Living Outside the Box

Book excerpt: Living Outside the Box is a call to action beyond the cliche' of thinking outside the box that typically ends without and action being taken. To change the world takes fearless actions and this book is the guide to how to live your life and change the world for the better.The concept for this book originated with frustrations of a career of seeing corporate executives, boards of directors, politicians, commissions, committees, and nearly every gathering of people for the purpose of seeking solutions to problems culminate in absolutely nothing. The watershed moment when the term "Living Outside the Box" was coined came during my time as the CEO of the Growth Alliance for Greater Evansville when some very specific challenges called for new solutions. Another meeting was about to be scheduled by some members of the executive committee to "think outside the box." My frustrations boiled over at the thought of yet another meeting where the foregone conclusion was that good thoughts would be developed and nothing would be done about them. From my mouth came the words "what good is it to think outside of the box unless we have the courage live outside the box." The room went silent. I did not know if I was about to be fired or if my words had struck a nerve, but the meeting to think outside the box was not scheduled at that moment. Afterward, one of the attendees who represented the University of Southern Indiana came into my office and expressed the opinion that what I had stated was in his opinion quite profound. His role at USI had been to act as a facilitator to help businesses, municipalities, and non-profit agencies engage in outside the box thinking exercises with hopes that planning and actions would come from the exercises. He also expressed many examples of frustrations with the results of his facilitation sessions where little or nothing actually got done. He was so enamored with the phrase "Living Outside the Box" that he did some research to find out if this phrase had been used in the context of a call to action following facilitated sessions of "Thinking Outside the Box." Much to the surprise of both of us, it had not.He began encouraging me to pursue publishing and speaking engagements around the phrase "Living Outside the Box." That was the summer of 2009. It is now 2018 but the phrase and its call to action has never left my mind or my way of living. I work the phrase into every speech that I make whether it is to the Palm Desert Rotary Club, the annual CVEP Economic Summit, or as the keynote at the Chief Innovation Officers Summit in San Francisco. The words "Living Outside the Box" always make an impact and I hope it will make one on the readers of this book. As you will see, it is those who take actions that really change the world. Words inspire, perspectives provoke thoughts but it is only through deliberate actions that progress is made to positively impact the human condition and thus change the world.