Barriers to creative thinking
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Blocks and Limiting Beliefs |
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Switch To Positive Attitude |
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Negative Attitude |
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The tendency to focus on the negative aspects of new ideas (too expensive – too difficult – we don’t have the knowledge/ skills / time / space – we can’t do it because…..etc) Instead of: How can we make this work or How can we achieve it? |
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Seek the inherent opportunities in the situation. Challenge yourself. |
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Fear of Failure |
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Fear of looking foolish or being laughed at. |
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Failure is a necessary condition of and a stepping stone to a new approach. |
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Executive Stress |
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Not having time to think creatively. The over-stressed person finds it difficult to think objectively at all. Stress reduces the quality of all mental processes. |
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Managing day-to-day operations is important, but it shoudn’t prevent new ideas and a fresh approach. |
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Following Rules |
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A tendency to conform to accepted patterns of belief or thought – the rules and limitations of the status quo – hampers creative thinking |
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Some rules are necessary, but others encourage mental laziness. "Every act of creation is first of all an act of destruction." – Pablo Picasso |
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Making Assumptions |
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Conscious and unconscious assumptions restrict creative thinking. |
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Identify and examine the assumptions you are making to ensure they are not excluding new ideas. Don’t be afraid of the unknown. Trust your own and others capability. |
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Over-reliance on Logic |
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Investing all your intellect into logical or analytical thinking – the step-by-step approach – excludes imagination, intuition, feeling or humour. |
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"Innovation is not the product of logical thought, although the result is tied to logical structure." – Albert Einstein. Innovation is looking with fresh (creative) eyes at old ways of doing and improving them. |

