Creativity: How to Think Out-of-the-Box to Solve Your Next Problem?

After leading US Forces to victory over Nazi Germany in World War II, General Eisenhower became President of Columbia University.

In that position, he faced a down-to-earth problem of how to make students stay on the sidewalks that had been cemented in place years before — signs didn’t work, memos didn’t work and neither did a notice in the school newspaper.

Instead, Eisenhower used out-of-the-box thinking to come up with the solution — put the sidewalks where the students walk!

He ordered that all of the sidewalks be torn up and replaced with grass, then after some time, he asked that the worn paths in the grass be replaced with sidewalks. Problem solved!

He applied, “Out of the Sidewalk Thinking.”