Some years ago an incident occurred where a truck driver who tried passing under a low bridge caused the truck to become lodged under the bridge. The driver was unable to continue driving through or reverse out. It caused massive traffic problems ,the emergency workers were debating whether to dismantle parts of the truck or chip away at parts of the bridge. Each spoke of a solution, which fit within his or her respective level of expertise. A boy walking by witnessing the intense debate looked at the truck, at the bridge, then looked at the road and said nonchalantly, "Why not just let the air out of the tires?" to the absolute amazement of all the "experts" trying to unpick the problem. This story symbolises the struggles we often face in our lives have obvious solutions but hardest to come to mind because of self imposed constraints we work within.
Human thinking is dominated by patterns. These patterns enable us to collaborate with the world and solve everyday problems with ease. However, these same patterns can obstruct the development of new strategies and problem-solving approaches. Design thinking offers us an approach – Thinking out of the box, that gives us the potential to break these existing patterns and allow us to develop new ways of tackling both long-established problems and those that we have never previously encountered.
Thinking Out of The Box – How ? Thinking outside the box takes different attributes that include:
Willingness to take new perspectives in everyday work
Out-of-the box thinking requires being open to new ways of seeing the world and a willingness to explore. Out-of the box thinkers know that new ideas need nurturing and support. They also know that having an idea is good but acting on it is more important..
Openness to do different things and do things differently
Instead of accepting the first answer that comes to mind, try to go beyond it; be open and to and create more ideas.
Paying attention to find the value of new ideas and acting on them
Designers should have great observation on every single perspective and implementing them in real time scenario is very important.
Supporting and accepting others when they come up with new ideas
They may forget what you said, but they will never forget how you made them feel.
~ Carl W Buechner (philosopher).
Listening to new ideas enhances your knowledge and responding appropriately shows your assertiveness.
Outside the little box, inside the bigger box
Every project that a client hopes you can get a little more creative with needs a “little box” you can think outside of and a “bigger box” you work inside of.
The little box can be existing patterns of designing.
The bigger box can be client requirements and guidelines (without which we can't even seem to get started ). That makes your job, as a designer, to do the best work you can within your box.
Thinking out of the box is hard. It uses more energy and creates more stress than simply going with flow. Very few can comfortably operate out of the box 100% of the time. If we can employ that faculty 10% of the time we are probably doing better than 90% of the population. It follows that we need to judge very carefully which situations are worth making that extra effort for. Most times it's fine to drift along on autopilot, saving our out of the box thinking for things that matter to us most.
Phenomecloud is an enthusiastic family of individuals, fervent to make lives simpler through effective use of technology. Our mission is to implement solutions that drives business results. Know more insights from our thoughts and experience.
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