A driving lesson in creative thinking: Understanding divergent and convergent thinking

My daughter, Michaela, recently took her driver's license test. The first thing I taught her was about the accelerator and brake pedals. They can't be pushed at the same time! We learned this lesson the hard way when she panicked one day and pressed both pedals. The car lurched and stalled amongst much squealing of brakes and smoking of wheels. A memorable lesson indeed!

It's the same with our thinking. We have divergent thinking that opens up ideas (accelerator) and convergent thinking that selects and refines ideas (brake). They're both super important. The problem? We often try to use them simultaneously. While brainstorming new ideas (diverging), we're already evaluating and criticising them (converging). This shuts down the diverging process and is why we often get stuck on the same old ideas. Just like Michaela's driving adventure, trying to accelerate and brake at the same time leads to stalled progress and smoky confusion!

I'm thrilled to share that Michaela has mastered the art of balancing the accelerator and brake pedals, passed her driving test, and drove herself and her date to the Matric Dance!

The science behind thinking styles

Research shows that great creative problem-solving relies on separating  divergent and convergent thinking modes. A study by *Basadur and Hausdorf (1996) found that people who hold off on judging ideas too soon are often more innovative. They even created a tool to measure attitudes like openness to brainstorming and resisting the urge to critique too quickly. The takeaway? If you want better ideas, build a culture that values and protects the divergent thinking phase before engaging in convergent evaluation.

Does this sounds like your experience?

One of the leaders on our "Lead for Creative Thinking" course at GIBS, recently shared her experience of brainstorming with her team:

"Every time we work on a concept or proposal, we start with a brainstorm. But I’ve noticed we’ve fallen into a rut, recycling the same ideas. Since we’re so pressed for time, we tend to rush through the process. Often, people jump straight to judging ideas, which leads to a mental block we struggle to overcome. I plan to set the stage with clear guidelines to avoid early judgment and spark fresh, different ideas without shutting down the conversation before it even starts."

Divergent thinking guidelines

Alex Osborn and Sid Parnes provide Divergent Thinking Guidelines in their book, Visionizing.

1. Defer Judgement: this doesn’t mean you have no judgement. You will simply pause on the judgement and let the ideas flow, then analyse them later.
2. Combine and Build: use ideas as stepping stones to other ideas. Build on and improve ideas as you go.
3. Seek Wild Ideas: stretch yourself to come up with really ‘out-there’ ideas. Don’t let all your ideas be tame, practical, obvious and predictable.
4. Go for quantity: the more the better. Set a goal, such as 50 ideas in 7 minutes for your group, or 30 ideas in 7 minutes if you are on your own. (This also helps you defer judgement and get those ideas down.)

Discover your thinking style

A few years ago, we created a quiz to help people identify whether they're more divergent or convergent thinkers. This has become a crucial part of our work in developing creative thinking skills - thousands of people from around the world have taken the quiz since its creation!

Understanding your thinking preference is a great start to improving your creative problems solving skills. Knowing your preference is helpful because it allows you to:

• Recognise when to switch thinking modes
• Develop your less dominant style
• Enhance your problem-solving toolkit

Why don't you take the quiz yourself and find out your preference? We will send you some tips on how to develop each type.

Take the Quiz

Just like driving requires mastery of both the accelerator and brake, effective creative thinking needs both divergent and convergent thinking - just not at the same time!

Discover your unique creative thinking style with the Creative ID

To better understand and apply different thinking styles, we highly recommend the Creative ID™. This is a psychometric assessment which shows how (rather than if!) you are creative. The tool is developed by Danish innovator, Hanne Kristiansen in partnership with Dr. Kamal Birdi and his team at the University of Sheffield (UK). Creative ID™ is born in business and backed by science (rather than the other way round), making it a powerful impact-focused framework that equips individuals with the self-awareness needed to tackle even the toughest of work challenges.

To find out more about this framework and it can help you and your team leverage your creative intelligence, contact us on [email protected].

* Reference:

Basadur, M., & Hausdorf, P.A. (1996). Measuring Divergent Thinking Attitudes Related to Creative Problem Solving and Innovation Management