“Thinking outside the box” means approaching a challenge unconventionally, often associated with The Nine Dots puzzle. It can lead to innovation, but can also be problematic if used irrationally.
“Thinking outside the box” means handling a situation or challenge in an unconventional way. The origin of the phrase is believed to date back to the 1960s and is often associated with a famous mind puzzle called The Nine Dots. While the concept can be extremely useful as a means to spark new forms of discovery, it can also be problematic if not used rationally.
The origin of the phrase “thinking outside the box” is often tied to mid-20th century corporate culture. While there are several claims to the original coinage of the phrase, many go back to one particular puzzle involving nine dots. In the puzzle, nine dots are arranged in a square shape, with three rows of three dots. The puzzle should find a way to draw four lines through all points, without redrawing on any line. One of the most common solutions to the puzzle is to draw lines that extend beyond the edges of the dot-square; in effect, going “outside the box” created by the dots.
The “box” in this sentence refers to traditional or conventional knowledge about a topic. In the nine-dot puzzle, the convention that must be ignored is that the lines should stay within the boundaries of the initial square. When applied to other topics, “thinking outside the box” typically means ignoring the central tenants of a theory or concept and forgetting how something has always been done.
A person may be asked to think outside the box to stimulate the possibility of innovation. If a fast food restaurant long known for its brand as a comfort food place starts losing customers to a new health craze, marketers may have to think outside their traditional branding box to make the attractive restaurant for healthy eaters. By taking a radically different, never-before-tried approach to an old situation, a person can increase the chances of finding a new and improved method or solution.
The downside to thinking outside the box is that it can sometimes result in throwing good ideas because they’re conventional or traditional, rather than because they don’t work. If a successful company decides to lay off all of its longtime and loyal employees to attract a new hip and completely inexperienced crowd as a means of thinking outside the box, it could soon find itself on the verge of financial collapse of the cutting edge of the industry. ‘innovation. While learning to think outside the box can be an invaluable method for solving problems, it can also be important to learn how and when to apply it.
Protect your devices with Threat Protection by NordVPN
