Learn to Pull Down Walls That Choke Off Creativity by Morrey Stettner .........................................................................................................

If you want to upgrade your creativity, sweep away walls that interfere. Many obstacles threaten to undermine your imaginative powers.
"Your work environment needs to stimulate creative thoughts, " said Alexander Hiam, a trainer and business consultant at Trainer's Spectrum in Amherst, Mass. "All of us have a space — emotionally and physically — where we're at our best creatively."
Your workplace, from the color scheme to the people you're around, can activate or deaden your creativity. Similarly, your thought process can work for or against you. Once you gain awareness of how these factors influence your thinking, you can overcome barriers so your mind runs wild.
Hiam identifies some common roadblocks to creativity:

• Bipolar thinking. If you look at an issue strictly in terms of yes/no or right/wrong, you suffocate your imagination. Try to add options rather than limit yourself to just two. If you're weighing whether to lease or buy a building, for example, consider other choices such as set up virtual offices or joining an incubator.
  Get in the habit of generating at least 10 options even if some seem off the wall, Hiam says. Outlandish ideas can spark your most creative output.
  
• Rigid group decision-making. In many organizations, teams reach consensus by constantly narrowing their focus. They arrive at quick decisions by limiting debate. Hiam suggests a different track: an "open-close process."
  Open the floor to free-flowing brainstorming for, say, 30 minutes. Then take 10 minutes to divide everyone into breakout teams. Have each group identify three favorite ideas and rate them on a 1-to-10 scale.
  "Keep shifting from open activities to close activities" that reach conclusions, Hiam said.
  
• Overstress on rewards. To stoke creativity, a well-intentioned boos may dangle incentives to employees who come up with the most imaginative insights. That's a mistake, Hiam says.
  Research shows that workers are more creative if they are not promised rewards. That's because the pressure to "win" can stifle thei incentiveness. Their eagerness to earn incentives can also exacerbate their fear of failure or defeat.
  "Don't set up a process where competing teams battle it out for a prize," Hiam said. "You'll get a lot of effort, but very little creativity."
• Physical discomfort. If you're uncomfortable, that can kill your creativity. Some managers mistakenly assume it's better to "tough it out", Hiam said. But if you're huddled in a dark, cramped room with construction noise nearby or other distractions, results can suffer.
  Sleep deprivation also reduces creativity. Resolving conflicts requires creative problem solving, but tempers often flare when combatants don't get enough sleep, Hiam says.

Encouraging playfulness, open-mindedness and empathy maximizes creative thought. It throws open the floodgates to innovation. It also helps to gather diverse sources of input rather than sticking to just one data set, Hiam says.