divergent thinking:
- There is no room for ambiguity.
- You tend to find solutions more quickly.
- Perfect for linear processes and organization.
- It allows you to align teams, plan projects, and create workflows in the most efficient way possible.
- It’s a straight-to-the-point kind of approach to problem-solving.
What is the difference between divergent and convergent thinking?
Use convergent and divergent thinking for creative problem solving
- Discover: Divergent thinking. The first stage of creative problem solving is discovery, and in this stage, you’ll need to use divergent thinking.
- Define: Convergent thinking. Use convergent thinking when narrowing down the potential causes of your problem. ...
- Deduce: Divergent thinking. ...
- Determine: Convergent thinking. ...
How to encourage divergent thinking?
- Provide worksheets that ask students to “complete the picture.” This is probably one of the easiest divergent thinking exercises for elementary kids. ...
- Make Thinking Hats. Using different colored construction paper, show the kids how to make hats that represent different types of thinking by color. ...
- Re-imagine ordinary objects. ...
How to teach convergent and divergent thinking?
convergent thinking in which learners critically sift through the collection of possible solutions by considering realistic limitations and feasibility, comparing positive and negative attributes, and evaluating for usefulness. Divergent thinking unfolds and broadens; convergent thinking narrows down and focuses, filtering the set of
How does divergent thinking work?
The Scamper technique
- Substitute one element of that idea for another. ...
- Now combine everything (What can we do to make our work more fun?)
- Adapt it (What do people do to be less stressed at other workplaces?)
- Modify it (How can we work without becoming stressed?)
- Give it other uses (What is there at work that I could do in a more fun way?)
Why is divergent thinking a critical skill?
[3] Divergent thinking can lead to creativity as students come up with more unique solutions. Likewise, encouraging creativity in your students can lead them to consider divergent answers to their problems. Studies also suggest that, as a whole, children have stronger divergent thinking skills than adults.
Why is divergent and convergent thinking important?
Convergent thinking helps to find out the best possible answer to any problem, which are accurate most of the time, and no room for ambiguity is left. Although Divergent thinking keeps the options open, a completely accurate answer isn't identified.
How is divergent thinking useful for creativity?
Divergent thinking refers to the creative solutions you could find for a problem. This type of thinking allows for more freedom and helps you generate more than one solution by typically using brainstorming as the cognitive method.
What is more important convergent thinking or divergent thinking?
Divergence and convergence are essentially flexible and focused types of thinking. Flexible thinking (divergence) is better suited for creative problem-solving, while focused thinking (convergence) is better suited for executing plans. Divergent and convergent thinking should ideally both be used, but at different ...
How divergent thinking can help us becoming out of the box?
Divergent thinking is a kind of “out of the box” thinking that allows people to come up with new and alternative solutions. It's also about seeing things from a new and unique perspective and thinking in an open-minded way. It is a thought process that challenges the norm and opens up possibilities for new ideas.
What is the best example of divergent thinking?
An example of divergent thinking is taking a pile of blocks and using them to create as many designs as you can. While divergent and convergent thinking are contrasting thought processes, teams often use these two methods together to achieve results.
What does divergent thinking rely on?
Although the two thinking processes vastly differ, divergent thinking relies on convergent thinking to arrive at a solution. Successful problem solvers confront a problem in which creative ideas are copious, yet they narrow down their chosen solution through convergent thinking.
How is divergent thinking used in the classroom?
Another way divergent thinking is used in the classroom is asking questions that require students to think about a topic in a different way. For example, teachers can ask students to think about how the world would be different if the Internet had been available two hundred years ago.
What is the role of divergent thinking mode in the opportunity searching phase of establishing a business enterprise?
The benefit of divergent thinking is that it encourages people to think from multiple perspectives to open theoretically limitless options, followed by sense-making, ultimately resulting in more innovative solutions or breakthrough possibilities to address the challenge at hand.
Why is convergent thinking important?
Convergent thinking is a vital tool that allows business leaders to make important decisions in a timely fashion. This mode of thinking leads to solutions by using known criteria to transform ideas into actionable steps.
What is divergent thinking?
In traditional society, we are discouraged from divergent thinking. As early as primary education, there’s a bold line between doing what’s right and what’s “wrong”. All that this “wrong” is the refusal to conform to what others consider to be normal.
Is creativity an abstract concept?
Creativity should not be treated as some abstract concept but rather the norm. Everyone benefits from divergent thinking, and it's a skill that, once obtained, will serve as a valuable asset for decades to come. It's a sought-after skill in the workforce and essential to entrepreneurs.
Why is divergent thinking important?
Divergent thinking is important in today’s modern world. In a society accustomed to mimicking similar skills, there comes a time when large companies begin to value other skills. Other dimensions that bring ingenuity and vitality to their projects. Thus, a person capable of offering innovation and creativity can make an attractive candidate.
What is divergent thinking?
Divergent Thinking: What It Is and How to Develop It. Divergent thinking, or lateral thinking, is about generating multiple creative solutions to the same problem. It is a spontaneous, fluid, non-linear mental approach based on curiosity and nonconformity. In fact, it is also a type of thinking very common in children, where joy, imagination, ...
What are the four areas of divergent thinking?
Like we said, all of us, regardless of age, can practice and improve our divergent thinking. To do so, we will focus on four areas in particular: Fluency: the ability to produce a large number of ideas. Flexibility: the ability to create a wide variety of ideas based on different fields of knowledge. Originality: the ability to create innovative ...
Why are some people capable of coming up with multiple answers and ingenious ideas?
However, some people are capable of coming up with multiple answers and ingenious ideas because they are good at what Edward de Bono calls “lateral thinking”. To understand how this works a little better, let’s see what kind of psychological processes come into play.
What is the purpose of synectics?
J. Gordon. Basically, it means being able to find connections and relationships between concepts, objects, and ideas that seem unrelated. This exercise takes a lot of mental work.
What is the key to the creation of an idea?
The most ingenious people use tree-like thought processes. In other words, they are making connections in both sides of the brain, not just one. “Imagination is the beginning of creation.
Why do we use our whole brain?
Because actually it is a very nuanced process. We can’t see the brain as an entity with clearly separated areas. In fact, when generating an idea, whether it is ingenious, conservative, logical, or highly creative, we use our whole brain. The key lies is in how we connect one idea to another.
What is divergent thinking?
Divergent thinking, often referred to as lateral thinking, is the process of creating multiple, unique ideas or solutions to a problem that you are trying to solve. Through spontaneous, free-flowing thinking, divergent thinking requires coming up with many different answers or routes forward.
Why dismissing the first idea?
By dismissing the first idea, teams are encouraged to think outside the box and exercise their creativity. This encourages teamwork as they compare ideas and collectively work towards one goal, boosting team morale.
What is design thinking?
First, clearly describe and define the problem itself including the outcomes you want to affect and change.
What is good design?
Good design in my opinion, addresses real problems for actual people and can be quantified by tangible measurable outcomes. Design does not exist for its own sake. It’s contextual and measurable and it answers questions. Which sets it clearly apart from art, which purpose is primarily to ask questions.
Convergent thinking
Convergent Thinking is also known as logical thinking or vertical thinking. It often is used when applying a set of operations or working off a list. It aims to find one solution to one problem. We see convergent thinking in data-focused teams, where they struggle with more of the freeform divergent thinking skills.
Divergent Thinking
Divergent thinking is the opposite of convergent thinking. It is creative, fluid thinking that finds connections between seemingly unrelated ideas. It is mostly used in creative-driven teams who may need to think about all the possible solutions to one problem.
Encouraging Lateral Thinking
Lateral thinking is using both divergent thinking and convergent thinking. We encourage lateral thinking internally and externally with our team and clients. This allows us to think creatively about the problems at hand and find unique “out of the box” solutions.
