What It Means to Truly “Think Outside the Box”

How often have you questioned the separation and labeling of “men’s” and “women’s” clothing in retails stores? It’s a standard that was established years ago, when most people were less conscious of (or simply didn’t care about) the harm this practice has on gender non-conforming people — or anyone who challenges the binary. Still, big retailers continue to replicate and rely on this model. It’s now become so engrained in practice that many of us don’t question it, unless it impacts us personally. This is, of course, just one example of the many unwritten, but largely accepted, rules we’re taught to follow. Think about the concept of a “weekend.” Who does it benefit? The 40-hour work week, with a two-day rest period, was actually invented to drive capitalism and to afford time off for Christian and Jewish holy days. Think about why your office is always freezing. Your building probably relies on a thermal comfort model designed in the 1960s to appease 150-pound, 40-year-old men. Think about why many European countries ban burqas and niqabs on grounds of public security and gender equality, but permit face masks, which conceal the same features. As a design strategist who works with companies to create more inclusive customer and employee experiences, I believe these standards belong to something called the colonial imagination — ideas born out of colonial, white supremacist, patriarchal, and hyper-capitalist values with the intention of upholding power and privilege for a select few, at the expense of everyone else. Once we recognize this, we can reclaim our agency to change them. This is the first step to imagining, and then creating, a more inclusive workplace, society, and world. Rewriting the Rules To rewrite these rules, we need to think outside the box. The problem is that our “out-of-the-box” thinking generally happens within the confines of the colonial imagination — simply because, for many of us, it’s all we’ve ever known. In the U.S., from a young age, the majority of people are taught to value individualism over the collective, scarcity (there isn’t enough) over abundance (there is enough). Dominant messages in society still tell us that disability is a weakness, that gender is binary, that race is a measure of value, that activism is trouble, and that rest is laziness. The list goes on. These are ideas that can feel too complicated to undo. We can only become more aware of them when we reflect on the behaviors that society rewards and punishes, who they serve and benefit, and who is harmed and neglected. Feminist, activist, and writer adrienne maree brown* captures the sentiment perfectly in her book Emergent Strategy: Shaping Change, Changing Worlds. She writes: We are in an imagination battle. Trayvon Martin and Mike Brown and Renisha McBride and so many others are dead because, in some white imagination, they were dangerous. And that imagination is so respected that those who kill based on an imagined, radicalized fear of Black people are rarely held accountable. Imagination has people thinking they can go from being poor to a millionaire as part of a shared American dream. Imagination turns Brown bombers into terrorists and white bombers into mentally ill victims. Imagination gives us borders, gives us superiority, gives us race as an indicator of ability… I often feel I am trapped inside someone else’s imagination, and I must engage my own imagination in order to break free. When we talk about thinking outside the box, the real exercise and challenge is to step entirely out of the boundaries brown* refers to, and to deploy our own imaginations and understanding of the world. I believe that the catalyst for real and lasting change exists in our ability to do this. That is, to radically imagine new possibilities (even if they feel out of reach), to question the way things are, and to stretch the boundaries of what could be. What is radical imagination? I often compare radical imagination to the work done in science-fiction films and novels. Movies like Star Trek and Back to the Future introduced drones, hoverboards, FaceTime, cell phones, and smart glasses before they existed today. Marvel’s Black Panther depicted the thriving, technologically advanced Kingdom of Wakanda — a fantastical East African country rich with culture, fashion, and dialect, untouched by colonialism. That movie gave the Black community more than just representation. It gave rise to hope and possibility by allowing us to imagine a different model: what could have been and what could still be. Though the science-fiction industry is just beginning to reckon with its lack of diverse representation, Black and Indigenous activists, organizers, scholars, and visionaries have been using imagination in this way for decades — as a tool for hope and agency, to envision what history might have looked like in the absence of oppression and colonialism, and to dream of equitable and liberated futures. In the same way science fiction has the power to influence society to develop new ideas and technologies, I believe that imagination and storytelling can create the blueprint for a decolonized world. Through our imagination we can envision alternate realities to prevent mass devastation, or to actualize the values of humanity. Through storytelling, we can plant and spread those ideas like spores. When it comes to the workplace, radical imagination is a skill that can be used to benefit customers, workers, and organizations themselves. As an equity and inclusion designer, this is a big part of what I do. I work with clients to reimagine and build inclusive and responsible products, services, and experiences that reflect and respect people from all walks of life — particularly those belonging to marginalized communities. I teach my clients that while it’s important to recognize where and when people are excluded, we also need to be able to imagine a better, more equitable future where people can thrive. For companies creating new products or services, I encourage them to shift their mindsets from “I don’t want to offend people” (which is grounded in defensiveness) to “I want people to feel respected, appreciated, and acknowledged” (which is grounded in action, problem-solving, and imagination). Radical imagination is a tool available to anyone who is interested in contributing to that future, in the workforce or otherwise. Whether you’re a business leader, an individual contributor, a new grad, or still figuring out who you are and what you want to do, I’d like to offer you three readily available tools that can support you in building a stronger imagination and challenge you to truly “think outside the box.” Wonder Wonder is the bridge to imagination. We can access that bridge more readily when we create space in our lives, processes, and day-to-day activities to notice, reflect, and ask ourselves questions. When I encounter a situation, object, or person who piques my curiosity, I usually begin with these: I wonder why… I wonder who… I wonder what… If not this, then what? Sticking with one of our original examples, one might ask: I wonder why we work 40 hours a week, with two days off? I wonder who benefits from that structure? I wonder what would happen if we worked less? If not a five-day work week, then what? Sometimes these questions can lead to heavy or uncomfortable discoveries. That’s okay. Remember, imagination is intended to be light and unconfined. Once you know what you want to change, you have the freedom to redesign it in your mind at no cost. While it may not be feasible to turn dreams of liberation into a reality right away, your ability to imagine something better than what is will plant seeds for a better future. Read fiction. Tell stories. Learn from the past. Audre Lorde said, “The master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house.” If we want to change the current system, we must be willing to look outside of it for answers. Fiction can be the gateway to imagining those new possibilities, and storytelling will allow you to spread your ideas and learn from others in exchange. For me, books like Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler, Emergent Strategy by adrienne maree brown*, and Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer have been the most impactful in expanding my beliefs around what is possible. They offer stories, ancestral wisdom and cautionary tales of past and future from a Black and Indigenous perspective. Through their words, I can picture alternative realities to what exists right now. While I’ve found myself drawn towards Afrofuturism and Indigenous literature (and you will likely find your niche too), I want to emphasize that not all knowledge is stored in books. Many Indigenous cultures embrace traditions of oral storytelling through elders and knowledge keepers. I’m inspired by this to suggest that all of us also open ourselves to the wisdom of old ways — pre-colonial ways — and use this knowledge to create a better world. Embrace fractal changes. I became acquainted with the concept of fractals through Emergent Strategy. Fractals are never-ending patterns that are similar across different scales. The small reflects the big, and the big reflects the small. For instance, if you were to look at a cauliflower under a microscope, you would see geometric spirals that repeat at different sizes and scales. When it comes to equity, inclusion, and anti-oppression, change can feel overwhelming. Sometimes it isn’t about tackling the whole system, but working within ourselves to reimagine our own lives and existence in the absence of colonial conditioning. That looks like becoming aware of how concepts like individualism, scarcity, and binary thinking, among others, influence the way we interact with each other and the way we experience the world. What becomes easy to overlook, when focusing on the whole, is just how powerful change can be at the smallest scale. That’s where the idea of fractal changes comes in. The conscious micro-changes we make in our lives to operate from a place of abundance, rest, trust, imperfection, collective empowerment, and fluidity, creates a ripple effect that influences systems at scale. In the words of J. Cole, “The only real revolution happens right inside of you”. Radical imagination is the key to liberation and it lies within each of us. Once we realize that our concept of what and how we “ought to be” stems from the human imagination, we can reclaim our power to rewrite the rules that have never served us. *Author adrienne maree brown uses lowercase formatting for her name.

What It Means to Truly “Think Outside the Box”

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