I really hate the expression ‘think outside the box’. In my experience when someone asks you to ‘think outside the box’ it doesn’t help you to be creative, it just puts you under pressure to come up with quick fix solutions and makes you feel scorned and rejected for not being more ‘outside the box’ in the first place.

We think inside boxes because that is how we have been conditioned from an early age. At school we learn that we get rewarded for conforming, for getting things right, and not for inquisitive enquiry or being a maverick or a disrupter; which is what ‘thinking outside the box’ requires. Because thinking inside the box is ingrained into us from an early age its not realistic to simply ask people to ‘think outside the box’ and expect that they will easily be able to do it.

At the International Fundraising Conference last month and I had the pleasure of listening to the opening keynote by Dan Pallotta on innovation with purpose.

It turns out that it’s not just humans that are held back by the limitations that are conditioned into them. It applies to fleas too.

Check out this short film on how to train fleas.  

Training fleas requires a glass jar with a lid. The fleas are placed inside the jar and the lid is sealed. They are left undisturbed for three days. Then when the jar is opened the fleas will not jump out. The fleas will never jump higher than the level set by the lid. When the fleas reproduce their offspring will automatically follow their example.

Asking people to change the habits of a lifetime by ‘thinking outside the box’ or even ‘jumping outside the jar’ is not a reasonable request. So how can you be more creative in your own thinking and also encourage your teams to overcome the limitations that are conditioned into them?

Here are 7 practical tips to help you.

1. Create a safe environment where people are encouraged and supported to have ideas. Banish idea killer phrases like ‘no but that won’t work’ and replace with ‘yes and, help me understand how that idea will work?’  
2. Focus on your mission; in the same way when asked by Kennedy what his job was, the floor sweeper at NASA said it was ‘to put a man on the moon.’ Focus your creative thinking and connect it to how you get closer to achieving your organisations mission.
3. Unpick the problem; in our rush to find solutions we often fail to spend adequate time identifying the root cause of a problem and end up wasting time working on solving the wrong problem. Step back and unpick the problem by asking ‘why is this a problem?’ before starting on solutions.
4. Understand your audience; whether they are supporters, prospects, donors, volunteers or your colleagues. The more you know about your audience the more able you will be to develop solutions that inspire and delight them.
5. Make time to think and reflect. Where do you have your best ideas? Most people are most creative when they are relaxed, for example in the shower, walking the dog or going for a run. Get out of the office and plan dedicated time to relax and allow your relaxed mind to dream up ideas.
6. Learn by doing; test out your ideas cheaply, for example, role play a new service, make a product mock up from cardboard and sticky tape. Then refine and adapt.  By learning from lots of little failures you reduce the risk of a big failure.
7. Keep going; creative thinking and innovation is not easy, and like anything, the more you practice the more accomplished you become.

Lucy Gower is a trainer and coach specialising in innovation. She led the first innovation team at UK children’s charity NSPCC and it was there that Lucy realized that you can have the best ideas, processes and technology, but if you don’t have the right people working together then even the best ideas will fail. Since leaving the NSPCC in 2012 Lucy has worked with over 50 organisations including Amnesty, Cystic Fibrosis Trust, Nesta, The Children’s Society and Greenpeace.

Lucy is also author of The Innovation Workout, a blogger and conference speaker, and is often seen on Twitter @lucyinnovation