Like a storm in a teacup, it sent the civil service into a hurricane of new self discovery.  Thinking "out of the box" is such the rage of practically every single institution in the civil service, and mantra for the day for every senior management.  It was just too absolutely brilliant to have a nice term to describe refreshing and different ways to do things.  And we set about to reinvent every single wheel to "think out of the box".

 

But frankly, what box?  Bosses were going around telling employers to think "out of the box", while not knowing where the box is exactly.  The lemon in me was twisted beyond recognition.  Without defining the parameters of the "box", employers have the advantage of deciding if your work and performance is inside the mysterious "box" or not.  It is most devious to get all the employees thinking they are encouraged to work smart and differently, but still rating them lower, because somehow, they get to still be inside the "box".

 

What "box"?  Until you jump into a box, only can you get out of it.  If you already are outside a "box", frankly, why jump in so that you can get out?

 

In a commercial society of ours, items which come out of the "box" are the run-of-mill factory produced standard products, which someone painstakingly packed into the "box" for you to take it out of.  So whatever is "out of the box" are standard run-of-mill products you get anywhere.  Why then would you want a normal, standard piece of product, when you have been doing it for decades anyway?

 

Metaphors are beautiful items.  But I guess, unthinking herd mentality provides us the irony and humour.

 

Strange though, why isn't many people asking for parameters of the "box"? Or even "what box"?