Barriers
to creativity
Creativity
can be blocked for any one of several reasons:
- The
value of getting things right time can induce a fear of
mistakes and experimentation.
- So
can a blame culture where people become afraid of making
mistakes.
- Managers
who are not as secure as they should be can resist or block
ideas that are not their own or which they see as threatening.
- A
culture that over emphasizes cost containment, processes,
consistency or efficiency.
- A
reward system that too exclusively celebrates getting things
done fast with no mistakes.
- A
general fear of risk taking, wanting to analyze everything
to death, to wait and see what others do in the market before
acting.
- A
lack of explicit funding for experimentation.
- A
strict requirement to demonstrate the value of an idea before
it has a chance to prove itself.
- A
tendency to shoot down novel ideas as a way of scoring points.
- An
over allegiance to past successes, proven experience and
tried and tested methods.
- A
suspicion of novelty, a fear of the unproven.
- A
resistance to learning from mistakes or trial and error,
a tendency to blame external factors or other people for
failures rather than to learn from them.
- Short
termism - a drive to meet short term financial goals rather
than to invest in the future.
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