Conceptual Blockbusting

CREATED: 200802050252 ** Intro

• thinking form
• solutions to problems that don’t exist ** retarder on Mariner IV
• conceptual blocks

** Percetual blocks

• detecting what you expect - sterotyping ** information is context sensitive ** saw, when, panicked, Jim, ripped, haystack, the, relaxed, when cloth, the, but, he
• difficulty in isolating the problem
• tendency to delimit the problem area poorly ** nine dots example
• inability to see the problem from various viewpoints
• saturation ** you think you have the data, even though you are unable to produce it
• failure to utilize all sensory input

** Emotional blocks

• Freud: id, ego (socially aware, conscious aspect), superego (moralistic)
• Kubie: preconscious
• creativity is inhibited by the conscious ego and superego
• fear of taking a risk
• no appetite for chaos
• judging rather than generating ideas
• inability or unwillingness to incubate
• lack of challenge vs excessive zeal
• reality and fantasy
• flow and angst

** Cultural blocks

• taboos
• humor in problem solving
• reason and intuition
• left-handed and right-handed thinking
• primary and secondary creativity
• everybody should be just like me
• cyber is better
• tradition and change

** Environmental blocks

• supportive environments
• accepting and incorporating criticism
• autocratic bosses
• non-support

** Intellectual and Expressive blocks

• right problem solving language
• flexibility in your use of strategies
• importance of correct information
• lack of feedback loops
• inadequate language skills to express an idea
• imprecision of our verbal expression

** Alternate thinking languages

• visual thinking
• other sensory languages
• cognitive diversity
• problem of specialization
• analysis-synthesis
• convergence-divergence
• deduction-induction

** Blockbusters

• questioning attitude
• working on the right problems
• time and effort focusers
• set breakers ** list attributes, place as many alternates as possible
• using other people’s ideas
• crossing disciplines
• crossing cultures and changing environments
• unconscious blockbusting (postpone judgement)

** Groups

• inadequate knowledge of the creative process and use of group creativity techniques
• poor understanding of roles of affiliation and ego needs
• poor leadership
• inadequate or unbalanced group membership
• lack of proper support

** Organizations

• too much or too little control
• age and size
• tradition and past success
• inappropriate reward system and support
• inhibitive culture