Edward Prince Furniture Design - Creativity - How to be more creative - Blocks & barriers

 

Creativity - Blocks and Barriers 

“Show me someone who hasn't failed, and I'll show you someone who hasn't tried hard enough” Albert Einstein

Michael Jordan missed more shots than anybody else in the history of basketball, yet in the last three of the NBA finals he was MVP [most valuable player]. Babe Ruth struck out more than everybody else; Thomas Edison failed miserably many, many times. That's just the way it is - high achievement people fail more because they take more chances they don’t let barriers get in their way.

What is it that prevents our minds from cruising freely through the infinite possibilities of potential knowledge? The answer is found in our conditioning. Right from the time we can crawl we learn from well-meaning, parents, peers and society that experimentation can be harmful to ourselves and to others: “Don’t climb trees.” “That’s rubbish.” “Do you have permission to do that?” “Better check with the boss first.” And so on and so on…. To live creatively requires an element of risk-taking. The risk of exposing something of your individuality, travelling beyond the safety of experience, setting a new trail apart from friends and mentors, making mistakes and exposing yourself to unintended consequences. The process of developing a creative life is often a process of overcoming the conditioning we experience in our societal existence.

There are many blocks within organisations that hinder creative thinking and problem solving. However before you address interpersonal and organisational issues step one is to find out what psychological blocks you need to be overcome so you can maximise your own creative potential. This is easier said than done, as these blocks are often not within our conscious awareness. Blocks often stem from issues of self-esteem and uncertainty about how significant, competent or likable we are. Such issues distort our creative and intellectual abilities which can leads us to do almost anything to avoid being ignored, humiliated or rejected. These entrenched habits and emotions can be re-patterned but this requires action. Stick with it though the rewards are worth the effort and your ego will be much healthier for the process.

BARRIERS IN THE CREATIVE PROCESS

Each stage of the creative process has particular obstacles, typical examples in each stage are:

Exploration
Creative solutions require a repertoire of experiences. You need to be open to both environment and your feelings. Why do inventors make creative discoveries in electronics or sports people invent new ways to win? Because their breadth and depth of experience give them more possibilities. If gaining experience is a problem could it be that you have a fear of learning? This could range from believing you are unable to retain information to being compared to other brilliant people and therefore not trying avoids not failing. Alternatively you perceive the domain you want to explore is not available to you by way of status, class or culture.

Idea generation
You must be able to associate experiences into a useful product. Like science, poetry relies on such remote associations, or metaphors like the memorable line, “The fog comes/on little cat feet”. Carl Sandburg. You may overvalue rationality, expect to always be in control therefore rejecting non-linear or associative thinking and intuition. It may be that you lack self-awareness and recognise the consequence of your actions.

Action
Once you’ve associated diverse experiences or information, you must express your idea: a creative association isn’t worth much unless you can communicate it. This commonly results from feeling you may embarrass yourself because you're uncertain of your talents or fear criticism. You may simply lack assertion like Tom Sawyer who figured that "staying mum" kept him out of a jam; but this belief will limit your creativity.

Evaluation
When you fail to evaluate your ideas well a false dilemma you can end up choosing between using an unpromising project and prematurely discarding a promising one. This results from a fear of humiliation. What if you think your ideas are great but others think its worse than brushing your teeth with a loo brush, you may look like an arrogant fool or a dreamer. Do you adopt false modesty or convince yourself your work is boring or obvious. On the other hand a fear of rejection may lead you to be negative about your idea so if you don’t think much of your work, why should they? 

Implementation
Original ideas and products are fun, but if you fail to persevere, they won't make anybody rich. Most authors continually revise their manuscripts. Designers refine their products until they look and function best and entrepreneurs refine business ideas until they work. But what about all those that are still gathering dust because of a fear of failure. There are so many excuses we convince ourselves the work is not very good.

TYPES OF CREATIVE BARRIERS

The first step to understanding barriers is to identify which mental walls prevent you from correctly perceiving a problem or conceiving its solution. You can then gain a better understanding of your strengths and weaknesses which in turn provides the motivation and knowledge you can use to avoid mental and environmental blocks. 

In his book “A Whack on the side of the head” Rodger van Oech lists ten commonly held assumptions that prevent creative practice in individuals and organisations.

1. The right answer: Implies there is one right answer.
2. That’s not logical: Ways to find new perspectives like, intuitive or symbolic thinking.
3. Follow the rules: Prescribed thinking sees things as they are, not how they could be.
4. Be practical: Ask what if? Questions these can lead to new practical ideas.
5. Avoid ambiguity: A productive method of inducing imaginative answers.
6. To err is wrong: A fear of making mistakes inhibits experimentation and making errors.
7. Play is frivolous: Creative people play with ideas, use humour and childlike thinking.
8. That’s not my area: Borrowing ideas from outside ones own fields.
9. Don’t be foolish: Conformity prevents playful experimentation and proposing ideas.
10. I’m not creative: This is a self-fulfilling prophecy.

These mental and environmental blocks are categorised as:

• Internal Blocks
• Emotion Fear, judgmental, reflection.
• Perception Stereotype, assumptions, isolate problem.
• Intellectual Languages, senses.
• Expressive Visual, verbal, musical, mathematical.
• External Blocks
• Culture Play, humour, intuition, and taboos.
• Environment Climate, culture, support, reward, space.

Perceptual Blocks
Perceptual blocks are obstacles preventing you from clearly perceiving either the problem or the information needed to solve the problem. Too often, we look at a problem expecting to see something and then respond to the first thing we think of rather than taking time to perceive in greater depth. Given 20/20 vision, we can all see equally well. Lawyers and psychologists however both know that seeing is enormously influenced by personal factors like emotion, knowledge and view point.

The mind is very good at forming patterns; we recognise sequences, cycles, shapes, processes, similarities and probabilities. Identifying patterns in both personal, organisational behaviour and perception of the external environment should be a goal of designers. A common problem is becoming fixated on one particular approach, method or strategy without seeing more appropriate approaches.

What is helpful to creativity is training the eye to notice concrete precise and the particular details. A close cousin is curiosity. Seeing a wrinkle taking a closer look. Then wondering how the wrinkle affects half a dozen things. In time, a connection forms and a revelation is discovered.

All social groups must have rules, regulations, policies and traditions to guide personal and group behaviour. Unfortunately, too often "guide" actually means "restrict" or "inhibit." An example would be how lower-status people are reluctant to suggest ideas to people in higher positions, due to insecurity and fear of evaluation. Likewise, higher-level people frequently resist ideas that threaten the hierarchy

Procedural barriers are policies and regulations--written or unwritten--that inhibit innovation. For example, are people promoted for their technical skills, or their ability to foster a creative atmosphere? Do decision-makers avoid expenditures that don't produce an immediate payback? How often do you hear these statements "We can't do it under the regulations." Or "That's not our job (role, responsibility or department”

The ‘Aslan Phenomenon” states;

1. We make rules based upon reasons that make a lot of sense
2. We follow the rules
3. Time passes and things change.
4. The original reasons for creating these rules is no longer in place, yet we still follow them.

Creative thinking involves not only generating new ideas but escaping from obsolete ones as well. Check how ideas and beliefs contribute to thinking effectiveness. Ask ‘why did this idea originate’ to establish if these reasons still exist. Assumptions must be checked, as they will affect perception of the problem. Labels and stereotypes attached to objects or problems make it difficult to see beyond that label

Inadequate clues or information also obscure problems, if the problem is not correctly identified it will not be properly solved. When stating or analysing a problem do not delimit the problem area too closely, imposing too many constraints, look at the problem from various viewpoints and consider the interests of those affected.

Perceptual blocks also originate in learning and habit. Our accustomed way of perceiving things interferes with the ability to see new meaning, relationships, methods or applications. Psychologists use the terms "functional fixity" or "mental set" to describe this predisposition to perceive things in certain ways. For example, based on symptoms that seem familiar, a physician, scientist or executive may persistently misclassify a problem and treat it incorrectly. "It's too early (or late)." "We're too small (or big or new) for that"

Once you get over a perceptual barrier and come up with a creative solution, you may kick yourself for not having seen it earlier. 

Intellectual and Expressive Blocks
Intellectual blocks result in the ineffective choice of tactics or shortage intellectual ammunition. Expressive blocks inhibit the ability to communicate ideas to both others and yourself.

There are many different techniques for solving problems with different languages. Some problems are impossible to visualise, verbally work out or mathematically calculate. Other problems are easier to resolve musically, through movement or using the senses. Most people select a language and continue unconsciously until an answer is realised or a block is encountered. Conscious selection of alternative languages generates approaches previously not considered. Awareness of what thinking strategies can achieve and how they are used will provide the mind with a larger selection of ideas and options.

When you are trying to find solutions adequate information is extremely important. An intellectual block that prevents access to well-balanced and relevant information could be disastrous. Limiting mathematical data restricts access to quantitative data, just as limited emotional or aesthetic input will restrict solutions. In a well-developed thinker, prior knowledge should not have too great an influence on the immediate problem. Staying loose in the early stages of a project improves the chances of achieving creative results by increasing the amount of material to work with. Volume produces options, which opinion and taste will edit. A narrow or single-minded concentration on a single frame of reference often blocks a creative solution or prevents exposure to influences that initially appear unrelated to the work at hand.

Inflexible, inadequate and limited use of problem-solving strategies restricts breadth and depth of thinking. Intolerance for ambiguity and a desire for order are to a certain extent natural. Rigorous logical thinking techniques and intuitive free flowing thought are both equally important part of the problem solving process. The ability to work with ambiguity is necessary in any problem-solving situation because their will always be ill-fitting data, hazy concepts, opinions and values. Failure to recognise the value of creative inspiration, acknowledge paradox and ambiguity will restrict ideas loosing the raw material, which feeds the imagination.

Cultural Blocks
Cultural blocks can be summarized in two words: conformity pressures. It simply is uncomfortable to be different, to challenge accepted ways of thinking and behaving. Cultural blocks are acquired through exposure to a given set of cultural patterns on. The immediate social and physical environment and the national and global level. Creativity requires violating all of these norms.

Good conceptualisation is aided considerably by fantasy; reflection and mental playfulness, qualities that exist in children. These qualities are frequently discouraged in education and business with greater emphasis placed upon serious, mature logic. We spend more time attempting to derive a better world directly from what we have rather than trying to imagine a better world. If we are daydreaming or playing, the assumption is, we are being unproductive. The opposite can often be the case.

When asked, “During what kind of activities and situations do you get your ideas?” Roger van Oech found they fell into two categories. The smaller group represented replies such as: “When faced with a problem, when things break of need fixing, when the deadline is near”. The larger group represented replies such as: “When I am playing around, when I am doing something, and after my second beer”. The conclusion he draws is, “If necessity is that mother of invention then play is certainly the father”. When defences are down concern with the rules is minimal, the mind is more relaxed and mental blocks are weak. Interestingly most people got their best ideas on the toilet or in the shower.

An important aspect of play is humour; laughter puts you at ease. Laughter is productive because it uses unusual associations and combines ideas not usually associated with one another. Taking things less seriously, through humour can stretch your thinking. In a serious business world playful attitudes and a sense of humour are frequently regarded as inappropriate. However fun environments are frequently more productive than serious routine ones. Often those who enjoy what they are doing will come up with more ideas.

It is important for individuals believe they are creative. Shell oil in Rotterdam, Holland, recently employed a team of psychologists to establish what were the qualities that made some people creative and others uncreative. Their conclusion was that the creative people thought they were creative and the uncreative believed they were uncreative. The words of thought and action often overlap and what you think has a way of becoming true. By believing your thoughts are worthy and worth building on, more than one answer will be sought; ideas in other fields explored ambiguity tolerated and a more playful attitude to ideas adopted.

Environmental Blocks
Environmental blocks are the social and physical environment in which we live and work. Distractions and the temptation to put of difficult problems are easily taken when your physical environment is noisy, smelly, ergonomically unsuitable, lacking visual stimulation, light and good air.

In an organisational environment an atmosphere of honesty, trust and support is essential for ideas to develop. If you are running ideas past a friend and they pour cold water on the then you may be discouraged and discontinue with the project. Make sure that when you are discussing ideas that are fragile you choose the people you talk to about it with care. In such an environment criticism is not be regard harmful as solutions proposed are not be ridiculed, plagiarised or treated with envy. The skill of a good manager/mentor is to encourage subordinates to think creatively in tandem with them. Rewarding success, providing regular encouragement and acknowledging efforts however small plays an equally important role in encouraging ideas and fostering motivation.

A common environmental problem is a lack of physical, economic or organisational supports for bringing ideas into fruition. New ideas are difficult to bring to life, often taking years to reach a stage when they elicit support from others. Doing so could require specialist skills, equipment, legal, and promotional expertise, all potentially expensive. Even the best ideas are doomed if the time and money are not available for effective development.

Some of histories great thinkers have created environments and conditions to stimulate their thinking. Proust worked in a cork-lined room. Mahler wrote his music in a tiny cottage in the middle of a meadow. During the Roaring twenties many noted writers and artists believed that Paris to be the only city worth living in. Dickens turned his bed and writing desk to face north, believing himself to be enabled by the magnetic forces. Schiller favoured the scent of fermenting apples he kept in a draw in his desk.

A physical environment should stimulate all the senses. An environment that is multi-sensory, that uses colour, smell, sound, visually stimulating images, objects and associations will stimulate creative thinking. Such efforts will be in vain if the environment linked to an organisational culture where emotion is considered threatening.

EXERCISES

1. Identifying blocks
Think of a problem that is bothering you.
Write down the problem statement as concisely as possible
Write down ten different problem statements that are alternative ways of looking at the problem
What alternative causes are there of the problem you are experiencing
What alternative perspectives can you identify using another’s shoes, Peter Blake, Bud Lightyear, Ghandi, tramp, a child, a
ig farmer, a light bulb,
What differences are there in the solutions that you have identified

2. Thinking languages
Solve the following problem using different problem solving languages and see which one works best for you.
Visual thinking.
live experiment.
a drawing.
a musical rhythm.
mathematical formula.
verbalisation.

A man and a woman are standing side by side and both feet on the ground, they start walking a exactly the same time. The woman takes three steps for each of the two steps that the man takes. How man steps will the man make before their left feet hit the floor at exactly the same time.

3. Find new uses for
The ease with which problems are solved is related to a variety of factors. A common mental block preventing insight is fixation. Fixation is the tendency to get "hung up" on wrong solutions or to become blind to alternatives. A prime example of fixation is functional fixedness or the inability to see new uses (functions) for familiar objects or for objects that have been used in a particular way. If you have ever used a coin as a screwdriver, you've overcome functional fixedness.

How many uses can you find of for a pile of leaves? (Think of a minimum of 20)

4. Consider these puzzles: * (Answers at end.)

1.  The police entered a gym containing five wrestlers just as the dying man looked at the ceiling and mumbled, "He did it." They immediately arrested one of the wrestlers. How did they know who was guilty? 

2.  Remove six letters from ASIPXPLETLTERES. What word is left?

Perceptual blocks are difficult to overcome, but it helps to stay flexible, keep an open mind and continually try to see a problem from different angles.

5. Use the following questions to help assess your creative strengths and limitations

For each stage of the creative process, which blocks sound familiar to you? Which do you want to remove?

Do you have any blocks to acquiring knowledge? Do you fear that you won’t remember information? Are you reluctant to explore certain personal areas?

Have you developed the ability to make creative associations? Are you reluctant to let your mind go wherever it wants? If so, why?

Are you inhibited in writing or speaking? Are you afraid of ridicule? Of making yourself look foolish?

Do you trust yourself to judge your creative efforts?

Do you have trouble sticking with things until they are complete? Are you afraid of failure? Of being disappointed when you complete something? Why?

The key to removing blocks to creativity lies in the kind of self-esteem that thrives in an open, truthful environment, where people can express their concerns openly and their personalities will be accepted. When we can focus on creating solutions rather than defences, and all feel safe when we acknowledge our fears, an organization becomes a community that helps each person to grow and experience soaring creativity.

* Answers to earlier questions

1. The it was an all woman gym
2. apples