Divergent thinking, Convergent thinking, Lateral thinking, Creative thinking, Out-of-box thinking. Which ONE of them is different? Expain?

Hi Raafat,

As a business manager, we use different thinking styles based on the circumstances and situations of the problems to get good remedies or results for our organization.

All the five you listed are somehow related to each other and also differentiated between one among them. 

I will explain you in detail below: First we should know about the Hierarchy of the thinking!

THINKING

Thinking refers to the process of creating a logical series of connective facets between items of information. Good thinkers see possibilities where others see only obstacles or roadblocks. Under creative thinking, there are three classifications based on the problem solving approach.

They are: DIVERGENT, CONVERGENT, & LATERAL [also known as OUT OF BOX]

“A PROBLEM ARISED, HOW WE ARE GOING TO SOLVE” 

We can able to solve the problems using any of the three classifications mentioned above, but remember that we should get permanent solutions for the problem raised.

DIVERGENT THINKING [also known as CREATIVE THINKING] is taking a challenge and attempting to identify all of the possible drivers of that challenge, then listing all of the ways those drivers can be addressed. In practice, it’s more than just brainstorming.

Divergent thinking or Creative thinking is a way of perceiving the world, a way of interacting with other people, and a way of living and growing. Creativity is all about finding new ways of solving problems and approaching situations.

Example: Twitter created an online service without a clear practical application – then launched it to see how people used it so they could refine it. That doesn’t mean that launching something and then figuring out what the market is for it is a bullet-proof strategy.

CONVERGENT THINKING [also known as ANALYTICAL THINKING] is the practice of trying to solve a discrete challenge quickly and efficiently by selecting the optimal solution from a finite set. Convergent thinking is the process of finding a single best solution to a problem.

Convergent Thinking involves putting a number of different pieces or perspectives of a topic back together in some organized, logical manner to find a single answer.

“SEQUENCES IS THE MAIN CONSIDERATION IN CONVERGENT THINKING, AND IN DIVERGENT THINKING, IMAGINATION IS THE MAIN ONE…”

And finally, Lateral thinking – which is a sub category of Creative Thinking, is to use imagination to solve problems by looking at them from unexpected perspectives. Lateral thinking involves discarding the obvious, leaving behind traditional modes of thought, and throwing away preconceptions.

LATERAL THINKING also known as Out-of-Box thinking is very important in advertising, marketing, media, art and design.

I hope you would have get an idea of what is what now!

I coined a term about thinking, that is:

THIN      |      KING

“The Highest Intelligence Need for a KING is THINKING”

THIN refers to The High Intelligence Need &

KING refers to the organization…

Thanks for providing a wonderful question in this section.

With Warm Regards

Feroz Khan Saleem

Out of the box

Convergent Thinking

Divergent & Out of box thinking

Convergent Thinking

Agree with Mr:Mohammed aslam

I think out-of-box is the one!

They all differ in one form or the other, but I think that lateral thinging describe the basic difference between traditional and non-traditional ways of thinking.

out of box,,, divergent

Out of box.

OUT OF THE BOX.......................