Breaking Open Boxes: Revolutionary New Book Cuts Through Complexity to Share How to Think, Lead and Solve Problems

With Breaking Open the Boxes garnering unanimous praise as a thought-provoking and immensely practical resource, business leaders, consultants, and creative thinkers alike are embracing the book’s ability to reveal new paths for leadership, decision-making, and personal growth.

With its remarkable explanation of the capacity to blend left- and right-brain thinking setting this book apart, readers are also appreciating the hands-on, practical tools provided by the authors, as well as being challenged to rethink ingrained assumptions.

Breaking Open the Boxes is a rare achievement: a book that combines intellectual rigor with engaging, actionable advice. From personal growth to strategic business decisions, Munro and Bolton’s fresh perspective invites readers to break free from old paradigms and lead with clarity and confidence.

Author Robert Bolton says:

“Our book isn’t just about the 100 quadrants, although they bring much insight, sometimes on quite controversial topics such as whistleblowing and leadership team cover-ups.

“The style is intentionally quite quirky and edgy. Providing the history to the quadrant and we also introduce the reader to what we term Grid Thinking. This is a way to tackle dilemmas beyond those in the book. Grid 101 draws on the groundbreaking research of Ian McGilchrist on ways of attending, and a way to recognise and integrate left and right brain patterns of thinking and deciding. Our grid thinking advice can apply to individuals as well as small groups wishing to tackle an issue.

“The book therefore has application in both the business and academic domains. Finally, I would say that it is chock full of great quotes from the likes of Bertrand Russell, Warren Buffett, Taylor Swift, Bruce Lee and Stephen Fry. Plus many more.”

Industry praise for Breaking Open Boxes includes:

“How refreshing. The big picture and the detail all at once. Andrew and Robert set off on a difficult adventure with this book, to cover the whole waterfront of business and personal challenges. But they pulled it off. Bravo!” – Colin Price, Chair of Item, former Mckinsey Partner

“Andrew Munro and Robert Bolton take a fresh approach to the 4 box grid. They combine theory and practicality in a highly readable format. The kind of book to keep at hand to help thinking through life’s challenges.” – Kate Holt, Partner, People Consulting, KPMG

“A lively and fascinating journey to understand the many challenges we all face – personally and in business – with invaluable insight into tactics and actions. An essential read to make sense of a messy world.” – David Bannister, Director, Scotwork International

“Breaking Open the Boxes offers fresh insights into the value of the classic 2 x 2 matrix. This helicopter perspective and multiple lens is novel and well worth exploring.”- Dr Tom Kennie, Director, Ranmore Consulting

“Quadrants that bust our assumptions about how we operate in the world, opening up new possibilities for leading ourselves for success.” – Sharon Toye, Founder Partner, Leadership Mindset Partners

“Finally, a book that I can pick up and quickly make sense of. The clarity and logic adds order to my sometimes chaotic mind. Munro and Bolton have a knack of using new perspectives to bring engaging insights to everyday life and business scenarios. This book helps me rethink, challenge and change.” – Ann Hartley, Head of Assessment, Penna Consulting

Five star praise from Amazon readers includes:

“Makes you think. Really entertaining book with loads of examples and stories. I read quite a lot of business books. This is my favourite this year by a country mile.” – Alan

“This book is a rare exception to the many business and management books published every year. As the title suggests, ‘Breaking Open the Boxes’, does exactly what it says in lifting the lid and getting inside the popular 4 box grid that has been in use in the business and management world since the 1950s.
Through my own work over the last 35 years I have found that time has not dated the power of 4 box grid power in triggering discussion on both business and personal problems and challenges. With this book the authors are providing super guidance on both how to create and use your own ‘boxes’ as well as supplying 100 highly useful ‘boxes’ that can be put to use straight way.
The authors suggest, and I wholeheartedly agree, that business leaders; development and workshop facilitators; management consultants and executive coaches and mentors will find this book useful. I would add indispensable to this. It is not a book to read ‘cover to cover’ but one to ‘dip into’ as you need. I think you may well find yourself ‘dipping into’ this book more than you think, for it is in like a practical ‘toolkit’. I recommend this book without hesitation, for I expect you will find, like me, that you probably wish that this excellent book had been available years ago.” – Howard Betts

“This is a great book for management consultants, coaches … or anyone with an interest in human psychology. The ‘boxes’ are great, and I can see a use for many of them with my clients. Each ‘box’ is supported by a nuanced discussion, concluding with a ‘so what’ assessment. The book also has literally hundreds of insightful quotes, and it’s very well referenced – also done in an engaging way. This book genuinely is a quirky joy. It’s written by two authors with more than 75 years of business experience between them, so there’s real wisdom in there. At the same time, there’s irreverent humour and some laugh-out-loud categorisation (check out the ‘can we believe the chatbot?’ box) so it will sit as well on a reference bookshelf or on a coffee table.” – Liz McCormick

Independently published, Breaking Open Boxes is available to purchase in paperback (ISBN No: 979-8340246028) priced £14.95 on Amazon at https://tinyurl.com/3xe8dcef