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IMPROVING YOUR CREATIVE ABILITIES 133
problem can certainly be a block, as can a lack of the information necessary to solve
the problem. For example, attempting to solve complicated satellite communica-
tions problems without sufficient background in the area would soon result in
blocked progress. Additional background, training, or resources may be necessary
to solve a problem. Don’t be afraid to ask for help.
Expressive blocks—that is, the inability to communicate your ideas to others,
in either verbal or written form—can also hinder your progress. Anyone who has
played a game of charades or Pictionary can certainly relate to the difficulties that
this type of block can cause. Make sketches and drawings, and don’t be afraid to
take the time to explain your problem to others.
As we have just seen, many types and causes of mental blocks exist. If you
find your problem-solving efforts afflicted by one of them, what can you do? Try
one of the blockbusting techniques found on the Web site. A great way to avoid
blocks altogether is to increase your creativity by learning new attitudes, values,
and ways of approaching and solving problems and by heeding the guidelines
presented in the next section.
IMPROVING YOUR CREATIVE ABILITIES
It is now established that everyone is innately creative and that they can enhance
their creativity by practicing regularly. As with any other skill, the more you
practice or concentrate on it, the better you get. Raudelsepp3 has suggested a variety
of techniques that can be used to improve your creativity, which you should try to
practice as often as you can. These techniques are listed in the following table.
Improving Your Creative Abilities
Keep track of your ideas at all times.
Many times ideas come at unexpected times. If
an idea is not written down within 24 hours, it
will usually be forgotten. Some people even
keep t notepad and pencil at their bedside in
case they wake up in the night with a creative
idea and want to write it down.
Pose new questions to yourself every day.
An inquiring mind is a creatively active one that
enlarges its area of awareness. If you are doing
a homework problem, ask yourself how to make
the problem more difficult or more exciting.
Apply the critical thinking questions discussed
in Chapter 3 to yourself
Continues
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\ \
144 CHAPTER 6 BREAKING DOWN THE BARRIERS TO GENERATING IDEAS
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I
6.5. Fifty-seven sticks are laid out to form the equation. Remove eight sticks to make the
answer correct. Do not disturb any sticks other than the eight to be removed. First
list any perceived constraints that you initially thought could be blocks to solving
this problem.
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nilO O O O o O
in-nn
Source: Carter, Phillip J., and Ken A. Russel, Brain Busters, Sterling Publishing, New York,
1992.
6.6. A prize is hanging by a string from a 10-foot ceiling. You are seated in an immova-
ble chair six feet away. In your possession are 10 pieces of paper, a pair of scissors,
a reel of tape, paper clips, a box of matches, and a ball of string. Suggest ways of
obtaining the prize while remaining seated.
10′
6
1-1
6.7. Identify the mental blocks you encountered in Exercises 6.3 through 6.6.
6.8. Give a specific example for each of the following:
A. Each of Adams’s perceptual blocks
B. Each of Adams’s emotional blocks
C. Each of Higgins’s common causes of mental blocks
Improving Your Creative Ability
6.9. Pick three of the 12 techniques listed in the table on improving your creative abili-
ties to work on in the next month. Outline the first steps on how you will do this.
6.10. Which of the 12 techniques on improving your creative abilities do you believe are
your current strengths? Your current weaknesses?
6.11. Create a scenario on how Coca-Cola or Xerox might have used techniques from the
table on improving your creative abilities to develop their products.
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FURTHER READING
Risk Taking
6.12. Identify a small, medium, and large risk you should take in the not-too-distant
future. Describe your fear of failure for each risk. Apply each of the items in the
table on overcoming the fear of failure.
6.13. Develop a scenario for what Xerox’s Alto System might have looked like if the
company had decided to use the items in the table on overcoming fear of failure
when deciding on this product’s future.
6.14. What lesson can you take away from the example of the Nokia smartphone and
tablet?
6.15. Describe some creative, but prudent, risks that you can take the next time that you
search for a new job.
6.16. Discuss some of the points you would consider as you decide whether a risk you are
contemplating is appropriate.
6.17. Think of a situation where you took a risk. Describe the fears that you had to over-
come to be able to take the risk. What were the negative consequences that you had
to consider might occur as a result of your decision to proceed? How would you
have dealt with those consequences if the risk had not been successful?
6.18. Just as Nokia made a “bad call” on smartphones, the imaging company Kodak made
a bad call on the digital camera. Kodak refused to move quickly into the digital cam-
era business and instead stuck with the traditional film market despite inventing key
digital camera technology. This decision to not move forward or take the risk of
entering the digital market early eventually landed the company in bankruptcy in
2012. Apply the four steps of overcoming the fear of failure to Kodak’s opportunity
to take a risk and move into the digital camera market.
FURTHER READING
Adams, James L. Conceptual Blockbusting: A Guide to Better Ideas, 3rd ed. Addison-Wesley,
Stanford, CA, 1986.
Von Oech, Roger. A Whack on the Side of the Head: How You Can Be More Creative, revised
edition. Warner Books, New York, 1990.
145
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FURTHER READING
Risk Taking
6.12. Identify a small, medium, and large risk you should take in the not-too-distant
future. Describe your fear of failure for each risk. Apply each of the items in the
table on overcoming the fear of failure.
6.13. Develop a scenario for what Xerox’s Alto System might have looked like if the
company had decided to use the items in the table on overcoming fear of failure
when deciding on this product’s future.
6.14. What lesson can you take away from the example of the Nokia smartphone and
tablet?
6.15. Describe some creative, but prudent, risks that you can take the next time that you
search for a new job.
6.16. Discuss some of the points you would consider as you decide whether a risk you are
contemplating is appropriate.
6.17. Think of a situation where you took a risk. Describe the fears that you had to over-
come to be able to take the risk. What were the negative consequences that you had
to consider might occur as a result of your decision to proceed? How would you
have dealt with those consequences if the risk had not been successful?
6.18. Just as Nokia made a “bad call” on smartphones, the imaging company Kodak made
a bad call on the digital camera. Kodak refused to move quickly into the digital cam-
era business and instead stuck with the traditional film market despite inventing key
digital camera technology. This decision to not move forward or take the risk of
entering the digital market early eventually landed the company in bankruptcy in
2012. Apply the four steps of overcoming the fear of failure to Kodak’s opportunity
to take a risk and move into the digital camera market.
FURTHER READING
Adams, James L. Conceptual Blockbusting: A Guide to Better Ideas, 3rd ed. Addison-Wesley,
Stanford, CA, 1986.
Von Oech, Roger. A Whack on the Side of the Head: How You Can Be More Creative, revised
edition. Warner Books, New York, 1990.
145
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134 CHAPTER 6 BREAKING DOWN THE BARRIERS TO GENERATING IDEAS
Improving Your Creative Abilities (Continued)
Learn about things outside your specialty.
S.i
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t+. , f r
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Use cross-fertilization to bring ideas and
concepts from one field or specialty to another.
Consider how different classes in school relate
to each other or how you can use your abilities
in one activity for another purpose. Cross-
fertilization is further examined in Chapter 7.
Avoid rigid, set patterns of doing things.
Overcome biases and preconceived notions by
looking at the problem from a fresh viewpoint,
always developing at least two or more alterna-
tive solutions to your problem.
Be open and receptive to ideas (yours and others).
444, ‘SAO’
• ‘fir!
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–
Rarely does an innovative solution or idea
arrive complete with all its parts ready to be
implemented. New ideas are fragile; keep them
from breaking by seizing the tentative, half-
formed concepts and possibilities and
developing them.
Be alert in your observations.
4
4
This principle is a key to successfully applying
the Kepner—Tregoe approaches discussed in
Chapter 8. Keep alert by looking for
similarities, differences, and unique and
distinguishing features in situations and
problems. The larger the number of relation-
ships you can identify, the better your chances
of generating original combinations and
creative solutions.
Learn to know and understand
0
yourself.
Deepen your self-knowledge by learning your
strengths, skills, weaknesses, dislikes, biases,
expectations, fears, and prejudices.
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RISK TAKING
Keep abreast of your field.
VAli[l
NIEW
Read the magazines, trade journals, and other
literature in your field to make sure you are not
using yesterday’s technology to solve today’s
problems.
Keep your sense of humor.
c You are more creative when you are relaxed.
Humor aids in putting your problems (and
yourself) in perspective. Many times it relieves
~” tension and makes you more relaxed.
Engage in creative hobbies.
Hobbies can also help you relax. Working
~►a
‘~
¡ puzzles and playing games both keep your
mind active. An active mind is necessary for
(‘~ creative growth.
Have courage and self-confidence.
Be a paradigm pioneer. Assume that you canr and will solve the problem as described in
Chapter 2. Don’t be afraid to take a risk. Persist
y. and have the tenacity to overcome obstacles
r = ,1 _ that block the solution pathway.
Adopt a risk-taking attitude.
•
Fear of failure is the major impediment to
generating solutions that are risky (i.e., have a
small chanc of succeeding) but would have a
major impact if they are successful. Outlining
‘~ ry the ways you could fail and then ways you
would deal with these failures will reduce this
obstacle to creativity. Some ways you can
practice risk taking are challenging established
patterns of doing business within your organi-
zation, trying a new sport, singing at a karaoke
Z~ bar, or volunteering to organize a group activity.
RISK TAKING
We just saw in the table “Improving Your Creative Abilities” that risk taking is
important for improving your creativity. What are risks? Risks are actions, with no
certainty of succeeding, which require significant effort, resources, and/or time.
135
New folder/Homework 5 x
Homework 5
Assignment:
Complete the following numbered problems from our textbook, “Strategies for Creative Problem Solving”: 6.9, 6.10, and 6.14 (on page 144-145) using MS Word or equivalent. Write your answers in Short Essay Format. Be sure to explain your steps, strengths, and weaknesses in your answers for 6.9 and 6.10. Minimum response length is 2 pages, maximum length is 3 pages.
Formatting:
– Use black text only.
– Text size needs to be 12 point size.
– Text needs to be double spaced.
– Margins on the document should be 1’’ on all sides.
– The following name block should appear in the upper right of your document:
Your Name
TECH 330 –Technology Problem Analysis I
November 1, 2013
– Title of your document is “Homework 5.”
– Paragraphs should have correct indentation.
– Please spell check and proofread your work.
– Please add page numbers to your document.
Content:
Opinion: When a question asks for your opinion, its answer is exactly that-
your opinion. Feel free to use
your own opinion.
Cite Examples: For this class, you may use a citation right after the answer to a question, or you may list your references at the end of the project. It is not required to have a separate reference page for this class.
Stating the Question before Answering It: While some reports require that you state the question before your answer, in
this class it is not required to do this.
Pictures: Resist the temptation for using pictures in your projects for this class unless it is required. Instead, focus on your writing abilities.
