instead the recipient of the tag line is encouraged using creativity in order to find new ways. Problem is that it is totally overused now.

The biggest problem I have with this concept is that I am to assume that there was a box in the first place. How dare we put ourselves into this metal box? I suggest we assume that there is no box. Rather than asking people to think outside the box, ask them better questions. Here are few that can help people use there God given creativity:

• What will make everyone better off in our situation?
• Where are we now?
• Where do we want to go?
• What is holding us back?
• Who do we want to become?

Next time someone asks you to think outside the box, think of better fitting questions. Do not put yourself in a box where there was one in the first place.

Ralf