BIRTHDAY OF TWO REVOLUTIONARIES> How to Think Out of the Box
Learning to "think out of the box" has lately become a much celebrated and fashionable phrase. Everyone -- from management consultants to executive coaches, in personal growth and business environments, entrepreneurs and technology upstarts -- seems to be using this expression, to underscore the importance of lateral and unconventional thinking in a highly competitive market. Thinking "out of the box" -- or "out of the "bun" as Taco Bell cleverly advertises -- sounds very appealing. After all, who doesn't want to be ahead of the curve? Who doesn't want to stand out and make a difference; who doesn't want to break out of the trappings of old and stagnant habits and routines, of mechanical relationships? Who wouldn't be excited about a new and fresh experience?
But it's far far easier said than done. As attractive as the concept may be, how many true non-conformists do you know (besides yourself of course...)? Let's think about the challenge a bit: First you need to have a box before you can think "out of the box." How many of us can define our box? Then we have to contend with the comfort of our comfort zones and the fear of change, peer critique and standing out. Finally, we need counter the inertia of our status quo, as well as our emotional blocks and investments, including the prejudices and blind spots they create. Since the box impedes our vision and confines our perspective, how do we even objectively ascertain that we are going "out of the box" when it's very possible that your "out of the box" experience is just another extension (and illusion) of your "box"?! As Einstein said: “We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.” Or in the words of W. Edward Deming: “Knowledge required to change the existing system to a better system must come from outside the existing system.” How do we access a reality "outside the existing system" -- beyond the doors of perception -- and how do we know that we have actually accessed it?
Please join Rabbi Jacobson in an unforgettable class that celebrates today's birthday (around 3 centuries ago) of two revolutionaries -- the Baal Shem Tov and the Alter Rebbe -- who taught us and provided us with tools to transcend the "system," which allows us to change the system and alter the course and destiny of our lives and the world. Learn to become a true pioneer; to generate a paradigm shift.
