Conceptual Blockbusting or a guide to a better ideas by James L.Adams - November 2002
The book is dealing with ways to improve one creativity and thinking
potential. Despite being relatively thin the book is highly advisable.
Together with explanation there are a number of exercises. As it goes: "no
pain no gain" or in other words, you have to exercise if you want to improve.
Reading about creative thinking wont make any difference, but doing the
training might. Go ahead and try. Below is the highly compressed list of
points from the book. its more for those that read it.
1. Identify your problem
2. Don't delimit the problem too closely
3. Look at the problem from a different points of view
4. Avoid seeing what you expect to see (stereotyping)
5. Be aware of saturation (looking at things upside-down)
6. Utilize all sensory inputs, don't be satisfied with visual/audio data only.
Cultural blocks:
1. Taboos
2. Humor in problem-solving
3. Reason and intuition
4. Left-handed and right-handed thinking.
5. Traditions
Emotional blocks:
1. Fear of taking risk
2. No appetite for chaos
3. Judging rather than generating ideas
4. Inability to incubate
5. Lack of challenge and excessive zeal
6. Reality and fantasy
Intellectual and Expressive blocks:
1. Choose your expressive language
2. Flexibility in the use of strategies
Conscious block-busting:
1. A questioning attitude
2. Fluency and flexibility of thinking
3. Thinking aids: list for example
