Those annoying clichés again.

Sit in planning meetings or look at advertisements and we will often find clichés. Often these clichés can seem innocent or even positive. They are also often spouted by those who are trying to push something through: their agenda, their image, their product and much more. Most of the time, these clichés would wash over you without doing anything much or at best, for them, the clichés would trigger the very responses that the speaker is trying to achieve. Very vary rarely will you find yourself sitting up and going, “Wait a minute!” I had one such moments recently.

When I was reading a magazine while waiting for my car to be fixed at the mechanic’s, I found myself reading a magazine devoted to cars, or more precisely, to the selling of cars. I suddenly realised that there were two phrases that I had just read had cropped up over and over again in the meetings that I had attended recently and in things I read in the media: “Think out of the box” and “See things in a totally different way”. I occurred to me that there was something wrong with these phrases.

“See things in a totally different way”

Implies that there is something wrong with the way I see things, this offends me.

What makes the way they are suggesting inherently better than the way I see the world.

I am also suspicious, the way I see the world inherently benefits me, as does theirs. Therefore, to see the world in their way will to substitute my beneficial perspective for one that is designed to benefit another at my expense. This is foolish, is it not?

One does not try to change the mind of others without an agenda; the agenda itself may be benevolent but it could equally be malevolent. Until I can prove the intentions of the persuader, I am more inclined to keep my perspective of the world.

“Think out of the box”

What is this box that they keep talking about? I don’t see any boxes, do you?

Assuming there is a metaphorical box, boxes are designed to do two things: to keep things in and to keep things out. Both objectives have their own merits depending on the things being kept in and out. There are consequences to allowing the two things to interact and before allowing such a venture, I presume that it is prudent to examine the possible consequences that may arise from said act. The thing that gets me every time is the apparently gung ho optimism that accompanies these statements; they always make it seem that thinking out of the metaphorical box has positive consequences. I am not a die-hard pessimist but a degree of pessimism may be a wise precaution, particularly when thinking out of the box will lead to decisions that may make or break your institution. Perhaps, it may be wise to explore the box further before stepping out if it.

Stepping out of the box may just be stepping into another box. Allow me to illustrate. I use a Nokia E72 which I find a solid and trustworthy machine. It has served me well for quite a while now. All around me, friends and colleagues have gone through several models of the Blackberry, i-phones and a whole slew of android driven machines. With the unveiling of each new model of these tiny machines, I get lectures from proud new owners telling me of the virtues of their new purchases. Wait a few months, you will get to hear their grievances over the shortcomings of their, previously miraculous, machines. Of course, the discovery of these shortcomings often coincides with the unveiling of newer models of their machines, or new models of a more desirable machine. Thus, they would step of one box and into another.

Then at the next meeting, I would notice that they will be doing on their machines the very same things they had been doing on the previous machines only with more attractive displays. More importantly, the same things I have been doing alongside them on my old Nokia. Something is wrong with this picture, I say.

Hazidi