The "nine dots" puzzle. The goal of the puzzle is to link all 9 dots using four straight lines or less, without lifting the pen. The solution is at the base of this article.

Thinking outside the box is to think differently, unconventionally or from a new perspective. This phrase often refers to novel, creative and smart thinking.

This is sometimes called a process of lateral thought. The catchphrase, or cliché, has become widely used in business environments, especially by management consultants and executive coaches, and has spawned a number of advertising slogans.

[edit] Origin

The origin of the phrase is somewhat obscure. John Adair claims to have introduced the problem in 1969^[1]. Management consultant Mike Vance has claimed that the use of the nine-dot puzzle in consultancy circles stems from the corporate culture of the Walt Disney Company, where the puzzle was used in-house.^[2] Both Martin Kihn of Fast Company^[3] and the Random House Word Mavens^[4] agree that the phrase relates to a traditional topographical puzzle called the nine dots puzzle.

According to Kihn, consultants of the 1970s and 1980s tried to make their prospective clients feel inferior by presenting them with the puzzle. The challenge is to connect the dots by drawing four straight, continuous lines that pass through each of the nine dots, and never lifting the pencil from the paper. The puzzle is easily solved but only if you draw the lines outside of the confines of the square area defined by the nine dots themselves. Thus, the phrase "thinking outside the box" was born. The Word Mavens refer to Prof. Daniel Kies of the College of DuPage, who observes that the puzzle only seems difficult because "we imagine a boundary around the edge of the dot array."^[5]

Christopher Columbus's Egg Puzzle as it appeared in Sam Loyd's Cyclopedia of Puzzles.

The nine dots puzzle is much older than the slogan. It appears in Sam Loyd's 1914 Cyclopedia of Puzzles.^[6] In the 1951 compilation The Puzzle-Mine: Puzzles Collected from the Works of the Late Henry Ernest Dudeney, the puzzle is attributed to Dudeney himself.^[7]

Sam Loyd's original formulation of the puzzle^[8] called it "Christopher Columbus's egg puzzle." as an allusion to the story of Egg of Columbus.

[edit] See also

• Seven Bridges of Königsberg
• Conceptual framework
• Paradigm
• Egg of Columbus
• No-win situation
• Kobayashi Maru
• Gordian Knot
• Endless knot

One of many solutions to the puzzle is to go beyond the boundaries to link all dots in 4 straight lines.

[edit] References

1. ^ The Art of Creative Thinking: How to Be Innovative and Develop Great Ideas
2. ^ Biography of Mike Vance at Creative Thinking Association of America.
3. ^ "Outside the Box": The Inside Story, retr/ Aug. 2, 2006.
4. ^ The Mavens' Word of the Day, "Outside the Box Thinking", retr. Aug. 2, 2006.
5. ^ Daniel Kies, "English Composition 2: Assumptions: Puzzle of the Nine Dots", retr. Jun. 28, 2009.
6. ^ Sam Loyd, Cyclopedia of Puzzles. (The Lamb Publishing Company, 1914)
7. ^ J. Travers, The Puzzle-Mine: Puzzles Collected from the Works of the Late Henry Ernest Dudeney. (Thos. Nelson, 1951)
8. ^ Facsimile from Cyclopedia of Puzzles - Columbus's Egg Puzzle is on right-hand page

[edit] Further reading

• J. L. Adams (1979). Conceptual blockbusting: A guide to better ideas. New York: W. W. Norton (more solutions to the nine dots problem - with less than 4 lines!)
• M. Scheerer (1972). Problem-solving. Scientific American, 208(4), 118-128

[edit] External links

• Oxford Advanced Learners Dictionary (OALD), Word of the Month: Think outside the box