"Do not be afraid to make mistakes!" The quickest way out of the box is to take a risk. The only way to get out of the box is to jump. To get out of the box, you have to follow your thinking. Follow thought to thought, idea to idea, and follow those connections between ideas and thinking. To follow connections you have to verbalize your ideas. To verbalize your ideas you have to take a risk. Write down and speak up; let people know you are there. Taking a risk means just that, you open your mind, ideas and thoughts to judgment and criticism. So what, everybody is going to criticize you anyway. Take the risk.

Be ready to accept the encouragement and suggestions from your fellow thinkers. Getting out of the box works a lot better when you are part of a team. Keep your team mates on your side, work with them. If they want to compete, all the better for you. This way everybody is going to take a risk. It us risk-takers that change the world. After a while being outside of the box gets comfortable, once that happens it is time to take another risk. Good idea or bad thinking there is no way to really know till you get it out there.

Follow the connections. Work with your team. If one aspect of your team's thinking is great, go with it. Make a connection from their ideas to your ideas. Build off of each others victories and losses. The connections from one idea to the other are spider web thin, it takes a lot of them to catch a fly. The more attempts at connections the more more connections; makes sense. Thinking outside of what you are comfortable with is challenging. Practice in your daily life, develop a sense for what is foolish and what really is great brainstorming.

Make up new lyrics for familiar tunes.
Drive to work on different routes.
Be willing to sing out-loud when alone.
Do not repeat jokes.
Laugh out-loud.
Put tone into your voice.
Watch Double-Jeopardy, and always shout-out an answer before Alex finishes reading.
There is no such thing as a wrong answer.
There are always different perspectives.
Stand up, open communicator. "Beam me up Scotty"

Learn more about this author, Kevin J. Putnam.
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