Think Out of The Box?

Our brain could be likened to a passport. Depending on our passport, we may have visa-free access to most, if not all, the countries in the world, or we might have no-access to many countries, unless a visa is granted.

The bigger the capacity of our brain, the more we can know and experience, and the better we are positioned to create a better world for ourselves, our loved ones and our world. We could grow our brainpower through study, research and learning from best practices.

Also, we could exercise our thinking holistically, using both the Left Brain (Logic) and Right Brain (Creative). Research has shown that there are many types of thinking such as the following:

1. Analytical Thinking 

- find out the facts, arrange them and derive meaningful associations from them (e.g., market research)

2. Convergent Thinking 

- scrutinize the facts, evaluate whether they meet your criteria and select the most suitable (e.g., shortlisting interviewees)

3. Divergent Thinking 

- allow for a free-flow of ideas,  keep all options open and keep trying until you hit on the idea that works (Think of Thomas Edison who persevered beyond the 999 elements which would not work out for his light bulb.)

4. Innovative Thinking

- use your imagination and resourcefulness to come up with new (unconventional, novel) workable ideas to address a present situation or problem and resolve it or turn it into an opportunity. (e.g., conveyor belt for serving sushi on covered plates.)

5. Intuitive Thinking

- use of past experiences and understanding of human nuances which have been proven many times over. (e.g., lie or scam detection)

6. Strategic Thinking

- planning and making fundamental changes now for the long-term and in anticipation of future requirements. (e.g., automation of work processes).

There is so much more that we do not know. As we equip ourselves better, we would look at problems and situations in a whole new light and brighten up our lives in the process.

For example, Mr Geoffrey Goh, an accomplished trainer of Capelle Academy Pte Ltd, had shown me that you could poke a balloon with a wood skewer and it would not burst, contrary to conventional thinking. The science is to pierce the inflated rubber balloon at  1 to 2 mm from its mouth where the rubber is of a darker shade and not yet stretched. Try it and you will experience this a-ha moment, too.

Perhaps, it is time for us to Enlarge Our Box so that what was previously out of our box could now be incorporated into our box of knowledge, understanding and experience.

Adapting from another of Geoffrey's illustration, a boy asked his Dad why a bird could fly. Dad replied, "Because it has wings." After some thoughts, the boy asked, "How come a chicken has wings but it can't fly?" Dad replied, "Because the chicken is heavy." The boy was about to stop thinking when he lighted up with, "How come an airplane can fly and carry us aboard when it is so heavy?!"

Don't stop thinking and don't stop asking 'stupid questions'. We can only think out of our existing box when we enlarge our box. Go and get a Bigger Box!