decisions

They were learning to draw, the Dormouse went on,
yawning and rubbing its eyes, for it was getting very sleepy,
'and they drew all manner of things - everything that begins with an M----'
'Why with an M?' said Alice.
'Why not?' said the March Hare.
Lewis Carroll

The Lilliputians see their world as the only world. They are unable to regard their laws and rules, which are very strict but not very well adhered to, otherwise than from their own small and limited universe. So their decisions are taken on basis of incomplete information. Gulliver leaves this country because he disappointed with their way of life, His pride makes him think humans are better.
Yet, post-Swiftian research has shown that people can collect only limited information for optimal decision-taking. Only a limited number of alternatives with regard to possible action are investigated. Perhaps we should ask more often Why not?'
Here we find another area where creative thinking will considerably improve opportunities. People are poorly equipped to judge the consequences of their actions. As Herbert Simon argued: organizations can never be perfectly rational, because their members have limited information-processing abilities. People
(a) usually have to act on the basis of incomplete information about possible courses of action and their consequences,
(b) are able to explore only a limited number of alternatives relating to any given decision, and
(c) are unable to attach accurate values to outcomes.

In contrast to the assumptions made in economics about the optimizing behaviour of individuals, Simon concluded that individuals and organizations settle for a "bounded rationality" of "good enough" decisions based on simple rules of thumb and limited search and information.
This book regards the way to creativity as breaking out a psychic prison.
Conformity makes people often become prisoners of the their own schemes: the organisations and situations. Organisations are abstract notions (psychic phenomena) created and sustained by conscious and unconscious processes. Often people can become imprisoned by the images, ideas, thoughts and actions to which these processes give rise. Man can be imprisoned or limited by his own images or worldview (cf. energy control).
This idea was first explored in Plato's Republic, Socrates' cave. The allegory pictures an underground cave with its mouth open toward the light of a blazing fire. Within the cave people are chained so that they cannot move. They can only see the cave wall directly in front of them. This is illuminated by the light of the fire, which throws shadows of people and objects onto the wall. The cave dwellers think the shadows are reality, naming them, talking about them, and even link sounds from outside the cave with the movements on the wall. Truth and reality for the prisoners are in this shadowy world, because they have no knowledge of any other. However, as Socrates relates, if one of the inhabitants were allowed to leave the cave, he would realize that the shadows are but dark reflections of a more complex reality, and that the knowledge and perceptions of his fellow cave dwellers are distorted and full of errors. If he were then to return to the cave, he would never be able to live in the old way, since for him the world would be a different place. If he were to try and share his knowledge with his fellow prisoners, he would be ridiculed for his views.
This is Socrates' way of explaining the subjective experience of individuals of reality, a reality they have created themselves. This book calls this abstract looking as opposed to concrete looking. The cave dwellers have an abstract view and project this onto reality, the man who has seen reality is the concrete looker, but more often than not the abstract lookers do not want to accept this, as it endangers their own 'easy, normal' way of life. People in everyday life are trapped by illusions, therefore the way they perceive reality is full of errors and limited. By realizing this we can make an effort to become free (and leave the cave) of the imperfect ways of seeing things.Breaking free of the bonds requires much creativity.

The way these traps can work is shown in the following instances:
Trapped by success: Following the OPEC crisis of 1973 the Japanese car-manufacturers began to make massive inroads on the North American market. The American success of big gas-guzzlers meant that it took years to be able to meet the Japanese challenge.
Trapped by organizational slack: "Create certainty" was the slogan for many years and therefore one always had buffer stocks of inventory, quality control systems, which all had led to an institutionalized form of inefficiency. Many firms are now aiming for "zero inventory", "JIT" and "zero defects". This actually means learning to deal with uncertainty.
Trapped by group processes: "Groupthink" Strong leaders tend to group around them followers. These followers find it difficult to "express doubts" and therefore tend to advise what they think the leader "wants" to hear. Examples are: Pearl Harbor, the abortive Pig Bay invasion in 1961, the Falklands War.

Although the picture may look rather exaggerated this is certainly not the case when we consider organizations and people caught up by the unconscious. Plato saw the road to enlightenment in searching for objective knowledge, psycho-analysis sees the liberation in knowledge of the self.

Creativity = knowing your strengths and weaknesses