Today's life dictates the need to resolve the issue, which for a long time has been imposed on us by everyone around and by society as a whole. Non-standard thinking, non-standard, non-stereotypical allows you to go beyond the usual framework of understanding, to expand your consciousness. How to go beyond the standard thinking, what to do for this, read the tips below.

What are the limits of standard thinking

There are three main problems that hold back thinking outside the box:

1. Substitution of concepts. Many people think that the breadth of thinking is out-of-the-box thinking. In fact, this is far from the case.

2. As a rule, all our activities are aimed at what brings money. We are not given money for thinking, so many consider them a waste of time. And this hinders the development of non-standard thinking.

3. Apply out-of-the-box thinking in the conditions of a corporation or even a small company, it is always dangerous - there is a risk of being misunderstood and fired.

Development of lateral thinking

If you want to leave standard thinking, we recommend using these tips:

1. You must go beyond the standards quickly, anticipating the next events. Think outside the box not only about today, but also about future events. Extend the non-standard to all areas of life and time frames.

2. Cover all your targets in their latitude, capture adjacent areas. If you look narrowly into the future, you don't go beyond. Do not set yourself the only possible goal, allow its variability.

3. Cultivate originality in all areas of life. Also, a non-standard solution should be about not only solving problems, but also preventing them in the future.

4. Let the carriers of open knowledge strive to think outside the box. Separately, these are also great values, but together they help to overcome a lot.

5. Recognize and define the boundaries of your standard thinking. By drawing boundaries, it will be easier for you to go beyond them. This applies to any area of ​​your business. You can do this in writing.

6. Give up mechanical thoughts. They lead to the standard requirements put forward by the corporation.

7. Rejoice in your successes no longer than necessary. Don't dwell on it, don't try to reach the next step in the same way.

8. Limit risk out-of-the-box thinking. It will always be present, but it must be reduced. Treat yourself to a gingerbread for a non-standard and maximally safe solution. And, conversely, in case of failure, give yourself a whip.

9. Build a solid foundation for every new idea. Each new idea is a synthesis of several. Divide them into parts and lay in its basis.

10. Remember that brilliant ideas do not always come as soon as you start waiting for them. Give yourself time to think things through. Success does not come spontaneously, the decision must always be conscious.

These simple tips will help you solve the problem, how to go beyond standard thinking.

Students at Stanford University were given a task: to earn $600 in 2 hours. Each of the 14 teams received an envelope with $5 "seed money" and 2 hours of time. At the end of the task, each team had 3 minutes to present their solution.

There have been proposals to open a makeshift car wash or a soft drink stand - in these cases $5 would be used to purchase materials and groceries to get started. Quite worthy options for those who would like to earn some money in a few hours.

However, most students eventually found a way to go beyond the standards. They challenged a huge number of traditional solutions and were able to realize a lot of opportunities to create maximum value in given conditions. However, the winning teams were able to raise up to $600, and the average return on investment of $5 was 4000%! How did they do it?

Here's a hint: the teams that made the most money didn't use the starting $5 at all. They realized that this amount, in fact, did not help them in any way, and decided to look at the problem more broadly: "What if we start from zero?"

One group drew attention to a problem common on many campuses - long queues in front of popular restaurants on a Saturday night - and decided to help people who didn't want to wait. Team members booked several tables at restaurants. With the onset of the appointed hour, they sold the right to enter the restaurant for $ 20 to those who wanted to go there immediately.

The other team did it even easier. They set up a special rack in front of the student union building and began to measure the pressure in bicycle tires for free. After serving the first few customers, the team realized that the cyclists were incredibly grateful to them.

Despite the possibility of free swapping and the simplicity of this operation, the new service seemed convenient and valuable to customers. In fact, within an hour of starting work, the team stopped taking a fixed fee and asked instead to pay the amount that the client would consider appropriate. Profit immediately increased several times.

Each of these projects brought the teams several hundred dollars, and this impressed the rest of us pretty much. However, one team managed to earn as much as $650: they were able to look at the resources at their disposal from a completely different angle.

These students determined that their most valuable resource was not $5 or 2 hours of time, but 3 minutes of a presentation on Monday, and decided to sell that time to a company that wanted to hire students. They created a three-minute commercial for this company and showed it to the students instead of talking about their activities the previous week. It was a great decision that everyone else didn't even think about.

What prevents us from going beyond the usual thinking?
There are three main obstacles that keep us from going beyond the boundaries of our standard thinking:

Barrier No. 1. Previously, for many, the breadth of thinking was associated with some crazy ideas, the embodiment of which did not bring anything useful and good into our lives. Below we will look at a few recommendations that focus on areas where we can make a qualitative breakthrough in our thinking.

Barrier number 2. Due to the fact that we receive payment for our work precisely for certain actions, and not for our thoughts, many people are not inclined to spend extra time on abstract reflections. And it is this obstacle that is one of the most "slowing down" us in going beyond the framework of stereotyped thinking.

Barrier number 3. If you decide apply a non-standard solution to the problem in the conditions of your work, you always take some risk. And since in many companies the rewards for making such decisions and the risk you expose yourself to by doing so are unfavorably correlated, many people prefer to stick to the usual ways of solving problems.
Out of the box thinking
Recommendations for maximizing the results of going beyond habitual thinking
1. Going beyond the boundaries of standard thinking should be quick, but at the same time anticipate further events.

Try to start thinking unconventionally, not only in solving current problems, but also in thinking about how you want to see your future. Work on the system as a whole don't limit yourself only its content.

2. Your thinking must be able to cover the full breadth of your goals.

When choosing a subject for your thoughts, you do not need to limit yourself to some kind of framework. For example, when solving a cost problem, pay attention to sales too. If you have no idea where you are going, you can end up anywhere. But if you clearly know where you should come, then you will not open new horizons.

3. Try to think outside the box in all areas of your life.

If you want to make a qualitative breakthrough in your thinking, act within the widest possible boundaries. Aim not only at solving the problem, but also at ways its prevention in future.

4. Encourage the bearers of hidden knowledge to overcome the limits of standard thinking.

A qualitative breakthrough is possible only when deep knowledge is combined with creative non-standard thinking. Knowledge in itself is valuable, as is non-standard thinking. But when one is backed up by the other, the chances of success increase exponentially.

5. Identify and be aware of the boundaries that prevent you from going beyond the usual limits.

In every area in which you have to look for ways to solve problems, identify the limits that limit you. Specify them, perhaps even in writing. And then consider if it's worth it stick to them or you are capable of more.
Out of the box thinking
6. Stop thinking mechanically.

When a company constantly adheres to the same rules, without making any adjustments and changes, repeats the same truths and postulates, employees develop mechanical thinking. To empower employees to think outside the box and focus on targets, eliminate some of their bounding boxes.

7. Upon reaching each new goal, don't get hung up on your past success.

Many who have achieved success probably have a set of some rules and laws of their own, thanks to which they have achieved this success. And trying to achieve new heights, out of habit they continue to adhere to the same rules. Destroy those boundaries that prevent you from opening new horizons.

8. Reduce the risk of out-of-the-box thinking.

Every unconventional idea should have minimal risk. Use the “carrot and stick” method, where the carrot should be given to those who think outside the box, and the stick to those who do not want to go beyond the usual framework.

9. Build a strong foundation.

Every new idea that comes into your head is a combination of several ideas, at least two. If the final idea is divided into parts, then they will be something like "semi-finished products" of ready-made ideas. Use them as a foundation for creating your own qualitative breakthrough.

10. Adhere to the principle "the morning is wiser than the evening."

Do not think that brilliant ideas should come to you instantly. By allowing yourself to think carefully about the problem, the ideas for solving it will be much more effective. We often say and hear phrases such as “I need to think about this”, “this needs to be digested”, “let’s get back to this a little later”. Approach consciously to solving problems, haste in this matter will not lead to success.

Persuading someone to think outside the box is pointless, like making a penguin take off. But it also makes no sense to expect a different result from repeated actions. If you are tired of stepping on a rake, try to look at things from a different angle.

Our whole life is a continuous choice. We choose to get up at dawn or sleep a little longer, drink tea or coffee, walk or take a bus, buy or not buy, study or get married...

We make simple choices without straining. We are tormented by the difficult, sometimes calling for help from friends. The choice we make determines our destiny. As in a fairy tale: if you go to the right -?.. If you go to the left -?

Fearing to make a mistake, the person facing the choice usually follows the majority. After all, there is an opinion that the majority is not mistaken. However, the German philosopher Hegel said: “When everyone thinks in the same way, it means that no one thinks especially.”

To think like everyone else means to think in a standard way, in accordance with stereotypes. An example of stereotypical thinking: you must definitely get a higher education, because people without a diploma are losers. Or: if a girl is beautiful, then she is stupid. Or: a successful person must have a prestigious brand car.

Do we ourselves think this way, or is this how we should think? Most people try to keep up with others, and when stereotypes do not fit, their self-esteem decreases. Stereotypes drive people into frames, limit their ability to think, analyze and draw conclusions on their own.

It's easier for people to think in stereotypes, figuratively speaking, to ride along well-trodden rails - this will be standard thinking. Out-of-the-box thinking can be compared with an arrow that takes the composition to a different path.

In our educational institutions they give knowledge, but do not teach to think, because people who think in a standard way - like everyone else, are easier to manage. (By the way, most of those who answer the request to name the Russian poet, poultry, fruit and part of the face, call chicken, apple and nose. Their answers are not original. How many will be able to answer the question: what is primary - a seed or a tree? Of course , seed, most will say, but where will the seed come from if there is no tree?)

Knowledge can be called the raw material for decision-making, but without the ability to think outside the box, it will be of little use. French writer Antoine de Saint-Exupéry said that "in order to see clearly, sometimes it is enough to look from a different point of view." To think differently than everyone else means to think outside the box, to be the master of your own destiny.

Why think outside the box

Why do some people manage to “catch the Firebird”, reach their potential, become successful and happy, while others are said to be “neither a candle to God, nor a poker to hell”, while they themselves whine about missed opportunities and “villainous fate”? The difference in the fates of the first and second - in the ability or inability to go beyond the standard thinking.

A person who thinks differently than everyone else is a creator, a seeker who has escaped from the captivity of patterns and stereotypes. Would our outstanding contemporary and other great people be able to make discoveries, realize themselves, leave their mark on Earth, if they thought in a standard way? Of course not.

Gray mediocrity, who find it convenient to think like everyone else - with stereotypes, and therefore not think at all, make up the gray mass, blindly following the person they have chosen as a leader. Even if he leads them to a dead end.

Gray life, gray thoughts and gradual degradation - that's what the inability to think outside the box is. The harm of stereotypes is that they relax the brain, which no longer wants to do anything, and a relaxed brain means a degrading one.

And vice versa, life drive, the joy of creativity, a sense of one's own strength and inner freedom, pride in oneself, recognition and respect - all this is received by a person who has escaped from the captivity of stereotypes.

People who dream of being successful as a person must learn to think outside the box, move the arrows of their lives to a different path - away from patterns, routine and boredom.

Nevertheless, people who think in stereotypes were, are and will be. And they can even become professionals in some narrow industry. But, as a rule, they see life in a gloomy light, and they do not like either themselves or people. They walk along the narrow corridor of life, not imagining that a bright and interesting life rages behind its walls.

Rebooting to out-of-the-box thinking and breaking patterns

How willing we are to think outside the box can be tested with questions like, “Are we willing to step out of our comfort zone, or do we prefer not to? We are engaged in an unloved business, but do not dare to change jobs? We grumble, how tired everything is, but we don’t change anything? How do we perceive the new - do we reject it right away or do we think it over first?

Stereotyped people really don't like to leave their comfort zone. They will whine that everything is bad, but they won’t lift a finger to get out of the usual stagnation. All changes scare them. Someone jokingly remarked on their behalf: “My name was dreams, adventures, great deeds. But the couch screamed the loudest."

Every day we perform the same actions and, as a rule, in the same sequence. We do many things already “on the machine”, and our brain gets used to not thinking, it relaxes. Simple ways to "enable" it are:

1. Do unusual things

We are used to getting to work by the same road, we know all the traffic lights, bumps and potholes, we almost say hello to strangers whom we are used to meeting every morning? Let's change the route - this will make our brain wake up, cheer up, turn on our attention.

After work, we rush home, but if there are no urgent matters waiting for us, we will try to change our usual routine - we will invite a wife or husband, friend or girlfriend, without waiting for the weekend, to go through the park, look into the cafe. Or maybe we'll go to the pool or to a workout, go for a run, if we haven't done it before.

Looking forward to a vacation to go on a short trip to the country or to the usual resort? Let's change ourselves and go to an unfamiliar place, country, to the mountains, and not to the sea. Let's take a vacation in the winter, not in the summer, as usual, and master some kind of winter sport. Let's try hitchhiking or cycling.

Are you used to clothes in neutral colors? Let's buy ourselves something bright - let's look at ourselves in a new color! Avoid people and do not like to communicate? Let's make new acquaintances. Maybe you should change jobs? For the best, of course.

If some ideas seem crazy to us, we are not indignant, we don’t say “no” right away, but we analyze whether they have a rational grain. In any case, our brain should not doze off, but work. As the poet Nikolai Zablotsky wrote: “In order not to crush the water in a mortar, the soul must work day and night, and day and night!”;

2. Break the habitual sequence of actions

All our actions have been worked out to automatism: woke up, washed up, had breakfast, got ready, ran to work? During a break, we sit buried in a computer? After work - home? Is one day the same as another? It was only Monday - and now it's Friday, and then the weekend. On weekends - cleaning, walking. And again, all over again: Monday - Friday, weekends. We go to the same store for groceries, we communicate with the same people, we go to the same cafe on the same days.

So, we get out of the usual rhythm and load the brain with new tasks. Of course, you won’t go to work on the weekend, and you won’t arrange it for yourself on Monday. But let's sometimes try to transfer from the car to public transport, not to be too lazy to walk a few stops on foot, to start cleaning not in the usual manner and not on weekends, but little by little throughout the week.

Buying products in different stores, going to unfamiliar cafes, tasting unfamiliar dishes, changing the diet and breaking the usual order of actions - all this makes the brain “not sleep”;

3. Load the right hemisphere of the brain with work, which is responsible for talent, creativity and lateral thinking

There is an opinion that among lefties there are more people who think outside the box, and all because they have a more developed right half of the brain. Therefore, we involve the left, non-working, hand in work, we arrange training for it in writing and drawing.

They improve non-standard thinking and dancing: they develop coordination, motor skills, the ability to distinguish between musical rhythm and follow it. We learn to see the unusual in the ordinary: imagine what a cloud reminds us of, a pattern of leaves.

For those who are serious about developing their right brain, I can recommend the book written by psychoanalyst Marily Zdenek, Right Brain Development. The author offers 67 exercises to do during the week and interviews with famous people telling how they develop creative thinking outside the box;

4. Read David Schwartz's The Art of Thinking Big

American professor David Schwartz, a well-known author of books on motivation, believes that in order to think outside the box, you must first forget about the negative particle “not”. The words “impossible”, “it won’t work”, “we never did this” must be thrown out of your vocabulary and not even pronounced in your thoughts.

In order not to think in stereotypes, you need to have a broad outlook. David Schwartz advises to communicate with people of different professions, from different social groups, because communication with them fills us with new ideas, thanks to which we can look at the situation in a new way and find new ways to solve problems.

To avoid stagnation, we must periodically ask ourselves: can I do more, can I do better?

10 Exciting Challenges to Develop Out-of-the-Box Thinking

See the comments at the bottom of the page for answers.

1. The hotel has 7 floors. Eight people were accommodated on the first floor, on each subsequent floor - 2 more than on the previous one. On which floor of the hotel is the elevator most often called?
2. You were given it, and it belongs to you now. You never gave it to anyone, but all your friends use it. What is this?
3. If it is raining at 12 o'clock at night, can we expect it to be sunny in 72 hours?
4. A tin can was placed on the edge of the table, tightly closed with a lid, so that 2/3 of the can hung from the table. After a while, the bank fell. What was in the bank?
5. On the table are a ruler, a pencil, compasses and an elastic band. Draw a circle on a piece of paper. Where to begin?
6. One train travels from Moscow to St. Petersburg with a delay of 10 minutes, and the other - from St. Petersburg to Moscow with a delay of 20 minutes. Which of these trains will be closer to Moscow when they meet?
7. Three swallows flew out of the nest. What is the probability that after 15 seconds they will be in the same plane?
8. There are two coins on the table, in total they give 3 rubles. One of them is not 1 ruble. What are these coins?
9. At what speed must a dog run in order not to hear the sound of a frying pan tied to its tail?
10. The satellite makes one revolution around the Earth in 1 hour 40 minutes, and the other in 100 minutes. How can it be?

Creative thinkingopens before usunlimited possibilities.Creative thinkingallows you to go beyond artificial restrictions, find non-standard solutions, new opportunities, and therefore achieve success that is simply impossible within the framework of standards and templates.

Creativity gives a clear advantage - you are a more interesting person, you are more competitive, it helps to see opportunities where there are none at first glance, to find solutions in seemingly hopeless situations, to turn problems into successes.

What is creativity? This is the ability to think outside the box, break out from the power of patterns and rules, see the situation from a different angle, generate ideas, perceive alternative points of view. Creative thinking is creative and constructive.

Creativity is simply making connections between things. When creative people are asked how they did it, they feel a little guilty because they didn't actually do anything, they just noticed. This becomes clear to them over time. They were able to connect different pieces of their experience and synthesize something new. This is because they have experienced and seen more than others, or because they have thought about it more. S. Jobs.

Children who are not yet driven into the framework of rules and standards are distinguished by creativity, but then this ability is gradually lost under the influence of upbringing and society, the need to follow generally accepted rules. Accustomed to follow the same well-trodden path, the mind becomes limited and clumsy, creative thinking is replaced by a stereotyped one as unnecessary.

According to research, peak creativity is possible at any age. How to return the lost?

Creativity is influenced by the emotional state - light, cheerful people who control their emotions and are not subject to depression and despondency have greater creativity. Physical condition is also important - enough sleep and a balanced diet. Excessive seriousness does not get along with creativity. Take an example from children, their carefree games are always creative.

Flexibility and independence of thinking are also important, when a person does not suffer from faith in the inviolability of authorities, but treats any statements with healthy criticality. To develop this quality, you can train yourself to always consider alternative options.

Creativity involves constant self-development, self-education. How does the creative process work? First, information is accumulated, and then the consciousness connects some elements of the accumulated information with each other and creates something new from this. The genius of Bill Gates or Steve Jobs is only 5-10% a flash of insight, the remaining 90-95% are gigabytes of studied information. A moment of creativity is the result of a gigantic preliminary work.

Breaking patterns is another step towards creative thinking. This is not easy to do, because in the routine of everyday life, habitually repeating the same set of actions, we forget that there is something else in the world. Breaking away from habitual behavior can help here. For example, try to walk different paths when returning home, change your diet, visit new places, constantly learn and try new things. Of course, there are special techniques that allow you to develop creativity and creative thinking.

To test your creativity, you can do a little test:

Draw several rows of crosses:

Now try to create pictures from these crosses, for example like this:

You can use not only crosses, but any other icons from which you can make pictures.

Following generally accepted rules, standards will lead you to the same standard results. If you are striving for more, then develop creative thinking. This also works in the world of money. Standard actions can bring only a modest income, big money requires a creative approach.