You can’t beat kids when it comes to new, innovative, out-of-the-box thinking. I mean, not all kids, but those fearless try-anything-because-they-don’t-know not-to kinds of kids. I think you know the kinds of kids I’m thinking of:

While most of the kids who think out of the box don’t understand where the box is – similar to having a beginner’s mind – there is one key difference between having a beginner’s mind and a “kid mind” – which is the unabashed playfulness. The willingness to just try something out, just for fun, to see what happens. It’s active, assertive, and open-minded. And of all of the tools in our arsenal of innovation, this one is probably the easiest to uncover.