Conceptual Blockbusting:
A Guide to Better Ideas
by James L. Adams
Review by David E. Goldberg
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
deg@uiuc.edu
Text
• Adams, J. L. (1986).
Conceptual
blockbusting: A guide
to better ideas (3rd
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:
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–
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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
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–
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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
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•
•
•
•
•
•
•
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:
–
–
–
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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
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•
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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:
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–
–
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Personal analogy
Direct analogy
Symbolic analogy
Fantasy analogy