RADIO SHOW/AUDIO PODCAST
Solutions...with Courtney Anderson! (SwCA)
Episode 200 -
Originally aired 9/29/2014 9:00 AM -
MANAGEMENT MAGICIANS series:
“Why Telling Someone to ‘Think Different’ or to ‘Think Outside The Box’ Always Fails.”
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TALK SHOW EPISODE NOTESOur MANAGEMENT MAGICIANS™ series is dedicated to those exceptional few who step forward to serve as guides, sages and responsible parties for others in pursuit of the greater good for society and their organization! These are managers who redefine their job titles to ensure their own personal contentment as they motivate, monitor and mentor their team members each day.
The “magic” that a talented manager is able to create changes their lives, the lives of their team members and ripples throughout the larger society. We salute their sacrifices and share their techniques and “secrets” to achieving sustained positive experiences for themselves, clients, customers, peers, team members, and the public at large! In this episode, our topic is, “Why Telling Someone to ‘Think Different’ or to ‘Think Outside The Box’ Always Fails.” In this show we discuss A Stone* of Solutions™ including: 1) It fails because you are telling them how to think. 2) People who think differently already do so. 3) You can hire them but you cannot transform someone into that type of person. 4) “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 "ummmm." The most common of these may be the hoary exhortation to "think outside the box. […] The phrase means something like "think creatively" or "be original," and its origin is generally attributed to consultants in the 1970s and 1980s 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:” -http://www.fastcompany.com/53187/outside-box-inside-story 5) If you thought differently you wouldn’t need others to do so. 6) If you tell them how to think differently they will do it (as they are obedient), yet that would result in “Think Same” instead of “Think Different.” 7) Why do you think that they need to “Think Different”? 8) Were you told to do so by someone else? If so, doesn’t that illustrate the absurdity and lack of logic of the premise? 9) How will they simultaneously “Think Different” (i.e., create innovative products and services never before imagined) while continuing to “Think Same” and follow your rules and hierarchy (i.e., make their work schedule, ignore policies, not simply take their own intellectual property and start their own firms)? 10) How far outside of the box (or different from the norm) do you want them to go? By defining it, don’t you destroy it? 11) “Critical thinking can’t just be switched on. It may be asking too much of people who have been nurtured and rewarded in an environment where, as one soldier turned civil servant put it, "the lines are your friends . . . it’s safe within the lines . . . stay within the lines." To suddenly change their thinking habits, therefore, we have to provide students an environment where thinking skills can be learned, and then practiced in realistic situations that are otherwise safe and supportive.” -http://www.au.af.mil/au/awc/awcgate/army/critical/roy.htm 12) You have to pick either obedient staff or critical thinking staff (one or the other) - See http://www.courtneyanderson.com/swca-episode-105-management-magicians-series-critical-thinking-staff-or-obedient-staff-pick-only-one.html 13) “Apple’s 1997 "Think Different" ad campaign was one of the major turning points in the company's history, a message to the world that Steve Jobs and his innovative vision had returned to Apple after leaving in 1985.” - http://www.businessinsider.com/steve-jobs-hated-apple-think-different-ad-2014-5 14) Why not simply hire a few existing “Think Different” individuals just for that function (with the understanding that they will not be obedient and will only remain for the duration of the coincidental alignment of their individual interests with yours)? Let's think through thinking differently! *A stone is unit of measure equaling 14 pounds (so we have 14 elements in our one stone of solutions!). |
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