If you say that you're trying to "think outside the box," the most important thing this tells me is that you have a box. The box is "what's OK to think about under normal circumstances," and now something has happened that justifies going outside of this box. Probably business under normal circumstances has been falling off and someone has made a chart showing that at this rate things are going to get worse.
Because we're in trouble we must do something desperate: suspend the normal rules of acceptability and consider ideas that seem wild and crazy. Then, we hope, we can drag one of those ideas back inside the box and tame it, so we can go back to living within our comfortable borders.
Maybe this works for some people and companies (unemployment and shorter corporate lifecycles suggest otherwise). Maybe it's possible to say "OK, for the next 15 minutes the rules are suspended and now we're brainstorming. Come up with some ideas, people!" Perhaps you can control creativity -- keep it in its cage and let it out only when you need it.
Personally, I have to struggle with creativity and feed it and nurture it all the time. It's not simple: my muse's appetites change regularly so what was delightful and exciting once may not merit an eyebrow-raise afterward. Struggles don't yield fruit on any kind of schedule: some take years or decades.
If I keep creativity inside a box, it atrophies. If you are trying to think outside the box, notice first that there is a box, and wonder how that box is serving you, and if perhaps you can dismantle it.
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