Pebbles which went out of the box-  a kids' story for adults...

This is a story which I am fond of telling whenever we talk about "out of
the box" thinking. This story, of course, is not an original one but heard
by me in one of my training sessions somewhere about thiry five years ago.

Out-of-the-box thinking is often understood to be the process of getting an idea or a solution where the process is that is not constrained by  preconceived notions, self-imposed limits or conventional barriers. 

Being free or breakthrough thinking, it creates new paradigms and explores non-logical and uncommon ways and solutions.  It also states that out of the box thinking is in the Decision Making, Problem Solving, & Strategy and Information & Knowledge Management subjects.  

Though many believe that this dares to challenge conventional wisdom, I do not think so. 

This is in our day to day life & quite often found coming out of people who we think do not know enough to give us concrete and constructive suggestions and ideas. People who have it as their business to advise and earn money may make this a whole body of a subject and create lanes and bylanes in the territory- take three sessions explaining what "out of the box thinking" actually is.  

In reality, it is just the same old  fashioned concept of getting an idea adorned in new clothes and jewellery.

There is what some call functional fixation; which refers to our not being able to look at anything in ways which are different from the ways we are used to looking at. Some people call it with a high sounding word- cognitive blocking. 

Thinking out of the box is a strategy for overcoming functional fixation, implemented by deliberately affecting style of thought so different from your usual viewpoint that your functional fixation becomes unsustainable and breaks, leading to new insight on a problem.

As in this story below....

As usual here is a poor guy who works for one of those tyrant masters who are invariable old like in any such story. Again as usual this poor guy borrowed money which has become with very high interest rates a sum of
money which even if he and his son work all their lives can not be repaid at the current levels of wages.

Yes, like you rightly suspected, this poor guy had a beautiful daughter of marriageable age ( why in all stories all poor guys have beautiful daughters is something which you and I do not know- but that is beside the point and does not matter to "out of the box thinking").

There is no surprise in the story now; the old tyrant master wanted the girl in marriage ( don't blame him- he is not the villain as the story teller made him out to be- then, you and I would be villains too even if we had not lent money to the poor guy!).

The master wanted to strike a deal. 

He said he would write off the loan if girl agreed to marry him. Not wanting to look like an old moron and a devil, he said that he would lagree to waive the loan even if the girl did not marry him if that is God's will -  all were perplexed.  (You may wonder, how "all" came into the story now - so far we had only three actors.. but it is how these stories go.. her "all" includes me and all the readers of this post in the blog).

They were standing over a piece of land near a pool surrounding stretch of which was laid with black and white pebbles.  The idea was that the girl would have to pick up a pebble from a pouch wherein he would put a black and a white pebble.  

Whether she picks up a white or a black pebble, the loan would be waived  with a condition that if it was white, she need not marry him ; if it was black, the marriage would have to take place. If she were to refuse to take out any pebble, then, the master had the right to send him to jail.  

Everyone felt that it was fair & there was no way out of the situation for the poor guy and his beautiful daughter or perhaps a way out...The master picked up two pebbles from the ground - what a devil he was- they were both black pebbles 

And the girl saw it the moment he was dropping them into a bag.And she had to pick up one... 

What are the options - 
(1) tell him that he put both black 
(2) refuse to play the game  
(3) pick a pebble ( which definitely is going to be black as both were black), marry the old devil ( now that we know, is he not a devil?)  

She realised that option 1 would not work since if that happens he might just pretend to get angry and in feigned exasperation at their not accepting a fair offer, would just throw the pebbles to the gorund before anyone could bat a eyelid.  

Option 2 results in jail for her father. 

Option 3 is marriage.  

What did she do? 

She said okay, picked up a pebble. 

She suddenly shouted for water and crying "daddy" fell to the ground dropping the pebble she picked out of the bag among the other pebbles laid on the ground. 

She cried from the ground- Oh, I dropped what I picked up, master; 

after a pause, as though it was an afterthought, she said- but what I did not pick up is in the bag & so you know which colour pebble I picked out. 

The master having appeared to be fair, now, could not expose his deviousness. You know, what remained in the bag was black- so, what picked up must have been white- the loan was written off without her having to marry the master. 

Is it or isn't it out of the box thinking?