Outside the Box
Thinking “outside the box” or “coloring outside the lines” is a popular idea in today’s business world. People and organizations are encouraged to think creatively or color outside the box when faced with obstacles such as streamlining production, developing a new product, or developing a new approach. It’s also true that creativity and invention are often the result of unconventional and surprising thought.
But going too far with this kind of thinking is a big problem.
For instance, creativity is highly valued in art and advertising but not in banking or accounting. An accounting business recently advertised that it could think “outside the box.” Do you really want your business to be associated with creative accounting? I take it that accountants must enter the numbers in the proper box? Wasn’t creative accounting a big problem for Enron?
In reality, unconventional thinking rarely leads to innovative and clear thinking. Furthermore, coloring outside the lines is sometimes just thoughtless work. One of the most important aspects of the ability to think clearly is organizing ideas into the proper boxes or categories. A crucial element of clear thinking is mental organizing. Careless thinking, on the other hand, involves combining several categories, wrongly classifying ideas, or putting them in no order at all. Does a child who doesn’t clean their room show inventiveness, or are they just being irresponsible? There’s a significant distinction. Carelessness does not harm creativity, despite the fact that it could seem such to an outsider.
Picasso was a creative artist.
His creative output, however, did not demonstrate his ingenuity. In actuality, the technical quality of his abstract painting is poor. It seems like it was made by a child. Picasso had already established himself as a virtuoso at coloring inside the lines, which was the sole reason he was able to sell his abstract paintings. If he hadn’t already shown his artistic talent in the traditional way, his abstract painting would have been much less valuable. Using his reputation as a traditional artist, he established a new avenue for artistic expression.
Instead of coloring outside the box, he expanded its boundaries and meaning. The idea is that his abstract works were only valuable because of his demonstrated abilities in the conventional arts.
Contrast it with my own efforts to gain recognition as an abstract artist. My work has gone unnoticed since I haven’t been able to establish myself as a traditional artist. Even though I didn’t really try, I’m using myself as an example to support my claim. Order and structure need to be disciplined for a fresh idea to be creative. Picasso was an accomplished painter who deliberately painted outside the lines, which adds value to his creations.
My artwork is worthless because I’m not very good at painting and I often color beyond the lines. The two things are significantly distinct from each other, even though they have similar appearances.
Being creative involves more than just breaking the rules.
Similarly, the only reason Joseph Heller’s book Something Happened (Scribner, 1974) disregarded English grammar rules was because he was familiar with them.
He had taught English at the University of South Carolina and held a master’s degree in grammar. Furthermore, his skill was the sole thing that allowed him to creatively redefine, expand, and exploit the boundaries of grammar. When it comes to creative thought, the same is true.
Without the ability to think both inside and outside the box, it is pointless.
Such reasoning is simply irresponsible. Therefore, the idea that creativity is predicated on the ability to think creatively is essentially ludicrous. Creative challenges are influenced by talent, ability, and discipline. It must be molded and pounded on the anvil of discipline in order to produce skill. Excellent skill is always the result of study, effort, and commitment.
It is more inventive to recognize that the boxes themselves are inadequate and suggest a different arrangement or description. After getting to know the boxes, creativity reorganizes and/or redefines them rather than simply discarding them. True creativity is always the outcome of order and discipline. Creativity must originate from discipline and order as a purposeful activity in order to be genuinely creative and not just casual disorder.
Even though creative ideas can come to you out of the blue, turning them into something requires structure, attention, and investigation. Apart from order and discipline, what passes for creativity is ridiculous, and suggesting differently actually impedes and/or diminishes the creative process.
What effects does this have on our industry? Distributors and suppliers should make an effort to understand the basics before attempting to break the rules in the name of innovation.
Don’t start in an unusual manner. Develop your ability to think creatively first. Learn the rules before you suggest breaking them. For example, before offering a customer a crazy, innovative campaign idea, a distributorship should show that it is skilled with campaigns and/or concepts that have a track record of generating high returns on investment. Designers, illustrators, and copywriters should make sure they grasp the basics before attempting new things. The box contains most of the essential components.