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Divergent thinking is a state of shifting attention from one angle of a problem or challange to another. When one creative path isn't working, creative people explore the possibilities of shifting to another solution path, for instance brainstorming, meditation, subject mapping etc,this brings about creative breakthrough.
The major benefit of divergent thinking is that creates a platfrom for creativity, innovations & further learning in an organisation which in turn brings about improved human resource quality, effectiveness & efficiency in terms delivering better performances.. Since it involves creattive thinking & composition of new productive ideas, these ideas can be use in evuations, planning process, management & development related purposes thus bringing about growth & general develooment of the organisation in the long run.
Thanx for invitation, its pleasure contributing
Thank you for a creative question.
Divergent thinking refers to a way of solving problems wherein a variety of possible solutions are proposed in an effort to find one that works. This is in contrast to convergent thinking, which relies on focusing on a finite number of solutions rather than proposing multiple solutions. Divergent thinking takes its name from the idea that a theoretically limitless number of sometimes even unrelated solutions can be generated in an effort to find the best one. However, Divergent thinking is an important aspect of creative thinking. The creative process doesn't always take you directly to the best solution but, by encouraging a variety of possible solutions, new ideas are more likely to emerge.
In simple sense, divergent thinking is the type of thinking we do when solving an abstract or new problem that has many possible answers, solutions, or outcomes. There are many possible structures you could make, so coming up with that solution required creativity, or divergent thinking. E.g. When you device a marketing plan , it should include many interrelated elements such as product pricing, positioning, emerging marketing, consumers base, ..etc , so this creative process requires divergent thinking. For me, Divergent thinking means that your mind is seeking unique solutions to a problem by thinking ideas through, and not reciting other people’s solutions. It’s thinking out beyond your grasp. I think that divergent thinking is complex, it could be argued that people use that type of thinning are more creative than others.
I believe that all professionals and businesses should adopt divergent thinking because it help them for devising creative strategies for company growth, competitiveness, learning and staying current with the changing world, which all of which goes hand in hand with divergent thinking. So every business leader have to develop his/her own curiosity as for businesses, they stand to gain the most by promoting divergent thinking meanwhile entrepreneurs could invent great idea and run away with it; they also could help their companies to grow and gain the benefits.
Regards
Thanks for the invite ............................ agreed with the answers Mr. Emmanuel Wamweta
In its simplest forms, it's the coming up with ideas. LOTS of ideas.
some people are very good at ideating and they find it easy to give you many ideas for the same problem in many different angles. others have upgraded their expertise and in addition to being good, they use tools to help them expand.
mindmapping, questioning, 5 whys, concept map, lotus idea generation, proactive statements, are very few of the 100s of idea generating tools you can do using pen and paper. here are some suggested tools with examples on how to do them (https://contagiouscreativity.wordpress.com/2014/01/03/idea-generation-tools-for-the-lonely-head/), another page in that blog gives real examples of how those tools were used.
good luck ideating.
Divergent thinking is one of the two types of creative thinking, other one being the Convergent thinking.
Ideating and brainstorming are premiere examples of exercises using this type of thinking.The primary object of this form of cognition is to think of possibilities, to connect the dots, to find solutions, to generate new and different ideas.
Metaphorically, whether we live in areas with snow, most of us have seen movies or cartoons where a small snowball rolls down a hill picking up more snow and getting larger and larger. This is like divergent thinking.
