"How many "thinking outside the box" seminars have you had?" Topic

I am beginning to think that being "advised" to attend these wastes of time is the first sign that your company is in deep trouble.

Don't you feel so clever when you can draw the lines the right way?

Oh…
I had been to at least three of them. Gotta love "consultants".

I'd like to see more boxthink seminars.

I bring work to these types of things so I can kill two birds with one stone.

As I work freelance, I've really only ever been to one, which was led for a volunteer group by a new worship minister at a church I used to attend. His "outside of the box" thinking seemed to revolve around the rest of the team recognizing his own special genius. Thankfully, it wasn't long before he decided that our church box wasn't big enough for him, and he left to share his genius with other victims… I mean "worthy souls."

Just one, long ago. Most people wonder what the color of the sky is in my world anyway, so they don't feel they need to encourage my happy mind wanderings.

When my career place started to change after the Founder foundered, I could tell that such meetings were going to be the order from then on: and I was very glad not to be in management, so that I missed most of them (but not all, no sir, no chance of that). Huge wastes of company time and money, imho. Dibble's tie says it all….

I don't think we've had any of these types, but my company is probably getting close to a record for teamwork seminars, I believe we've had five in the last year. The sad thing is, after the first one or two, there's really nothing new being said.

Hmmmmmm-I'm constantly being asked to stop thinking outside the box. Does that count?

D~

My name Jose Jimenez. I like the box.

Not in that particular form, but I've had one or two of that type. For the past six years my company has been shrinking the box, so our objective is more focused on staying in the box. Plenty of people I know are now thinking and living outside the box.

I've been to a couple. Oddly, afterward management really didn't want to hear the "out of the box" ideas I had. They kept going with the same old broken out of date concepts that were slowly killing the company.

Quesion: "Why don't you do it this way? It's faster and it's cheaper…you're just not thinking outside the box!"

Answer: "I know we've been doing it this way for years, but what you're asking is not only outside the box, it's outside of the law!"

My problem is I don't need to think outside the box. I know dozens of ways of doing things faster, smarter, and cheaper. But I work for a government agency, and efficiency is not acceptable.

Not many. After a while, I had really good young staffers
and periodically we'd get together and draw up a
'Do f' us' roster, and post it in the area.

It really meant 'Do For Us,' meaning all those unpleasant
and meaningless tasks which come down the pike in every
company. Each had to take their turn when their number
was up (names not posted, y'see…)

No, I was *not* exempted.

We used to get comments about how we'd mis-spelled
'Doofus'…

"I'd be a lot more enthusiastic about thinking outside the box if I saw any evidence of thinking going on inside the box."

-Quote used by an old colleague of mine
Original source unknown

Zero, I avoid that kind of work.

Honestly, almost all seminars are a bad sign.
Meetings usually, too.
-Kle.

While we've inflicted our share of motivational silliness over the years, one blessing of a tight economy is no budget for boondogle meetings with dipweed speakers.

I've never been to one.

"I'll be more enthusiastic about encouraging thinking outside the box when there's evidence of any thinking going on inside it."
--Terry Pratchett

Now there's a man who doesn't need a box, unless it's made of sapient pearwood and can sprout legs.

McKinstry has a good point, my compant e-newsletter today said there would be reduced budgets for travel, consultancies and vanity IT upgrades for systems that work as they are.
We also got advanced notice of the buy one get one free share purchase option.

In my business the box changes constantly in part because of others and in part because of folks like myself. So, thinking outside the box is mandatory – it's what I get paid to do. Or put differently, failure to think outside the box is malpractice.

I've just spent yesterday on one of these seminars (which was simply grand by the way) and will spend the next week in Seattle doing more of the same! I spend about $250-$350 a day for the seminars and another $250 USD a day for food and lodging or air fare (out of my own pocket).

If your best efforts are always required, you don't just keep up with the curve, you have to push the curve.

The trouble with a lot of companies that do these seminars is that they don't know where they want to end up. That somehow, if they can rub a little consultant "magic" on folks they will realize some tangible gains. I have found that all theory without a hefty dose of nuts n bolts creates disorganization rather than progress.

When I was working in medicine I remember one consultant telling us that if we didn't like the program being proposed we should find other work. I had serious questions about the safety and ethical implications of the changes, so I left the seminar and began applying for jobs -- two weeks later, moved from Texas to Washington. I know they didn't fill my position for some time after I left but when I returned to SanAntonio a few years later, I stopped in to say Hi. Not only had they replaced me but they had three people assigned to cover the turf I had formerly occupied (one medical and two clerical), AND essentially the very way I had insisted it had to be done in the first place.

You know, it didn't feel like I was vindicated, I kinda felt sorry for management because they had to spend so much more to accomplish what I was doing in the first place. That and I really liked the owners -- just couldn't stand the consultant / middle manager.

There's certainly two sides to this coin. But like any thing else, having knowledge is one thing. Using it effectively is another.

mjc

"How many "thinking outside the box" seminars have you had?"

Green.

If anybody in my company actually seriously used the phrase "thinking outside the box" in a meeting they would get laughed out of the room.