Presupposition # 20 – Think outside the box
Together with the metaphor where you see a glass of water that is either half full or half empty (if your ‘box’ is water. The glass is always full with H2O and O), the saying ‘think outside the box’ probably is the most over used phrase in change management. Everybody knows that we ought to think outside the box, so why don’t we do it? Are we not smart enough? Is it hard or does it demand to much effort? Of course we don’t have the general answer to these questions however we’re pretty persuaded that it has to do with – as with all changes – our presuppositions and our frames.
In a world that most people describe and choose to understand as complex and fast changing, it sometimes is hard to perceive the boundaries, the connections and the interconnections. For many it’s just a mess. So when asked to think outside the box – people don’t know where to start. What if we’re not at all bad in thinking outside the box? What if we just have trouble to recognize the box? Phrased in another sense; to think outside the box we need to know which box we need to think outside of.
One gentleman that has thought outside the box for more than two decades but still isn’t very well known is professor Gunter Pauli.
Mr Pauli really is thought-provoking and together with Professor Dr. Heitor Gurgulino de Souza he created already back in 1994 the Zero Emissions Research and Initiatives or ZERI.
The organisation really strives for making this world a smarter, better and true sustainable place to live and work
. They also coined the phrase the blue economy compared to the green economy they mean we’re in at the moment. To be able to make the shift from the green to the blue economy Mr Pauli means that amongst other things we really have to make innovative products that create jobs instead of eliminating jobs, as a lot of the intentions with business today are. To be able to do this, Mr Pauli means that we have to view situations and phenomenons with new eyes i.e. to think out of the box. At propositum we would rather express it as to use your ability of isomorphism (corresponding or similar in form and relations) that is to say to use knowledge from one area and transfer that to another area.
. They also coined the phrase the blue economy compared to the green economy they mean we’re in at the moment. To be able to make the shift from the green to the blue economy Mr Pauli means that amongst other things we really have to make innovative products that create jobs instead of eliminating jobs, as a lot of the intentions with business today are. To be able to do this, Mr Pauli means that we have to view situations and phenomenons with new eyes i.e. to think out of the box. At propositum we would rather express it as to use your ability of isomorphism (corresponding or similar in form and relations) that is to say to use knowledge from one area and transfer that to another area.
Although the presentation style from Mr Pauli might be apprehended as patronizing please take your time to watch this video from the opening session at the ninth HEC Sustainable Business Conference. It’ll definitely challenge some of your presuppositions – we can promise you. Mr Pauli’s messages truly are intriguing.
So to think of:
How does your box look like, that you eventually might start to experience – or need to experience from another angle?