Roger von Oech has identified 10 mental blocks to creativity The following information is taken from his book

Mental Blocks 1.The right answer 2.That’s not logical 3.Follow the rules 4.Be practical 5.Play is frivolous 6.That’s not my area 7.Don’t be foolish 8.Avoid ambiguity 9.To err is wrong 10.I’m not creative

Take a blank sheet of paper and write the words ‘Soft’ on the top left and ‘Hard’ on the top right. Which column would you place the concepts that appear on the next slide?

Logic Metaphor Dream Reason Precision Humor Consistency Ambiguity Play Work Exact Approximate Direct Focused Fantasy Reality Paradox Diffuse Analysis Hunch Generalization Specifics Child Adult

Soft –Metaphor –Dream –Humor –Ambiguity –Play –Approximate –Fantasy –Paradox –Diffuse –Hunch –Generalization –Child Hard –Logic –Reason –Precision –Consistency –Work –Exact –Reality –Direct –Focused –Analysis –Specific –Adult

That’s not logical Things on the hard side have a definite right and wrong answer; on the soft side, there may be many right answers. On the hard side, things are black and white; on the soft side there are many shades of gray. Soft thinking has many of the characteristics on the ‘Soft’ list. Where do you use soft and hard thinking? To answer this question, we should turn to the creative process. There are two main phases in the development of new ideas; an ‘imaginative’ phase and a ‘practical’ one.

Two sides of the brain

That’s not logical Some people, however, have little use for soft thinking. Their feeling toward it is “that’s not logical.” When faced with a problem, they immediately bring in their hard thinking strategies. “If someone says he has learned to think, most of us assume that he means he has learned to think logically.” — Edward de Bono

That’s not logical Metaphors help us to understand one idea by means of another. The key to metaphorical thinking is similarity. In fact, this is how our thinking grows: we understand the unfamiliar by means of the similarities it has with what is familiar to us. For example, what were the first automobiles called?.. “horseless carriages.”... first locomotives... “iron horses” We refer to resemblances between things all of the time. We say that hammers have “heads,” tables have “legs,” roads have “shoulders,” cities have “hearts,” and beds have “feet.” It’s all very soft, but it is how we think.

What is the meaning of life? Exercise: Make a metaphor for life

Examples from Roger von Oech’s workshop participants Life is like a bagel. It’s delicious when it’s fresh and warm, but often it’s just hard. The hole in the middle is its great mystery, and yet it wouldn’t be a bagel without it. Life is like eating a grapefruit. First you have to break through the skin; then it takes a couple of bites to get used to the taste, and just as you begin to enjoy it, it squirts you in the eye. Life is like a jigsaw puzzle, but you don’t have the picture on the front of the box to know what it’s supposed to look like. Sometimes, you’re not even sure if you have all the pieces. Life is like a maze in which you try to avoid the exit.

What do you think life is like?

That’s not logical