Thinking in New Boxes: A New Paradigm for Business Creativity

Abstract

Thinking in New Boxes: A New Paradigm for Business Creativity Luc de Brabandere and Alan Iny 2013, Random House $20 (softcover), 318 pagesChange is coming faster than ever before and in order for you to thrive in a world with accelerating change, then you must be creative at what you do in order to survive. Most managers and organizations tend to fail in being imaginative, which is a critical requirement for ensuring long-term success in the modern world. This book, entitled Thinking in New Boxes, written by Luc de Brabandere and Alan Iny, offers excellent suggestions for thinking creatively and creating a sustainable work culture in the department and in one's organization.As human beings and managers, we all operate and function based on certain assumptions and mental models. Sadly, at times, we are not aware of these assumptions and models which drive our behaviors. Not being aware of these foundational assumptions, according to de Brabandere and Iny, can blind people in dealing with risks and in taking advantage of the available opportunities. Of course, thinking out of the box is not a panacea for such widespread lack of awareness of the mental models which drive behavior. However, our brains need new ways to see things, new structure, and thinking boxes in order to balance selfawareness with critical thinking and brainstorming. In other words, we need a new mindset that can help employees and managers sustain their success in the modern and globally competitive workplace. The authors state that:You might think of the mind as a giant cupboard, with compartments and drawers, a place to tidy up the messiness of reality, to sort it all into a much more comprehensible and manageable set of idea. Each of us creates order by sorting; things with some shared characteristics are put together. Nobody can deal with the many complicated aspects of real life without first placing things in such boxes, the raw materials of human thinking and creativity....boxes are sketches, your mind's way of simplifying, naming, and framing things-whether it is a starving lion, a crying infant, or a popular uprising in your friend's home country-so that you can determine how best to respond to them (de Brabandere and Iny, 2013, pp. 7-8).This book offers five steps in helping managers to get to the futures, and these steps include; doubting everything, probing about the possible scenarios, diverging toward the unconventional options, converging toward those actions that will maximize the benefits, and reevaluating every decision and process on a regular basis since what works today may not be relevant tomorrow. The recommendation is to keep your eyes wide open and assess every process on a regular basis to determine if it is still producing competitive results. While explaining these steps for creating extraordinary results, the authors provide real life examples of firms from across the globe. Some of the examples presented come from firms and organizations such as NASA, Nutura, Hindustan Lever Limited, Chicago Public Schools, Generali Insurance, the postal system in France known as La Poste, Philips, etc. …