six years ago I was delivering a speech on creativity for 300 Executives in France a French company called SEO the leader in Optical lenses it went well people were engaged and I I was passionate as always in my topic for more than 40 years for me it was a bit like business as usual but then came the question time and the CEO raised his hand said interesting looke you told us 10 times to think out of the box but you never explained us what is this box we should get out of I had no answer
honestly I wasn't proud as a corporate philosopher I pay a lot of attention to words and definitions and criteria but this time I was really lost completely puzzled but I'm thankful to him because he forced me to revisit not only my speech but my own thinking about creativity I realized that in this expression creative thinking I focused much too much on the word creative not enough on the word thinking that's why I couldn't answer the C's question and I can tell you today that thinking out of the box is valid for all type of thinking
any type of thinking in a way is out of a box what really makes the difference what really matters is this box is this an old one or is this a new one I want you to finish very rapidly two sentences you ready you have to play with me so sentence number one I want you to go very fast an example of a car is Toyota K perfect no problem this is question and I want you to go as fast as you went now the car is an example of pollution poll look what happened look
what happened compare the two sentences in sentence number one you came with BMW OD Ferrari no problem but you feel in the number one your creativity is limited and you can make m if you see an example of a car is Airbus and no Airbus is a plane so in question two I've heard Mobility Transportation no problem no problem but then I heard pollution and think more you can finish the sentence in many many different ways the car is an example of something I like to draw something looks like a social stat or something that
brings a lot of taxes etc etc in question number two creativity is unlimited unlimited and no mistakes are possible why is creativity Limited in question one because the starting point is a set of assumptions everybody has shares about the car why is creativity Unlimited in question two it's because the way I frame the question force you to a concept and you can answer Transportation Mobility no problem but by doing this you remain within the comfort zone but in question two you are completely free you can look at the car the way you want you are
free to conceptualize the way you want when you think you always like in question one or like in question two always either you start from a set of assumption in a movement called deduction that's question number one you challenge at least one assumption hey you change the way you look at it and we philosophers we call this movement induction completely different now in both cases a set of simplifications a mental model is involved either at the beginning like the one or at the end like for the second let's call those mental models boxes and we
have the answer to the CO's questions boxes are to thinking what brick is to building you simply can't think without it and I deeply believe that in creative thinking in the end the choice of a new box is much more important than the decision to get out of a current W let's look at Edison Thomas Edison and the invention of the light bulb before Edison people invented many many different ways to produce light wax candle or oil lamp Etc but all those devices share at least one assumption if you want to produce if you want
to produce light you have to burn something and then came Edison he said I have an idea I would produce light by preventing something from burning wow and then and only then suddenly the light bulb become possible can be deduced a light bulb is not an improved candle no you cannot move from a candle to the light bulb unless you decide you choose used a new box we will produce light by preventing something from burning this is true for people this is true for companies for example if I tell you Phillips what comes in your
mind very fast light bulbs yeah razors coffee machine Etc you're right indeed Phillips manufacturers and sells home appliances but last year more than 30% of the sale and more than 60% of the profit came from a completely different area nothing to do with home appliances medical medical for decades for a long time Phillips out of this box home appliances did Ed many many many different kind of machines so like the coffee machine the washing machine many many but the continuous deduction is the name is innovation it's Innovation to innovate is this process where you produce
more cheaper faster better products out of the same box out of the same box but and this is next not a single box is good forever which is not a surprise because a box by definition is rigid is frozen and the world is not so one day you need a new box a new set of assumptions in a beautiful exercise Phillips the CEO and his team decided to see themselves as an actor in a completely new world health health this is brilliant and this is the difference between Innovation and creativity inducing the possibility of a
new box this is the art of creativity and then and only then with the new mental model the new box the health Philips went on and today sells many many products around Health like things to measure blood pressure and monitor the heartbeat I think they even have magnetic resonance system what a beautiful story so this new box Health looks like a revolution wow yes and no look at this a microwave oven and look at that and incubator for prematur babies Phillips used to produce the one produce now the second it was not too difficult for
them to move from one machine to the other but it was very hard for them to think about producing incubators why because you cannot deduce an incubator from a box called Home Appliances and health health for Phillips is not a product is not something they can sell it's a new way to look at the business which in a second step allows a new wave of innovation and that's what happening now let me finish with a more personal story recently I was challenged by the CEO of a um small company producing champagne nearby rise in France
and here he told me look the creative man we need you we need you because we need a new marketing idea they fine I'm going to come I went there the first meeting was wow really a disaster no idea came out and people were puzzled and I was not proud so then I decided to force them in another framework in another box I asked them could you please describe your business without using the five words you use most of the time champagne bottle bar Supermarket no no Hotel it was a problem for them after a
couple of minutes somebody said in the end our business is about contributing to the success ESS of parties wow the problem was no more to sell more more bottle the problem was to make parties more successful then I asked does anybody has an ID when a party is more successful and somebody said when the speech is better probably he had a bad experience during the weekend so it came like this it took 10 seconds for somebody else somebody else 10 seconds to say hey I have a great idea for marketing let's print a little book
how to deliver a speech that's what they did it was a great success among consumer and of course this book you cannot deduce from the box bottle of champagne you only can deduce from the box party but you remember in the induction you are free to conceptualize the way you want what happened during the meeting they just finished the sentence different ly a bottle of champagne is something that can contribute to the success of parties that's how it happened and maybe that's my tip for today for you creativity is the heart of the growth we
all know that but to really achieve great disruption real creativity you have no choice you have to induce new boxes so why don't you go and why don't you start right now look at this sentence here take this sentence take it for you and finish the sentence in a way you never used before thank you yeah
