Rigid Thinking can stifle innovation.

In a research to prove the above statement, the professors of a university in the west selected 2 batches of 5 students from the same class for an experiment. The experiment is to take out the ping pong or table tennis balls which were inside a long pipe positioned vertically on the floor. The pipe was long enough and thin enough that no one can use their hands to take the balls out of the pipe. They have to use any one of the tools given to them.

The first batch of students were sent into one room, the tools given to them are almost all the hardware equipments like cutter, blades, spanners, rods etc, and water in a old rusty bucket. It’s obvious the students poured the water into the pipe, the ping pong balls floated up and they took the ping pong balls out of the pipe.

The other batch of students were sent into another room, the tools given to them are the same as in previous case except for one thing. Instead of bucket of water they were given bottles of fruit juices and champagne. Now you know what happened? The students used all the hardware to cut the pipe down and took the ping pong balls out. When they got tired they drank the fruit juices and champagne. The students could have as well used the juices and champagne as the first batch of students used the water. But they didn’t.

This is why someone said “Rigid thinking can stifle innovation”.