Y Talk: Functional Fixedness by Justin Rose

Recently, I had the fortune to attend a YMCA training with 12 other YMCA professionals from around the state. Each of us had our own specialties or areas within our respective Ys and brought our own unique Y perspective to the table. The training itself was valuable; we learned many important tools to aid us in our continuing Y careers. However, something amazing and organic happened at this training. I’m happy to say that it was not unique to this particular training and happens often, yet I have never had a name for this phenomenon until now. Functional fixedness. I bet you are scratching your head right now. Functional fixedness? That doesn’t sound like a very valuable tool; in fact it probably sounds like a diagnosis. However, I would wager that you and most everyone you know has fallen victim to this phenomenon at one point or another.

Functional fixedness was made mainstream by the psychologist Karl Duncker who created a test to measure the influence of functional fixedness on a participant’s problem solving skills. In this particular test, subjects were presented with a box filled with tacks, a candle and a box of matches all of which were lying on a table. The subjects were asked to find a way to attach the candle to the wall and burn it without getting wax on the table. As you can guess, trying to attach the candle to the wall with the tacks is not the solution but, that might have been your first thought. Melting the side of the candle and attaching it to the wall is viable but, that still leaves wax on the table. Almost! Did you figure out the problem? If you said attach the box to the wall with the tacks and set the candle in the box, you are a mastermind!

So what does functional fixedness mean? Put simply, functional fixedness is our inability, or mental block, to see objects in a different way to solve problems. As with the experiment, many people could not see the box as anything more than a receptacle to hold the tacks. This was a mental block that did not allow the participants to use each object to its fullest extent and thus stopped the participants from solving the problem. This same concept happens in our everyday lives. In fact, this phenomena happens more than you might think. As we work with objects, people or places in specific singular ways to complete tasks we begin to block our minds from realizing the full potential of those objects, people or places. This becomes embarrassingly evident at trainings in which you have access to new perspectives of unique individuals. Problems or situations that you previously thought of as insurmountable are easy and ordinary for the next “unblocked” problem solvers. Your simple solution to the pool schedules on Tuesday or camp sign in procedures is the theory of relativity to your “blocked” colleague.

So next time you are stumped by a question, problem or situation take a moment and make sure you are not limiting your assets. Get an outside perspective and unblock your mind.

-by Justin Rose, Associate Executive Director