I believe creativity is a process and not an outcome. Not everyone agrees. Many creative people reject the notion of any sort of structure. However, the descriptions of what countless creative and innovative people go through on their way to an idea are amazingly similar. At the core of these experiences is, I believe, an organic, step-wise process that cuts across the major areas of creativity, including art, science and business. Whether you're AWARE of that process is another thing entirely.
So, why not call it "Think OUTSIDE The Box"? I know it is popular to value thinking "outside" the box more than anything else. However, the creative process simply doesn't work that way. "Think OUTSIDE The Box" suggests we can grab something from thin air that has never existed before. That's magic, not creativity. Clients, bosses, colleagues and consultants implore us to "forget everything you've ever done" or "forget what you know." That's how you create a vacuum, not an idea. If you have nothing INSIDE the box, nothing can come out of it.
This is my working definition of the creative process. I've tried to choose my words very carefully without being simplistic. There is no silver bullet. I can't guarantee a breakthrough idea results from the process every time. I can guarantee that you will improve your odds of producing a greater volume of more satisfying ideas over time if you acknowledge the process and are open to it. Note the emphasis on having a large volume of elements to draw from and the importance of determining relationships between them.
The "box," therefore, is a metaphor for all the existing elements you have at your disposal and for the aspiration of living a life that feeds your "box" with a variety of experiences and existing ideas that you can draw from to "connect the dots." On an applied, practical level, this is literally about idea-creation with purpose, such as solving a business problem, creating a marketing campaign, etc. However on another level, it's about a lifestyle that fuels new insights and a sense of connectedness that enhances your intellectual and emotional appreciation of things.
In fact, hundreds of years of literature about the creative process points in the opposite direction, that we need to be able to tap into EVERYTHING we've ever done or encountered in order to have the building blocks of an idea at our disposal. Even examples of creation mythology from various religious traditions portray the creative process as a transformation of one or more elements into something else.
