When we were children, we had no trouble being creative, but as we grew up, we developed barriers to creativity.
Perceptual blocks
Perceptual blocks affect the way we see things. We see what we expect to see. One time I saw an artist's painting of a slice of watermelon. I thought the painting was ridiculous! Why would anyone paint such a simple subject? Fortunately, the painting had a caption: "Look closely at the seeds." As I looked at the seeds, they turned into bugs! The effect was so startling, I jumped back from the picture. The seeds had not really turned into bugs, but it took a while to override the false signal created by my expections.
An important aspect of creativity is simply in observing what is really there. It is not as easy as it sounds.
Emotional blocks
We like to think we are governed by our reason, and our decisions are logically based. Most of the time, this is not true.
We fear failure. At one time, a hypocrit was someone who didn't follow the advice he gave to others. Now it seems a hypocrit is anyone who fails to accomplish lofty goals. So, the solution becomes; don't have lofty goals... choose easy tasks. What a waste of creative motivation!
Fight the fear of making mistakes. Realize that only those doing something make mistakes! Failures are for learning! So, learn to make mistakes faster!
No organization or career can tolerate many big mistakes, so keep your mistakes small by constant tinkering and peer review.
Cultural or environmental blocks
Every culture has its taboos and sacred cows. For example, this problem was presented to some American students:
"We live in a dog-eat-dog world!"
"Watch out for the other guy!"
These common expressions lead us to the lack of trust that is prevalent in our society. In my 25-year career, I've found that I'm far ahead trusting and collaborating with others, at least until I get stung by a person for the first time.
Intellectual blocks
We are constantly deciding what cannot be done, based upon very little information and often without even trying. We are so inflexible! And we constantly underestimate the valuable resources that each of us has available.
For example, back in the days when all light bulbs were made of clear glass, the experienced engineers in a company decided to give the new hire a hard time. "Sketch out a process for economically coating the inside of a light bulb," they instructed him offhandedly, as if this were a simple engineering problem. Then, the old hands sat back with devious smiles on their faces, to watch the new engineer sweat trying to solve an impossible problem.
The new hire solved it! Because he didn't know it was impossible. And now, you can buy frosted light bulbs anywhere. Sometimes, ignorance is a blessing. We need to ignore the warning signs, "impossible," for they are usually erected in ignorance.
What we expect to see: This is called stereotyping. It's quite common and takes real effort to overcome.
Not logically based: Not only do we make a majority of our decisions emotionally, we probably don't realize how "unreasonable" our decisions are. The experts in molding the public's decisions are the advertising industry. What proportion of the ads are based upon logical arguments (e.g., the safety of the car, the healthiness of the food, the durability of the furniture) and what proportion on emotions (e.g., the ad makes you laugh, feel superior to your neighbor, makes you daydream about living in exotic places, is recommended by a movie star or pretty lady)?
Allow mistakes: I allow myself five mistakes a day, with carry over. That means, if I only make three mistakes Monday, I get seven on Tuesday!
We learn from mistakes: Edison tried over 1,000 materials for the filament of his electric light bulb, but they all failed. "You should just give up!" advised a friend, "You have failed here." Edison responded, "On the contrary, I've discovered over 1,000 things that don't work. That's progress!"
Fear of mistakes: T. J. Watson of IBM advised his people that the way to succeed was to double their failure rate.
Keep your mistakes small: Many people wait until their ideas are perfect before they bounce them off of others. Don't wait for perfection! A survey was done of highly creative people to determine what they had in common. The single common denominator found was a high tolerance for disorganization (e.g., being able to work in a messy environment). So, if you are neat as a pin, Mr/Ms. Perfectionist, lighten up! And enjoy yourself!
Stung by a person: Then I have found out some valuable information about that person! And, I have not found many people who were out to sting me. As a result, I've had a much more productive career by granting the benefit of the doubt to the majority of people who are worth trusting.