Out of Box Thinking - Where is the Box?

Most people want us to "Think Out of the Box". It would help us greatly if we can describe our box that boxes us in. If we don't know what and where is the box, how are we going to break free ? It is almost an impossible task for us to break free from our biases and presumptions because we are not aware of them in the first place! The Bible put it as the log in our eyes that we don't see. Luke 6:41 "Why do you look at the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye?

The first step in 'Out of Box Thinking' is to know the Box.
What are the hidden assumptions, false perceptions and the tracks of our 'one-track-mindset' in our mind that bind us? There is good news though. We don't have to spend time defining the boundaries of our box before we can break free and be creative. We just need to break down one wall or dig a hole in the wall to breakout into the new free world of ideas.

Systematic Methods to Break Free.
There is better good news. There are methods worked out by the geniuses that we can systematically apply to break free. One of such methods is TRIZ and its various derivatives such as SIT, ASIT. See Roni Horowitz's article on "Using ASIT to Develop New Products" or buy his books. ASIT are simple to use. For those more motivated and technical, try TRIZ after ASIT.

Sources of Ideas

Where can we get new ideas ?

1. let our staff tell us ... suggestion schemes.
2. let our customers tell us... customer interview, enhancement request submission, ...
3. let our suppliers tell us... join suppliers' program....
4. let out competitors tell us... this is painful but needful
5. let the industry tell us... join the association ...
6. let our consultants tell us... engage them ...
7. let the media tell us...
8. look across industry and see....
9. extend the above sources further, customers' customers, suppliers' supplier, staff family, going further upstream or going further downstream, ...

But, where will Break Through idea comes from ?
Can customers tell you products that do not exist at all?
How can we be truly innovative and have break through reuslt... attracting new customers... and with today's technology.... no bleeding-edge pains....

Here are some other good sources...

1. Job Completion Theory from Clayton M. Christensen's, "Theories of Innovations" in "See What's Next". Create a product that enables the Task to be completed more effectively, easier and less costly. The value is in the saving and effectiveness and efficiency obtained in applying the new product to the task.

2. Value Innovation or Blue Ocean Strategy by W. Chan Kim, Renée Mauborgne. Highly recommended for innovation in business.

3. TRIZ, SIT, ASIT. TRIZ is effective but quite complicated for beginners. Suggest ASIT and SIT. They have distilled the meat of TRIZ into 1-2 principles and 5 (for SIT) and 6 (for ASIT) tools.

4. Think Like a Genius...A collection of 31 thinking metaphorm(or patterns) to stimulate creative ideas... Connect+Discover+Invent+Apply four steps for innovation. It is a bit too many for a person to fully grasp all and apply them effectively. Perhaps can be tried after the methods 1-3 still does not yield any result.

I will cover the topics above in greater details in subsequent postings.