Top 5 hurdles in Creative thinking & how to tackle them ❓

Creative thinking is a structured process which involves breaking down all barriers and tackling the obstacles through out of the box & innovative thinking.

Let’s understand the top 5 hurdles in detail.

1. Ambiguous goals

It’s quite imperative that creative ideation process should address very specific goal or problem statement. If participants engage in the session without clear goals , the exercise will be quite unstructured & won’t bear fruits.

2. Narrow-Minded thinking

Overconfidence for the own ideas & disregarding other participants’ ideas leads to narrow minded approach since the person become ignorant to the fresh new ideas shared by the group. A disruptive thought process requires healthy participation with diverse set of ideas so always ensure that Brainthinking process is followed to generate ideas.

3. Heritage thinking

Usually it’s easy to fall into the trap of being complacent & restricting our vision. It is an outcome of being too familiar & restful with legacy way of problem solving. Questioning the status quo & asking tons of follow-up question is the modern way of creative thinking. With the rise of new age startups , the organization needs to be on their toes to thinking creative & work in an agile manner. For instance ,Nokia & Blackberry lost to Apple , Samsung & Oneplus . Nokia had a stock price of 60 Euros in 2000 & currently it is trading at 4 Euros only.

4. Avoid Idea killer statements

Igor Byttebier and Ramon Vullings recommended in their book “Creativity in Business: The Basic Guide for Generating and Selecting Ideas” to steer clear of the idea killer statements mentioned below : -

1. Yes, but…
2. It already exists!
3. Our customers won’t like that!
4. We don’t have time.
5. NO!
6. It’s not possible.
7. It’s too expensive!
8. Let’s be realistic.
9. That’s not logical.
10. We need to do more research.
11. There’s no budget.
12. I’m not creative.
13. We don’t want to make mistakes.
14. The management won’t agree.
15. Get real.
16. It’s not my responsibility.
17. It’s too difficult to master.
18. That’s too big a change.
19. The market is not ready yet.
20. Let’s keep it under consideration.
21. It is just like ______.
22. The older generation will not use it.
23. We are too small for that.
24. It might work in other places but not here.
25. Since when are you the expert?
26. That’s for the future.
27. There are no staff members available.
28. It is not suitable for our clients.

http://www.ideakillers.net/

5. Too much critique

Free flow of fresh ideas can only happen when the judgement of ideas has taken a back seat. The ideas should be allowed to express in their natural raw form without any requests for detailing or criticism. The ideas should be presented in a lucid manner so that participants understands it . Idea critique is encouraged in the later stages in a measured & controlled manner so as to ensure that there is a balance of quantity & quality of ideas.

Thanks for reading! If you’ve got ideas to contribute to this conversation please comment. If you like what you read and want to see more, clap me some love! Follow here, or connect with me on LinkedIn