Inside the Box

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THINK INSIDE THE BOX

You may notice on the splash page of this website the phrase 'Think INSIDE the Box', a not so subtle reference to the area in which pit crews perform their duties.

The phrase also refers to how it is often more productive to focus our energy on becoming a little more efficient at all the many tasks we perfom rather than searching for the one magic solution with big results . . . the opposite of 'thinking outside the box'.

The following is a column by writer Martin Kihn, author of House of Lies; How Management Consultants Steal Your Watch and Then Tell You the Time (Warner Business Books, 2005).

OUTSIDE THE BOX: THE INSIDE STORY
By Martin Kihn

Some specimens of consultant speak are so cliched that they have long lost any real meaning and have turned into the conversational equivalent of an "ummmmm".

Examples abound. To name but a few: In The Art of Innovation (Currency, 2001), author Tom Kelley encourages "thinking outside the box." Variety publishes a blog called "Outside the Box," and a USA Today headline intoned: "Muzak Thinks Outside the Box."

"It is," says Jesse Sheidlower, editor-at-large of the Oxford English Disctionary, "about as cliched as it gets."

The phrase means something like "think creatively" or "be original," and its origin is generally attributed to consultants in the 1970's and 1980's who tried to make clients feel inadequate by drawing nine dots on a piece of paper and asking them to connect the dots without lifting their pen, using only four lines. (Hint:You have to think outside the . . . oh, you know.)

Since then, books have been committed on topics from Kids Who Think Outside the Box to Evangelism Outside the Box. And this box isn't closing: In the past year, the phrase has appeared an average of once every nine or so days in The New York Times alone.

We wondered whether thinking outside the box really does enhance creativity. To find out, we checked with Dr. Peter Suedfeld, a psychology professor at the University of British Columbia and an expert in human cognition. He told us that creativity is a "very mysterious thing" that "exists in pretty much everyone" - but that there are indeed ways to improve it.

One method he has studied extensively is what he calls the Restricted Environmental Stimulation Technique (REST) - putting people into places with no light or outside stimuli.

"What I've found," he said, "is that far from making people crazy, moderate deprivation lowers blood pressure, improves mood, and makes people more creative."

Does that mean a person wanting to be creative is better off thinking, say, inside the box?

Dr. Suedfeld considered this a moment, and then said, "To the extent the box keeps the outside world away - then, yes, it is better to think inside the box."