Barriers and Bridges To Creativity
Barriers and Bridges To Creativity
Barriers and Bridges To Creativity
Barriers to Creativity
To be creative you have to be open to all alternatives. This open mindedness is not always possible to meet because all
humans build up blocks or mental locks in the maturation and socialisation process. Some of those locks can have
external causes, such as family environment, the educational system, and organisational bureaucracy. Other blocks are
internally generated by our reactions to external factors or by physical factors. A key to improve your creativity is to
become aware of your locks and do something about them. While everyone has blocks to creativity, blocks vary in
quantity and intensity from person to person. Most of us are not aware of our conceptual blocks. Awareness not only
permits us to know our strengths and weakness better but also gives the needed motivation and knowledge to break
down these blocks. Adams (1986) identifies the mental locks as perceptual, emotional, cultural, environmental, and
intellectual.
Perceptual locks are obstacles that restraint us from clearly perceiving either the problem itself or the information needed
to register the problem. It is well known that our eyes can deceive us in observing some figures. Our perceptions are not
always accurate.
Emotional locks restrict our freedom to investigate and manipulate ideas. They prevent the communication of our ideas
to others. These locks are also called psychological barriers and are the most significant and prevalent blocks that
impede innovation. Fear of something new is a common characteristic of many individuals in the developed world.
Cultural locks are adapted by exposure to a given set of cultural patterns. The culture of the industrialised countries
trains mental playfulness, fantasy and reflectiveness out of people by placing stress on the value of efficiency, effectivity
and moneymaking. Taboos and myths are predominant blocks to creative behaviour. Therefore, it needs courage to be
creative in a culture that does not support creative changes.
Our near social and physical environment imposes environmental locks. Creative persons have usually had a childhood
where they were free to develop their own potentialities.
Intellectual locks are caused by conservatism and lack of willingness to use new approaches. The same approaches, the
same tools and the same persons are tackling the same problems for years. Persons with intellectual locks are usually
very negative to changes and are fast to criticise new proposals.
Barriers and Bridges to Creativity
Saying that creativity may be deliberate means that it is intentional something done with thought and the
application of specific processes. The more the tools and skills associated with creative thinking and Creative
Problem Solving are used, the more ingrained the habit of creative thinking becomes and the easier it is to
utilize in many contexts.
Of course, there are both barriers and bridges to the practice of deliberate creativity.
BARRIERS
As with any practice of effort, some barriers are quite common. When people feel they are being
judged negatively for their efforts, these barriers can also become self-protective statements:
Notice that all of these focus on time, resources, culture, internal and external judgment, and perceptions of talent or
skill. Whether these are external statements or internal self-talk, they have a dramatic impact: they help others
believe that they arent, cant
be, or shouldnt be creative and that simply isnt the case. So, remember that everyone has tremendous
creative potential that can be unlocked and harnessed. The challenge is to identify the factors that affect
awareness and use of creativity. Once an individual knows those, its easier to make productive choices about
how to use, improve, and refine skills that support creativity
BRIDGES
Along with the barriers that inhibit the ability to express creativity, there are also bridges. These key elements
support deliberate creativity and creative thinking. They include the choice to:
It helps people re-define the problems and opportunities they face, come up with new, innovative responses and
solutions, and then take action. The tools and techniques used make the process fun, engaging, and collaborative.
CPS not only helps create better solutions, it creates a positive experience that helps speed the adoption of new
ideas.
Noted CPS educator and practitioner, Ruth Noller, PhD, described CPS as the sum of its parts:
Creative specifies elements of newness, innovation, and novelty.
Problem refers to any situation that presents a challenge, offers an opportunity, or represents a
troubling concern.
Solving means devising ways to answer, to meet, or to satisfy a situation by changing self or situation.
Ruth Noller also created a symbolic equation for Creative Problem Solving1:
C = fa(K,I, )
Creativity is the Function of combining Knowledge, Imagination, and Evaluation, all of which
are tempered by attitude.
Fostering a positive belief that each person is creative is the key to engaging knowledge,
imagination, and evaluation.
Creative Problem Solving generates variations on the method can be traced back to the work of Alex Osborn
in the 1940s, developed with Sid Parnes in the 1950s, and nurtured at SUNY Buffalo State and the Creative
Education Foundation. Osborn noted in his breakthrough book, Applied Imagination, that Hindu teachers had
been using brainstorming for over 400 years and Walt Disney2 encouraged it among his artists in the 1920s
(later called dreaming as a team). Osborn formalized the tool in the 40s. The Creative Education Foundation
focuses on an evolution of Osborn-Parnes CPS model, called the CPS Model.
Core Principles of
Creative Problem Solving
CPS begins with two assumptions:
Everyone is creative.
Creative skills can be learned and enhanced.
The core principles are:
Divergent and convergent thinking must be balanced. Keys to creativity are learning ways to
identify and balance expanding and contracting thinking (done separately) and knowing when to
practice them.
Ask problems as questions. Solutions are more readily invited and developed when challenges and
problems are restated as open-ended questions with multiple possibilities. Such questions generate lots of rich
information, while closed-ended questions tend to elicit confirmation or denial. Statements tend to generate
limited or no response at all.
Defer or suspend judgment. As Osborn learned in his early work on brainstorming, the instantaneous judgment in
response to an idea shuts down idea generation. There is an appropriate and necessary time to apply judgment when
converging.
Focus on Yes, and ... rather than No, but. When generating information and ideas, language
matters. Yes, and allows continuation and expansion, which is necessary in certain stages of PS. The use of
the word butwhether preceded by
yes or no closes down conversation, negating everything that has come before it.
People engage in both kinds of thinking on a daily basis. The secret to creating new
ideas, however, is to separate divergent thinking from convergent thinking. This
means generating lots and lots of options before evaluating them.
DIVERGENTTHINKINGGUIDELINES
Both Osborn and Parnes note the importance of removing the barriers to divergent
thinking in their book Visionizing. They suggest that criticism is taboo, free-wheeling is
desirable, quantity breeds quality, and combinations and improvement are sought.
These suggestions have been condensed into guidelines for divergent thinking:
Combine and Build Use one idea as a springboard for another. Build,
combine, and improve ideas.
Seek Wild Ideas Stretch to create wild ideas. While these may not work directly,
getting way outside the box allows the space needed to discover extraordinary ideas.
Go for Quantity Take the time necessary and use the tools in this guide to
generate a long list of potential options.
To make it easier to generate a long list, set a concrete goal such as at least 50 ideas in
7 minutes for groups or 30 ideas in 7 minutes if solo before going to the next step.
This sharpens focus and prompts the changes the brain needs to get moving. It also
supports deferring judgment.
IDEATE Explore Ideas Generate ideas that answer the challenge questions.
IMPLEMENT Formulate a Plan Explore acceptance and identify resources and actions
that will support implementation of the selected solution(s).
CPS Model based on work of G.J. Puccio, M. Mance, M.C. Murdock, B. Miller, J. Vehar, R. Firestien, S. Thurber, & D. Nielsen (2011).
Clarify Explore the Vision
Purpose
Identify the goal, wish, or challenge.
Diverge
Generate goal or wish statements.
Ask participants in ways that allow narrative (use an invitational language stem):
I wish... and It would be great if....
Sample Diverging Questions
What are goals youd like to accomplish?
Whats been on your mind? Why?
What do you wish worked better? What are the challenges?
What would you like to do differently?
What have you never done that you would like to do?
Imagine yourself one year from today. What goals, dreams, or visions have
you accomplished?
If you had unlimited time, funds, and support, what would you accomplish?
What is going on at home or in our communities that should change?
Converge
Choose the goal/wish/challenge using the tool, 3 Is:
1. Is it Important?
2. Do you have Influence?
3. Do you need new Ideas?
Tools for Converging: Dot Voting, Highlighting (Hits, Cluster, Restate)
Outcome
Statement of key goal, wish, or challenge to address.
Clarify Gather Data
Purpose
Describe and generate data to enable a clear
understanding of the challenge.
Diverge
Generate as much data/facts/feelings as possible.
Ask questions: Who, What, When, Where, Why, How?
Converge
Review and select the most important data that best helps you understand
your challenge statement.
Take all the data that you have checked and group it into clusters with the
same theme. You can make as many clusters as necessary.
Take a moment and use one or two words to restate or label each cluster.
Tools for Converging: Dot Voting, Highlighting (Hits, Cluster, Restate)
Outcome
Significant data, information, and success criteria to enable a
clear understanding of the challenge.
Clarify Formulate the Challenge
Purpose
Sharpen awareness of the challenge and create challenge
questions that invite solutions.
Diverge
Generate a long list of challenge statements phrased as questions.
Look at your challenge from as many directions as you can imagine.
Use the invitational language stems with: How to ... (H2),
How might I ... (HMI), and In what ways might we ... (IWWMW).
Converge
Select the challenge statement that addresses what really needs to be
addressed or solved.
Set aside questions that are really ideas and revisit them in the next step.
Check to make sure the challenge statement is brief, focused, and beneficial.
Tools for Converging: Dot Voting, Highlighting (Hits, Cluster, Restate), 3 Is
Outcome
A refined challenge question (reframed problem) that invites solution and
stimulates new thinking.
Ideate Explore Ideas
Purpose
Generate ideas that answer the challenge questions.
Diverge
Using short phrases or headlines, generate ideas to answer your challenge question.
Stretch for as many ideas as possible, then generate more.
Converge
Generate a long list of ideas; mark them as workable, innovative, and may
solve the challenge.
Stretch for novelty at this point.
Keep some of the wild and unusual ideas in the mix.
Group the ideas you have chosen into thematic clusters representing paths to
solving the challenge. When you are done, give each cluster a 1-2 word name that
captures its essence.
Choose the cluster(s) that appears to be the best path to take. Restate it as an
idea, adding the starter phrase, What I see myself doing is ... to the beginning
of the cluster title.
If more than one cluster is appealing, you can use the criteria generated in the
next stage (Develop) to choose the strongest solution.
Tools for Converging: Dot Voting, Highlighting (Hits, Cluster, Restate)
Outcome
List of ideas or alternative actions that may solve the challenge.
What I see myself doing is ....
Develop Formulate Solutions
Purpose
Move from ideas to solutions. Evaluate, strengthen,
and select solutions for best fit.
Diverge
Generate a list of options to strengthen the idea(s) and categorize them by level
of potential.
Converge
If you have multiple solutions, use an Evaluation Matrix to help select and
further refine.
Revisit the success criteria from the second step, larify Gather Data. Clarify to be
as specific as possible. For example: Will it be operational in three months? is
more specific than Will it be ready soon?
Review your solution statement along with your lists from PPCO.
Select the most important options to incorporate and create a more robust
solution that starts with, NOW what I see myself doing is ....
Tools for Converging: Dot Voting, Evaluation Matrix
Outcome
Solution to be implemented. Restate (NOW what we see ourselves doing is ...).
Implement Formulate a Plan
Purpose
Explore acceptance and identify resources and actions that
will support implementation of the selected solution(s).
Diverge
Generate a list of assisters who can help make your solution a
reality. Include ways to enlist their help.
Generate a list of resisters and ways to overcome their resistance.
Generate a long list of short statements of all the actions needed to make
your solution a reality.
Outcome
Use the tool Action Plan. List resources and action steps needed to sell or implement
selected solution. Sort the action steps by short-, mid-, and long-term and specify
what, who, by when, and who checks the step.
Short-term
Mid-term
Long-term
What is a Paradigm?
A paradigm is a model or a pattern. Its a shared set of assumptions that have to do with
how we perceive the world. Paradigms are very helpful because they allow us to develop
expectations about what will probably occur based on these assumptions. However, when
data falls outside our paradigm, we find it hard to see and accept. This is called the
Paradigm Effect.
If one were to put it in common parlance, paradigm is a set pattern or behaviour of ours
which we follow without thinking much about it. A few paradigms in our daily lives could
be some of us wet the paste before brushing, some dont. When we wear our shirt, either
our left hand or right which goes first, not left on Monday, right on Tuesday etc. and we
may note that we repeat this every single time we wear a shirt. So, if we were to observe
closely, the pattern never changes.
In 1962, Thomas Kuhn, who wrote the book titled The Structure of Scientific
Revolutions, fathered, defined and popularized the concept of Paradigm
Shift. Kuhn argues that scientific advancement is not evolutionary, but rather is a series
of peaceful interludes punctuated by intellectually violent revolutions, and in those
revolutions one conceptual world view is replaced by another.
We can also see that the agents of such a change are driving a new paradigm shift today.
The signs are all around us. For e.g. the advent of computers and the internet have
impacted both personal and business environments, and are catalysts for a Paradigm Shift.
We are shifting from a mechanistic, manufacturing, industrial society to an organic,
service based, information centered society, and advancement in technology will continue
to impact globally. Change is inevitable. Its the only true constant.
For millions of years we have been evolving and will continue to do so. Change is
difficult. Human Beings resist change; however, the process has been set in motion long
ago and we will continue to co-create our own experience. Kuhn states that awareness is
prerequisite to all acceptable changes of theory. It all begins in the mind of the person.
What we perceive, whether normal or otherwise, conscious or unconscious, is subject to
the limitations and distortions produced by our inherited and socially conditional nature.
However, we are not restricted by the limitations and distortions because we can change.
We are moving at an accelerated rate of speed and our state of consciousness
is transforming and transcending. If we were to closely look at it, we may say that We are
not human being having a spiritual experience but we are spiritual beings having human
experience (a Quote by Pierre Tielhard de Chardin).
What is Paradigm Paralysis?
Small paradigms are harmless however at times there are bigger paradigms which may
lead us to what can be termed as Paradigm Paralysis. Paradigm Paralysis is getting stuck
and our inability or refusing to see beyond the current pattern of our thinking and it is one
of the greatest barriers to a paradigm shift.
One of the easiest methods to counter Paradigm Paralysis is developing the ability to
Think out-of-the Box. Thinking out of the box is a metaphor that means to think
differently, unconventionally, or from a new perspective. This phrase often refers to novel
or creative thinking. This allows us to look at the same situation or problem differently and
thereby come up with a novel solution.
We all have heard the story of the proverbial phoenix bird rising from the ashes. Shri
Sanjay Lalbhai (also popularly known as the Denim Man), the Chairman and Managing
Director of Arvind Mills Ltd. is a living example of such tenacity. It was a tough phase for
textile industry in the years following 1980. Because of power looms, fabric began to be
mass produced and got cheap. Many mills lost market and as a result, many of them
downed their shutters. Since 1931, its founding year to 1979, there was not a single year
when the Arvind Mills had not paid dividend. Now, when their survival itself was at stake,
there was no question of paying dividend.
But under such tough circumstances, Sanjaybhai implemented what is called Renovision
and rescued the company. Renovision means looking at the same situation from different
perspectives. Sanjaybhai observed that other mill owners are busy planning how to close
power looms. He looked at the whole thing differently. He thought why not start business
differently. This is how the idea of Denim was born. Ahmadabad, the city that was known
as the Manchester of India in the past began to be called the Capital of Denim. In fact,
Denim paved the way for the future and the rest is history. If he so desired. Shri Sanjay
Lalbhai could have joined the family business that was quite massive in scale and size and
merged his identity with that of the group. But he chose to tread his own path to carve his
own identity.
There comes a time in ones life when one is at the crossroads of having to choose The
Path that one needs to take ahead, i.e. Listening to Ones Heart vs. Listening to Ones
Head. I had to take one such decision in 2014 and I am extremely happy I took that
Paradigm Shift of moving away from the never ending Corporate Rat Race. I listened to
my Heart instead of my Head and forayed into the Consulting, Training and
Development business when I founded Capri3 Consultants thereby giving shape to my
dream of being independent and running my own consulting firm. Today, I am also a
Professionally Certified Train the Trainer as well as a Soft Skills Trainer helping people
with a Mission Encourage to Learn | Empower to Perform | Enable to Succeed and with
a Vision Your Success is our Reward.
I strongly feel that in the present day context, training on soft skills has become all the
more relevant in a country like India where the education system does not delve too much
into personality development. Good soft skills, which are in fact scarce in the highly
competitive corporate world, will help you stand out amongst a crowd of routine job
seekers with mediocre skill sets and talent.
Soft skills are becoming more critical than ever as organizations struggle to find
meaningful ways to remain competitive and be productive. Teamwork, leadership, and
communication are underpinned by soft skills development. Since each is an essential
element for organizational and personal success, developing Soft Skills is very important
and does matter a lot!
In conclusion, one may say that taking the Paradigm Shift may be compared to the Proverb
Just when the Caterpillar thought that the world was over, it turned into a Butterfly. It
means that the caterpillar was wrapped in a world of darkness, like we can get when bad
things happen to usbut instead of remaining in a dark place, the cocoon burst and the
caterpillar turned into a butterfly, free to escape the darkness and fly into the lightjust
like humans we are to remember that often in our darkest hours when things happen and
we dont understand, but with faith and hope, we can burst through like the butterfly into
the light. Sometimes the exact hardships that you think are too hard to persevere through
are the ones that change you for the better.