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Why Divergent and Convergent Thinking?

Separating divergent and convergent thinking is a critical component of CPS. It can also be quite challenging to do well. Divergent thinking opens up possibilities by encouraging imaginative, unfiltered exploration (Osborn, 1953). Convergent thinking then narrows and refines those possibilities based on agreed-upon criteria (Isaksen et al., 2011). By intentionally alternating between these two modes of thinking, teams minimize the risk of groupthink, push past obvious ideas, and still arrive at practical outcomes. We will help keep your team (and you!) in the righting thinking mode for each activity.

1. Clarify

Purpose: Build a shared understanding of the challenge and decide where to focus creative efforts.

1. Divergent Activities:

   • Fact-Finding & Perspective Gathering: Encourage the broad collection of data, insights, and stakeholder views. Teams might individually brainstorm any and all facts, opinions, or constraints.
   • Open-Ended Problem Exploration: Use prompts like “How Might We…?” to frame the problem in multiple ways and spot hidden angles or deeper causes.

2. Convergent Activities:

   • Problem Definition: Sort and synthesize gathered information, discarding tangential ideas so the group can converge on a clear problem statement (Isaksen et al., 2011).
   • Success Criteria: Agree on what “success” looks like: budgets, deadlines, quality measures, or intangible measures (e.g., improved morale).

Why It Matters:
This blend of open exploration and deliberate focusing ensures the real issue is properly scoped. Without clarifying, teams often brainstorm solutions for the wrong problems—a pitfall CPS seeks to avoid (Puccio et al., 2011).

2. Ideate

Purpose: Generate a broad range of potential solutions and then select the best avenues to pursue.

1. Divergent Activities:

   • Brainstorming & Mind Mapping: Encourage big, bold, and even wild ideas—suspending judgment ensures you don’t limit creativity at this critical stage (Osborn, 1953).
   • Forced Connections or Analogies: Teams look beyond typical channels by connecting the challenge to unrelated fields or experiences, sparking novel insights.

2. Convergent Activities:

   • Initial Idea Screening: Sort ideas against basic feasibility or alignment with organizational values.
   • Hits, Clusters, and Highlights: Group similar ideas and highlight the most promising ones, ensuring you capture the diversity of perspectives while also filtering based on the criteria set in Clarify.

Why It Matters:
Expansive thinking (divergent) fuels innovation; targeted selection (convergent) keeps your team from being overwhelmed by possibility. Balancing these two mindsets produces a high-value set of concepts to refine (Parnes, 1967).

3. Develop

Purpose: Strengthen, refine, and test the feasibility of ideas so they can become real-world solutions.

1. Divergent Activities:

   • Concept Strengthening: Brainstorm ways to improve or adapt an already promising idea—look for synergy between multiple concepts to create a stronger hybrid solution (Isaksen et al., 2011).
   • Assumption-Digging: Challenge the status quo by questioning implicit assumptions or the “rules” behind each idea. New angles often appear.

2. Convergent Activities:

   • Evaluation & Prototyping: Apply frameworks like PPCO (Pluses, Potentials, Concerns, Overcoming concerns) to refine the idea. Low-fidelity prototypes can make abstract solutions more tangible.
   • Prioritization & Selection: Systematically evaluate ideas against cost, time, and impact criteria to converge on the most robust concepts.

Why It Matters:
Refining ideas is where real-world constraints meet creative possibilities. This back-and-forth flow between broad exploration (diverge) and critical selection (converge) helps teams shape and validate solutions with confidence (Puccio et al., 2011).

4. Implement

Purpose: Move from plan to action, ensuring your best ideas yield tangible outcomes and organizational impact.

1. Divergent Activities:

   • Action Strategy Brainstorm: Explore multiple ways to deploy the solution—different rollout plans, resource allocations, or stakeholder engagement methods.
   • Risk Identification: Brainstorm potential setbacks or failure points so you can build contingencies into the final plan.

2. Convergent Activities:

   • Action Planning & Sequencing: Identify milestones, assign responsibilities, and align on timelines. Standard project management or agile methods can help converge on a structured rollout strategy.
   • Measurement & Integration: Determine how to measure impact. By converging on clear metrics, teams can track success and make adjustments post-launch.

Why It Matters:
A solid plan, combined with stakeholder buy-in and well-defined metrics, transforms the best ideas into real-world successes. Maintaining both creativity (to adapt on the fly) and focus (to stay on time and budget) ensures solutions deliver lasting value (Isaksen et al., 2011).

Why Does CPS Work?

1. Evidence-Based: Grounded in decades of research (Osborn, 1953; Parnes, 1967; Isaksen et al., 2011), CPS reliably fosters innovative outcomes.
2. Balanced Thinking: Purposeful alternation between divergent and convergent activities in each stage keeps teams from either running wild or getting stuck in analysis paralysis.
3. People-Centric: CPS aligns with organizational dynamics (e.g., Goran Ekvall’s 10 Dimensions of Creative Climate), acknowledging that a supportive environment fuels creative and effective teamwork.
4. Adaptive: CPS can integrate with Lean/Six Sigma, Appreciative Inquiry, Design Thinking, and other frameworks, making it a versatile choice for complex organizational challenges.

Ready to Innovate?

Our facilitated CPS sessions combine structure with creativity, helping you discover and implement truly novel solutions to your organization’s toughest problems. Contact Us to learn more about how we can guide your team through each stage, from Clarify to Implement, balancing divergent exploration with convergent decision-making for real impact.

References

• Isaksen, S. G., Dorval, K. B., & Treffinger, D. J. (2011). Creative Approaches to Problem Solving: A Framework for Innovation and Change (3rd ed.). Sage.
• Osborn, A. F. (1953). Applied Imagination: Principles and Procedures of Creative Thinking. Scribner.
• Parnes, S. J. (1967). Creative behavior guidebook. Scribner.
• Puccio, G. J., Mance, M., & Murdock, M. C. (2011). Creative Leadership: Skills that Drive Change. SAGE Publications.