Stop Thinking Outside The Box: How Intelligent Constraints Spark Better Ideas

When it comes to promoting creativity, there’s a natural tendency to want to remove barriers and limitations so people can be encouraged to “think outside the box”.

Of course, one of the paradoxes of creativity is that the most innovative creations are not borne from a lack of constraints, but from the application of what creativity expert Matthew E May calls “intelligent constraints”.

Distinguishing Between Good and Bad Friction

In my conversation with Stanford professor and organizational psychologist Bob Sutton on my “Leadership Biz Cafe” podcast, he shared a fascinating insight from his latest book, “The Friction Project.”

As Bob pointed out, leaders need to learn to distinguish between destructive friction that impedes real progress, and beneficial friction that encourages critical thinking that opens our minds to seeing constraints as a strategic advantage.

One example of this kind of creative constraint was Twitter’s original 140-character limit. While users at first questioned the limitation, this character limit soon became a unique feature of using the platform and fuelled the development of new linguistic patterns, including the use acronyms and emojis in everyday online conversations.

In other words, this creative constraint wasn’t a bug, but a feature that distinguished Twitter from its competitors.

The Science of “Global Processing”

What’s more, researchers at the University of Amsterdam have found that the presence of constraints triggers a response called “global processing” where we make connections between things that are clearly not connected. And it’s this neurological mechanism that serves as the foundation of creativity and innovative thinking.

In other words, we can tap into the power of creative constraints by introducing constructive limitations that will spur our employees’ creative thinking skills.

Practical Strategies for Reframing Constraints

For example, instead of asking “What’s the best solution?”, you could ask instead “What if we had to solve this in half the time?” Or “How would we address this with a 30% cut to our budget?”

By reframing constraints as opportunities instead of obstacles, leaders can create conditions that allow for unconventional thinking to take hold, giving rise to the innovative potential that exists in the collective creativity of those you lead.