Stephen Shapiro conducts an interactive keynote exercise demonstrating that adding random constraints (connecting an object to a random context) yields more creative and valuable solutions than unconstrained brainstorming. Using a brick as a prompt, he shows audiences typically prefer constrained prompts and argues that 'positive constraints'—the right limits—drive innovation, collaboration, and better business results. The talk rejects the 'think outside the box' myth, instead advocating finding better boxes.
Chapters
I wanted to try an experiment now that I've done with about 500,000 people around the world. Very simple experiment that I think proves an important point in terms of how people think. Now you see me holding something here. It may, if you're way back there, might look like a brick. It's actually not a brick. But I want you to use your imagination for a moment. I want you to imagine that I'm holding in my hand a real brick. What we're going to do is a quick exercise where you're going to need to develop as many uses of a brick as you can. So this is how we're going to do it. I want everybody to pair up. So get with one other person. If you have to be in groups of three, that's fine. But ideally, I'd like you to get into groups of two pairs. And what you're going to do, really, really simple. I just want you to go back and forth and come up with as many uses of a brick as you can in your groups. You don't have to write anything down. You remember them. So, for example, the first person might say something like, if you're missing a brick in your chimney, you could stick it in there. Sort of an obvious one. Second person might say, use it as a paperweight or a doorstop. Next person might get creative, break it in half bookends. Second person might say, throw it at the tv if you lose the remote control to turn it off. No right answers. No wrong answers. I'm going to give you 3/30 seconds. Just go back and forth, come up with as many uses of a brick as you can go. All right, let's stop there. Let's stop there. Just shout out a couple of the uses of a brick. Just shout out anything. A weapon. I heard. By the way, I've done this with three branches of the military. There are a thousand ways to kill a person with a brick. A bed warmer. Put in the oven and heat up your bed. Excellent. Somebody on this side? A chalk. A what? A chalk to prevent the car from going backwards. Excellent. All right, so I want you for a moment to imagine. I have a flip chart here. It's a magic flip chart. It's invisible. If I were on this flip chart, I would be drawing the problem that we have. So the question that I asked you to do is, how do we use a brick? The way we tend to solve problems as human beings, our default mechanism is to look at a problem and ask, what do I know about this problem? So the first thing we Start off with is, we say, well, bricks are used in construction. So the obvious answers are going to be build something. Build a patio or something like that. The next thing we do is we say, well, what are the attributes of the problem? Well, in this case, a brick is heavy, so I can weigh things down. It's sturdy, so I can prevent things from rolling backwards. It's dangerous, so I can beat people over the head. So there's all these attributes. This is the way we're wired to develop solutions. We're going to do this exercise again, but with a small twist. A small twist. So this time in your pairs, what we're going to do is we're going to have one person. In fact, I want in your pairs, decide, one person's going to be A. One person's going to be B. Just figure that out first. Who's going to be A? Who's going to be B? All right, excellent. That was the easy part. So what we're going to do is we're going to do this exercise again. But the twist, and here's the twist. Instead of just saying, what do I know about a brick? What we're going to do is we're going to connect the brick to something random. We're going to give it a random context. So, for example, if the random context were, what are all the ways in which we can use a brick on the body? What are all the ways we can use a brick on the body? Just shout some out. Exfoliating. Excellent. It's really good. Loofah. Buff your nails. You could pump your biceps up. It's great for posture. Chin lift. Excellent. Yes. If you're into massages, it's a hot stone massage that exfoliates. It's a great combination. Short guy like me, put it in my shoes, give me a little extra height. So you get the idea. Person A is going to name something random. It could be anything. So person A could say, in the kitchen, in the bathroom, or in a relationship. Doesn't matter. By the way, we found fascinating uses of a brick in a marriage. Lots of good uses. So person A is going to name something random. Person B will have 30 seconds to come up with as many uses of a brick for that one random context. Then when I tell you to, and only when I tell you to, person B will get their revenge. Person B will name something random, and person. Person a will have 30 seconds to come up with uses of a brick for that random context. Everybody got it? All right. Person A names something random. Person B, come up with the uses. Go. Okay, let's stop there. Just a couple. Just a couple of examples. By the way, it always seems to get quiet at this point when I ask for examples. I don't know why. Well, what was the random context? And what is your one favorite use? Anybody just want to. What do you have in an automobile for a poor man's cruise control? Poor man's cruise control. It's actually exceptionally good if you hit somebody over the head, you knocked them out, you put them in the trunk of the car, you put the brick on the accelerator, drive it over a bridge. That was your next one, I could tell. Psychic. One more on this side. Yes. Kitchen and whiskey stone. So actually to cool the whiskey as opposed to heating it up. Love it. All right, so here's the question, here's the question. Which way do you feel yielded solutions that were more creative, potentially more valuable? And I want to be clear, when I say creative, I don't mean you generated more solutions or that it was easier, but you felt that the solutions you developed were a little further afield. So you've got three options. The first one was like the way we did it. The first way, uses of a brick. The second way was a brick for a random context. And then the third option is you felt they were roughly the same. So how many of you felt the first way yielded solutions that were more creative? We got one. Of course, it would have to be the Zappos guy. How many felt the second way yielded solutions that were more creative? Almost all of you. How many felt they were roughly the same? A couple of you. How many of you don't raise your hands in public? I think there's a couple of you. Yeah. So I've done this exercise, like I said, with a half million people, and we find out that audiences typically have 75 to 90% of the people will choose the second method. The second method. Now, you know, this is sort of interesting, and we could go behind the theory behind this and the science behind it and demonstrate why this is true. But it is true. We've actually done real world exercises around this. But what I want to point out is, if you think about it, the first method is the think outside the box method. Use a brick, no constraints, any way you possibly can. It was the second method where you actually had constraints, where all of you felt. And we've proven scientifically that the solutions are actually of higher quality, higher levels of creativity and higher levels of value and relevancy. So what I want to leave you with here is freedom does not mean free from constraints. Freedom means having the right constraints. It is actually about having positive constraints. I believe that constraints are actually a powerful driver of success in organizations. And I know that in the world of innovation, we've been told to think outside the box. This is terrible advice. You don't want to think outside the box. You want to find a better box. The issue is not the expansiveness of your thinking. You're looking in the wrong place. So as you go through the next day and a half, I don't want you to confuse freedom with doing whatever the heck you want to do. To me, freedom is all about recognizing that constraints, the right constraints, actually drive innovation. They drive business results, and they are the key to positive collaboration. Thank you.
