Have you ever noticed when you start talking with people about real change in your workplace that you often hear comments like these;” We don’t have time to change this!” “They will never give us the resources for that!” “They won’t approve that kind of idea.” “They never listen to us.” “We can’t do that here.” Sound familiar?
These are situations when what is needed is some “In-the-Box Creativity.” The commenters believe they are in the box with limitations or constraints. Something or someone is blocking them from getting what they want – their goal.
When something blocks us like this we generally think of three actions we can take. We can give up and walk away from our goal. We can pretend the constraint isn’t there and live in denial. Or we can try to fight the constraint and act as if we can succeed in spite of it.
If this is a real constraint none of these strategies result in the desired outcome. What can work is to figure out what aspect of the constraint is real, cannot be changed and instead fully embrace it. Yes, fully accept it as something that must be included as a central part of achieving your goal! If that is the given reality what can you do to innovate within that context? How might you use the constraint as a springboard for a new solution?
For example: the Wright Brothers are famous for being the first in human flight – 1904 Kitty Hawk, NC. (Technically they were credited with the first controlled, powered and sustained heavier-than-air human flight, but we digress).This was an amazing feat in itself but the back story is even more amazing. Given the resources and capabilities of the competitors working to be the first to fly an airplane Orville and Wilbur Wright would be the last team you would expect to win.
The brothers both had full time jobs in their bike shop; manned flight was their hobby. They had no significant financial supporters and no formal training. At the same time there were several well financed groups of “experts” who had been working on this challenge for years before the Wright Brothers even got started.
So how did the Wright Brothers embrace their limitations and succeed? After building a few full size planes that failed they realized they couldn’t afford to keep experimenting like that – they lacked the time and the money. So they invented and built a wind tunnel in their bike shop from scrap wood and other odds and ends. The wind tunnel allowed them to try out hundreds of small-scale prototypes until they hit upon the right design elements for human flight before any of the others. The other groups were building and testing one full size plane at a time.
Another recent example: at a creativity conference, Mindcamp, a young street artist, Sid Marquez, was creating large graphic art pieces on stretched translucent plastic on the lawn outside of one of the buildings. As the pieces evolved Sid thought it would great if they could be illuminated at night. The conference staff purchased several outdoor lights for his use. When the lights arrived the cords were too short to light the pieces from the front as intended. But he found they were just long enough to light the art pieces from the back. The effect was fantastic, like stain glass in a cathedral with the sun pouring in. And thus was created the first rear lit street art. By taking advantage of this limitation he came up with an even better solution.
As you think about your own life experiences what stories can you remember where you’ve successfully innovated because you transferred a constraint into an opportunity. We’d love to hear any of those kinds of examples you would be willing to share with us.
So, as you think about a current challenge how might you embrace what you see as in your way to innovation? How to engage in in-the-box creativity? One great place to begin is to actively energize your curiosity. Check out our newsletter article: Energizing Curiosity in Your Innovative Brain for more on this.
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