New Ways of Thinking Inside and Outside the Box ….

I have used Metaphors for the 21st Century (M21C) to promote "New ways of thinking inside & outside the box" for a number of years.  The M21C cap has been an effective way to get people's  attention, they ask "What is M21C?"  This has given me an opportunity to give them a business card and share thinking which is documented in my blogs.

This blog uses Design Funnels to express a new concept of thinking inside and outside the box. 

 

Thinking Phase Views was an early version of the Design Funnel thinking in the context of Fish-Hook-Fry and parallels the Research-Development-Production-Marketplace concepts of M21C.  It was an attempt to show how Degrees of Freedom start wide and then narrow as the product is attained. 

It evolved from ideas of Outward thinking of creativity to Inward needs met focus.  To effectively make the transition from Outward to Inward thinking Critical thinking comes into play.

This chart evolved from a discussion of Truth to represent differing viewpoints of Truth. The three viewpoints developed separately via Outward, Critical, Inward Focus thinking. An example is the three Abrahamic religions: Jewish, Christian, Islam, they all claim historical ties to Abraham. Another example is the Political viewpoints of Conservative, Liberal, etc. Looking at it from a Technology viewpoint Microsoft, Apple, Google Products and Services different in their implementation.

Expanding on the Truth Thinking this chart shows slices of the 3 Design Funnels Viewpoints.  This slice corresponds to the previous chart comparing design funnels.  Also shown is Fiction which is outside the Whole Truth sphere. 


The chart below “New Ways of Thinking Inside & Outside the Box” is an outgrowth of Design Funnel Thinking.  The “A” box depicts Visionary which has a large degree of freedom; “C” box represents Administrator with small degree of freedom and “B” encompasses both and transition between them.  The Blue, Red and Green arrows depict Design Funnels at various stages of development.  These could represent products or idea viewpoints.  “C” would be a limited viewpoint or mature Red product. The Blue and Green are developing products or viewpoints.

Several years ago I read a book discussing Paradigm Shifts; in it the concepts of Visionary, Leader and Administrator paradigms were discussed.  The author emphasized that a Leader is one that has the ability to move from one paradigm to another.  This is what is being attempted to be depicted in the chart.

Revisiting the chart note our thinking sphere can be depicted by the box that is more like us.  Communication problems are prone to evolve when they are thinking in different boxes, e.g., “A” and “C” will have completely different points of reference.  When both move to the “B” box they should be in a better position to appreciate the others viewpoints.

Hopefully this blog be helpful to readers in new ways of thinking inside and outside the box.  Feedback is welcomed.