What barriers blocked the process?
The essential part of creativity is not being afraid to fail. Edwin H. Land
Creativity requires the courage to let go of certainties. Erich Fromm
The role of coaching will need to aware and eliminate the blockages of creativity, so that it will help the client to smooth the way to have open mind for creativity (7). The classifications of blocks are varied, see some examples:
China’s high GDP anyone doing anything… encounter a problematic situation…new techniques while find which gets
- Why is creativity sometimes missing in life?
- What sort of thinking hinders people from creativity?
- How can coaching help?
- What are some creative tools that can help people envision and plan their goals? one applies to the individual and the organization.
Perceptual Blocks:
- Many people avoid or deny problems until it’s too late, largely because these people have never learned the appropriate responses. A problem is an opportunity. Thus, they prevent problem recognition, deny and limiting the problem. E.g. “it is not a problem”
- Inability to see problems from different perspectives e.g. “it is impossible”
- Stereotyping, missing the connections or associations. E.g. “I can’t believe he said that,” or “Imagine her doing that,”
- Not thinking outside the box. e.g. “it is nothing I can do”
Emotional Blocks (most are attitudinal or psychological):
- Prejudice. The older people/senior level managers will the more preconceived ideas they have about things. These preconceptions often prevent them from seeing beyond what they already know or believe to be possible. This prejudice inhibits people from accepting change and progress.
- Fear of failure. It can paralyze the people and will lead to procrastination and project abandonment. E.g.” I might fail”
- Learned helplessness. They think small and limit themselves. E.g. “It can’t be done”
- Fear of fun. They believe it is childish and a waste of time.
- Fear of uncertainties. They feel uncomfortable to discover the unknown world.
- Fear of abandonment. Some people have stronger need to conform and avoid deviating from normal path. It is more common in Chinese culture E.g. “how will other people think?’
- Judging rather than generating ideas like, E.g “Oh, that won’t work”, “We have tried that before. It didn’t work out well”
- “Can’t do” mindset. People will avoid of problem because it is easier to say. This is an attitude with assumption that something cannot be done or a problem cannot be solved. This is typical style for people working in China national owned enterprise e.g. “Don’t’ ask me”, “asking someone else”.
Cultural Blocks:
- The education and cultural background will bring up these beliefs. Sometimes people remain firmly grounded in many of the traditions and beliefs that have shaped their way of doing thing. E.g. “it is not accept by our tradition”, “Fantasies or dreams are for crazy people”.
Environmental Blocks:
- Some external factors include the working atmosphere, amount of stress on individual, organizational culture, supervisory practices and even the physical surroundings of the workspace.
- Blockages can also arise from physical and mental exhaustion, such as people think it is lack of corporation and trust among colleagues, bosses who practice autocratic management or too many distractions with surrounding noise pollution, furthermore, the ideas will be blocked if there is lack of financial and top management support to bring ideas to implementation
Intellectual/Conceptual Blocks
- With limited exposure or experience, some managers will fail to understand and acknowledge problems that need to be solved. They even no aware of problem. “I don’t know”