Monday, April 30, 2012

Divergent and Convergent Thinking


Right off the bat this lecture blew my mind.  To tell us that the way we learned to brainstorm is an ineffective method to generating ideas was uncomprehendable at first.  

After reviewing the concepts of divergent and convergent thinking, he explained to us that the school system teaches us how to think with convergence and in turn Americans are losing the ability to thinking divergently.  I believe this is when the concept sunk in for me… an “ah ha” moment if you will.  My first instinct when trying to generate ideas is to immediately stop and analysis an idea for validity instead of separating the two skills.  This has prevented me from effectively generating ideas.

His analogy of driving to   the two thinking skills really helped me understand the concepts.  Divergent thinking is like pressing the gas while convergent thinking is like pressing the brakes.  During the divergent phase you want to accelerate as many ideas as fast as possible.  Only once the ideas are maxed out do you start to stop and consider the pros and cons to each idea.

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