• Perceptual blocks

          Detecting what you expect – stereotyping
      Difficulty in isolating the problem
      Tendency to delimit the problem area poorly
      Inability to see the problem from various viewpoints
      Saturation
      Failure to utilize all sensory inputs

  • Emotional Blocks

           Emotion
       Freud
       The Humanistic Psychologists
       Fear of taking a risk
       No appetite for chaos
      Judging rather than generating ideas
      Inability or unwillingness to incubate
      Lack of challenge versus excessive zeal
      Reality and fantasy
      Of flow and angst

  • Cultural and environmental blocks

          Taboos
      Fantasy and reflection are a waste of time, lazy, even crazy
      Playfulness is for children only
      Problem solving is a serious business and humor is out of place
      Reason, logic, numbers, utility, practicality are good: feeling,  intuition,   qualitative                judgements, pleasure, are bad.
      Any problem can be solved by scientific thinking and lots of money
      Everyone should be like me
      Cyber is better
      Tradition is preferable to change
      Distractions – phone, easy intrusion
      Lack of cooperation and trust among colleagues
      Autocratic boss who values only his/her own ideas: does not reward others
      Lack of support to bring ideas into action

  • Intellectual and expressive blocks

          Solving the problem using an incorrect language (verbal, mathematical, visual)—as in
      tryingto solve a problem mathematically when it can more easily be accomplished
      visually.
      Inflexible or inadequate use of intellectual problem-solving strategies
      Lack of, or incorrect information
      Inadequate language skill to express and record ideas (verbally,  musically, visually, etc.)

  • Alternate thinking languages

         Visual Thinking
     Other sensory languages
     Cognitive diversity
     The problem of specialization
     Analysis- synthesis
     Convergence-divergence
     Deduction-induction
    Jung and the Myers Briggs test

  • Kinds of blockbusters

        A questioning attitude
   Working on the right problem
   Time and effort focussers
   Set breakers
  Using other people’s ideas
  Crossing disciplines
  Crossing cultures and changing environments
  Unconscious blockbusting
  Maslow
  Barron
  Other paths for freeing the unconscious

  • Groups

      Inadequate knowledge of the creative process and the use of group creativity   techniques.
  Poor understanding of the 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