Conceptual Blockbusting: A Guide to Better Ideas by James L. Adams Review by David E. Goldberg University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Text Adams, J. L. (1986). Conceptual blockbusting: A guide to better ideas (3 rd ed.). Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.

Premise & Organization Premise: Creativity thwarted by creative blocks. Organization –Types of blocks Perceptual Emotional Cultural/environmental Intellectual/expressive –Techniques: thinking languages, blockbusters, groups & organizations.

Perceptual Blocks Types of blocks: –Stereotypes: seeing what is familiar. –Isolating the problem. –Delimit problem to closely. –Inability to see problem from multiple vantage points. –Saturation. –Failure to use all senses.

Emotional Blocks Freud Humanistic psychologists Types of blocks –Fear of mistakes –Inability to tolerate ambiguity –Premature judgment –Inability to incubate –Lack of change or too much –Inability to distinguish reality from fantasy.

Freud Ego: socially aware Id: instinctive animal part Superego: moral arbiter Repression or neurosis of

Cultural Blocks Taboos Fantasy and reflections as waste Playfulness for children Problem solving is serious Reason, logic, numbers, utility, practicality good. Feelings, intuition, qualitative judgment bad Tradition preferable to change Problems solved with mucho dinero

Environmental Blocks Lack of trust and cooperation among colleagues. Autocratic boss Distractions Lack of support

Intellectual Blocks Using improper language Inflexible or inadequate strategies Lack of or incorrect information Inadequate language skill

Expressive Blocks Inability to express ideas with language or in pictures. Inability to write or draw. Foreign language, convey technical thought to nontechnical audience.

Alternate Thinking Languages Visual thinking Other sensory thoughts

Blockbusters Role of questions Fluency and flexibility: quantity and diversity. Aids: –Morphologically forced connections –Bug list –Check list –Unconscious blockbusting

Morphologically Forced Connection Make attribute list Make alternatives attribute by attribute Select interesting combinations.

Bug List Establish a specific need Make a list of things that aren’t quite right in the world. Fluency and flexibility important in list generation.

Osborn’s Check List Put to other uses? Adapt? Modify? Magnify? Minimize? Substitute? Rearrange? Reverse? Combine?

Unconscious Blockbusting Postpone judgment (VoJ). Let id-ego interact to solve problems. Synectics analogy: –Personal analogy –Direct analogy –Symbolic analogy –Fantasy analogy