Roger von Oech has identified 10 mental blocks to

creativity

The following information is taken from his book

A solar energy lab technician has a problem. Her research lab is experimenting with a solar cell material, gallium arsenide, which is causing her problems in the slicing stage of cell production. Her task is to use a special high-speed wafer saw to make precision cuts in the material. But every time she cuts the material it cracks. She tries changing the position of the saw. The material still cracks. She is quite frustrated.

At home that weekend, she is in her husband’s shop watching him make cabinets. She notices that when he wants to make precision cuts on certain types of wood, he reduces (rather than increases) the saw’s cutting speed. She gets an idea: why not try the same approach on the gallium arsenide. She does, and it works.

What this woman did exemplifies an important part of creative thinking: recognizing the basic idea of one’s situation and applying it to another. The benefits of transferring knowledge gained in one area to another seem obvious.

Why don’t people do it more often?

One answer is specialization.

Mental Blocks

1. The right answer

2. That’s not logical

3. Follow the rules

4. Be practical

5. Play is frivolous

6. That’s not my area

7. Don’t be foolish

8. Avoid ambiguity

9. To err is wrong

10. I’m not creative

That’s Not My Area

I (von Oeck) once asked computer entrepreneur Steve Jobs why some people are more creative than others. He replied, “Innovation is usually the result of connections of past experience. But if you have the same experiences as everybody else, you’re unlikely to look in a different direction. For example, I went to Reed College in Portland. At Reed, most of the men took modern dance classes from a woman named Judy Massey. We did it to meet the women. I didn’t realize how much I learned about movement and perception from that class until a few years later when I worked for Nolan Bushnell at Atari. I was able to relate how much resolution of movement you need in terms of perceiving things for video games.”

That’s Not My Area

Specialization if a fact of life. In order to function in the world, you have to narrow your focus and limit your field of view. When you’re trying to generate new ideas, however, such information-handling attitudes can limit you. They not only may force you into delimiting your problem too narrowly, they may also prevent you from looking in outside areas for ideas.

That’s Not My Area

Develop the explorer’s attitude: the outlook that wherever you go, there are ideas waiting to be discovered.

Don’t get so busy that you lose the free time necessary for exploring. Give yourself a non-task day once a month or so, or an afternoon every several weeks. When was the last time you went to a junkyard? A sporting event? A television studio? Schedule exploring time into your day and week.

That’s Not My Area

When you “capture” an idea, be sure to write it down.

Sometimes the most helpful ideas are right in front of us. As the noted explorer Scott Love once put it, “Only the most foolish of mice would hide in a cat’s ear. But only the wisest of cats would think to look there.” Don’t miss the obvious. Ask yourself: “What resources and solutions are right in front of me? What am I overlooking?”

That’s Not My Area