Useful Boundaries - Continued

OK, Pop Quiz:

In 15 seconds, write down as many things that are white in color as you can think of.

Finished? All right, now for Round Two:

In 15 seconds, write down as many white things in your refrigerator as you can think of.

How many items did you generate in each round? And which round seemed easier?

As Chip Heath and Dan Heath point out in their book Made to Stick, having the whole universe of white things at your mental disposal probably didn’t present any advantage – and in fact may have proved a disadvantage. As the Heaths say:

Most people, remarkably, can list about as many white things from their refrigerator as white anythings…. Even people who list more white anythings often feel that the refrigerator test is “easier.”

Why does this happen? Because, as the Heaths point out, placing a mental boundary such as a refrigerator around the universe of possible white things “is a way of mobilizing and focusing your brain.”

Just a neat brain trick? No, say the Heaths – a valuable concept for honing and communicating ideas, as they illustrate with the example of Jerry Kaplan.

In 1987, Kaplan was a young entrepreneur who was trying to interest the Kleiner Perkins venture capital firm – the most prestigious in Silicon Valley – in his idea for a smaller, more portable personal computer. As he began his “audition” before the firm’s partners, the tieless Kaplan realized that what he thought would be an informal conversation was really expected to be a slick, buttoned-down presentation.

Armed only with his small maroon leather portfolio, and fearing that he was losing his skeptical audience, Kaplan decided on the spur of the moment (as the Heaths recount) “to risk some theatrics” by tossing the leather portfolio onto the table and announcing with a flourish, “Gentlemen, here is a model of the next step in the computer revolution!”

Suddenly, the tone of the meeting changed from a slow grilling to an impromptu brainstorming session. The Kleiner Perkins people began focusing on the portfolio and speculating about the possibilities and opportunities represented by the prospect of condensing computer power inside such small confines. As the Heaths put it:

The presence of the portfolio made it easier for the venture capitalists to brainstorm, in the same way that focusing on “white things in our refrigerator” made it easier for us to brainstorm.

The result: The partners decided to back Kaplan’s idea, valuing his company to the tune of $4.5 million.

The What’s in a Name activity (described in my earlier article) … the Refrigerator Quiz … Kaplan’s Improv Moment … all of these are examples of useful boundaries that provide focus and concreteness for our thinking and communicating.

In Made to Stick, the Heaths provide many other real-world examples of useful boundaries that have the paradoxical effect of liberating rather than stifling one’s creativity and communicative power. In my next article, I’ll provide other examples of useful boundaries from a world that might seem the most boundless – the improv stage.