It seems as though the more divergent approaches are about ‘real creativity’ making novel ideas and having bright ideas.\u00a0 However, these ideas need to be evaluated, filtered, clarified and modified before they can become a workable solution.\u00a0 A creative idea is both novel and useful.\u00a0 In fact we’ll also find that this more structured convergent thinking also establishes the fertile ground for further inspirations \u2013 divergence and convergence are not so much separate phases as mutually reinforcing processes.<\/p>\n
In this first of two lessons on convergent thinking we’ll look at the way you can uncovering tacit knowledge and develop a rich vocabulary of the criteria, dimensions and attributes of your problem domain.\u00a0 Many of the techniques involve finding examples of past systems or new ideas, and then examining distinctions between them.\u00a0 The resulting vocabulary is essential not nly in allowing you discuss problems and potential solutions with colleagues and clients, but also to think more clearly about them yourself.<\/p>\n
Being divergent is obviously creative, but isn’t convergent thinking just boring?<\/p>\n
In this section we\u2019ll explore the different roles that divergent and convergent thinking play in creating innovate solutions.<\/p>\n
The techniques we have discussed previously have been focused centrally on the divergent, ideation phase of creativity.\u00a0 However, this must feed into a more convergent phase of reflection and selection.\u00a0 It is the interplay of these more exploratory and analytic activities that allows us to build a \u2018map\u2019 of out design space and hence identify creative solutions that are both novel and fit for purpose.<\/p>\n