Thinking outside the box can be very helpful for your business. Taking a step back and looking at a situation differently will enable you to come up with different solutions for a problem. Thinking outside the box can inspire new ideas and new solutions. In alliances & partnerships the most creative collaborations often bring the greatest benefits to the parties involved.
Yet, thinking outside the box is easier said than done. As humans we all carry our blinkers. We often do not see what lies beyond our field of vision and we often don’t (want to) see what lies beyond our comfort zone. Thinking outside the box requires a change in how we view things.
When preparing for new Alliance Masterclasses, attendees often ask me for company or industry specific scenarios to practice the learning. In the beginning I tried to comply with that request. Now I refuse to do it. It may sound harsh, but I experienced that company specific cases keep the attendees safe in their comfort zone and in their own box. Every form of creativity is then gone. Or worse: sometimes one of the participants actually experienced the case in real life, and thus always knows better how it happened. Every form of learning is then also gone.
Part of learning comes from looking at things differently: thinking outside the box. Hence in the Alliance Masterclass I now use a variety of scenarios from different industries. These scenarios are all based on public information about real alliances. Sometimes the scenarios are deliberately incomplete. This is to force you to look differently and think outside the box to find solutions for the challenge. That is what accelerates your learning!
Remember to claim your seat for an Alliance Masterclass in a city near you.