We create the box we’re trying to think out of.
I have 2 philosophies that I go by. My classic philosophy is to ask “why?” I do this for a couple of reasons:
- To understand how and why others do things in order to expand my horizons.
- To challenge others to understand why they’re doing things and to ask others step out of line to potentially make processes better.
My most recent philosophy is based on “why” and adds on to it a little more. It’s almost a visual thought process for me. When I hit a brick wall, I picture the problem to be inside a box. I ask myself, “What are the lines or obstructions that are keeping this problem or situation contained?” I ask, are they rules? Are they processes? I think of my first philosophy and maybe ask why they exist? Do they really serve a function anymore? And if not, I find a way to lighten the intensity of that line in the box and find a way around them.
We create the box that we’re trying to think out of. When that brick wall approaches us, how will we get around it? Who or what is blocking the success of what we are trying to do? Why? What resources do I have that I can use to bypass it? When Professor Rummel first mentioned this in my Marketing Management course, I knew she was right, but I didn’t realize how many different situations this applied in. I use this philosophy every single day when I run into a problem or negative situation. If we all used this philosophy, think of how much more efficient we could make the things we do for the next person or next time around.
