 Basic
Idea Generating
The bottom line to a successful idea-generating
process is to honor the voices in the
room and to use different thinking styles.
That’s right, intermix the different
temperament patterns as well as the divergent
perceiving and convergent judging focuses
and activities.
Alex
Osborn, the advocate of brainstorming,
compared divergent and convergent thinking
to driving a car. Imagine, he said, that
when you are using divergent thinking,
your foot is on the gas pedal, all the
way to the floor. There are no obstacles,
and the roads are in perfect condition.
The ideas flow.
When
using convergent thinking, it’s as
if your foot is on the brake, evaluating,
selecting, and judging ideas.
His
point was this: it is critical to facilitate
creative thinking by honoring both processes
and keeping them separate. If you don’t,
it’s as if you had your foot on the
gas pedal and the brake at the same time.
You wouldn’t get very far, and it
wouldn’t be good for the transmission
either.
In
essence, from a psychological type perspective,
Osborn said to honor the perceiving processes
and then honor the judging processes.
First, generate information and ideas
using Si, Se, Ni, and Ne, and then call
on Ti, Te, Fi, and Fe for making decisions.
Divergent
thinking. Convergent thinking. Sounds
simple, and sometimes it’s challenging.
By
using divergent and convergent thinking,
you are asking people to stretch from
their comfort zone.For
them to do that, they need to trust you.
With the tools provided in this book,
along with the right attitude of honoring
the many voices of creativity, you will
succeed in building trust in your abilities
to guide the process for generating new
ideas that will become useful. And with
that trust will come commitment for doing
a good job, confidence in the creativity
of yourself and others, competency in
using the tools and methods, and capability
to use the right techniques at the right
time.
Step
1: Divergent Thinking
Here are some examples of divergent thinking
triggers:
- List all the
uses you can think of for a shoe.
- Generate meanings
for a nutshell.
- List all the
resources available for your next project.
- Make as many
sentences as you can using all of the
following words: candle, hope, tissue,
egg.
Notice
how each is an open-ended exercise. No
evaluation is required or asked for. None
of the questions asked you to meet any
criteria whatsoever. The responses are
free from any restriction, even if they
are outside the parameters you perceive
in the question. That’s an important
point.
Generally,
though, we unconsciously know there are
“right” answers and that there
is only one right answer to every question.
To truly appreciate the gift of divergent
thinking, a change of attitude is required.
People need to be open to the idea that
there may be many “right” answers.
The goal of
using divergent thinking is to generate
as many potential “right” answers
as possible. In order to do this, the
potential “wrong” answers must
be included. One of the benefits of using
divergent thinking is knowing that in
the second phase, during convergent thinking,
the best responses will be selected and
ideas not worth considering will be left
behind, modified, or saved for later.
How
do you get outrageous ideas? Ask for them!
Research conducted in the ’50s showed
that when idea-generating participants
are asked to generate outrageous ideas,
they do. When they are not asked for outrageous
ideas, they are not as likely to offer
them up. Try it out, and see for yourself.
Step
2: Convergent Thinking
Here are some examples to demonstrate
convergent thinking.
- Which shoe idea
is the most novel?
- Rank your meanings
of the nutshell from the most personally
meaningful to the least.
- Select the resources
that are most challenging to maintain.
- Of all the sentences
you made, which is the most intriguing?
Notice
each statement or question asks you to
use “narrow-down” thinking.
During the convergent stage, we apply
critical thinking; that is, we use some
criteria to evaluate, select, and analyze
the output from the divergent phase.
If
the divergent output is kept in the verbal
realm, only in talking or in conversation,
it is quite challenging to do a good job
in the convergent stage. As a result,
one of the standards for idea generating
is to capture the ideas in a way that
makes it easy to evaluate the total output
later on.
Also,
if all the idea generating is conducted
interactively, you are pulling only on
the extraverting
processes—Se, Ne, Te, and Fe. By
doing this you get ideas that fit what
is (Se), what might be (Ne), how to organize
using principles (Te), and how to organize
to meet people’s needs for harmony
and connecting (Fe).
For
balance, consider including opportunities
for reflection time for the other four
voices to be heard—Si, Ni, Ti, and
Fi. Factor in occasions to welcome ideas
from what was in the past (Si), conceptual
considerations and meanings (Ni), framework
fit (Ti), and personal values (Fi).
Cognitive Processes and Idea Generation
Adapted
from Marci Segal, Creativity
and Personality Type: Tools for Understanding
and Inspiring The Many Voices of Creativity
(Telos Publications, 2001) *Used
with permission.
Divergent
and Convergent Thinking in the Eight Cognitive
Process Voices
This chart shows how each cognitive process
voice may contribute to diverging and
converging activities. Use it as a guide
to broaden your approach to stimulate
creative thinking.
|
•
<
DIVERGE
|
|
|
PERCEPTION
|
JUDGMENT
|
|
Creative
ideas—
where they come from.
Consider using each of these:
|
Creative ideas—
how they are evaluated. How well
do ideas meet these criteria?
|
Extraverted Sensing (Se)
Change what is.
|
Extraverted Thinking (Te)
Improve efficiencies, structures,
measurements, and organizing principles.
|
Introverted Sensing (Si)
Change what was.
|
Introverted Thinking (Ti)
Improve understanding of how something
works.
|
Extraverted iNtuiting (Ne)
Change what might be.
|
Extraverted Feeling (Fe)
Improve harmony among people.
|
Introverted iNtuiting (Ni)
Change the representation of the
future.
|
Introverted Feeling (Fi)
Align with values, personal and
corporate.
|
Adapted
from Marci Segal, Creativity
and Personality Type: Tools for Understanding
and Inspiring The Many Voices of Creativity
(Telos Publications, 2001) *Used
with permission.
|
