How Do You Know Is Convergent or Divergent

Y'all're overseeing a projection and have all the pieces in identify.

Your detailed timeline is mapped out. You lot've gear up expectations with leaders and team members. You're prepared to keep all the deliverables organized.

Halfway through the projection, a team comes to you with a suggestion—they call back they've found a ameliorate way to handle a slice of the process.

Your tummy drops into your shoes. Y'all're the taskmaster. The organizer. The keeper of the schedule. This modify in management will only throw a wrench into the flawless program you spent hours disturbing over. Even if it is a ameliorate mode to go, you're cringing at the idea of straying from your honey system.

Sound familiar? It's a common scenario for project managers. When you're the one who'southward solely responsible for keeping everything on track, information technology's understandable that you'll white-knuckle your tried and true processes.

But, think about this: You may be limiting the wiggle room team members need to take that projection to the side by side level. By planning away every terminal inch of flexibility, you're making it that much tougher to suit to new data and evolving demands.

So, what do you do? It's time for projection management professionals to not only call back of themselves equally the keepers of plans, but as well the ones responsible for pulling the very best out of teams.

To do and so, they need to encourage and enable both pieces of the artistic problem-solving process: divergent thinking and convergent thinking.

What is the Difference Between Divergent and Convergent Thinking?

"Divergent thinking is the process of coming up with new ideas and possibilities—without judgment, without assay, without give-and-take. It is the blazon of thinking that allows yous to free-associate, to 'become big' and to talk over possible new means to solve difficult challenges that have no single/correct/known answer," explains Anne Manning, Founding Partner of Drumcircle LLC and Instructor at Harvard University.

Think virtually a brainstorming session, where you sit down down to talk over what company problem needs to be solved next. People are throwing out all sorts of suggestions—fifty-fifty ones you know at first glance are unfeasible. That'due south divergent thinking. Y'all're spitballing ideas without any rules or restrictions.

At present that yous accept that long list of lofty ambitions, what happens next? In an ideal earth, it'due south convergent thinking.

What Is Convergent Thinking?

"Convergent thinking is associated with analysis, judgment, and controlling. It is the process of taking a lot of ideas and sorting them, evaluating them, analyzing the pros and cons, and making decisions," Manning explains.

Some of those ideas will get tossed out because they're as well expensive, as well time-consuming, require too many resources, or are just too far exterior the box. Put just, convergent thinking is the process of strategically weeding through those ideas to find your solution.

Check out this exercise that Anne Manning does with her class that illustrates the divergence betwixt these two types of thinking:

Convergent Thinkers vs. Divergent Thinkers: Is One Improve Than the Other?

Everybody is capable of both convergent and divergent thinking, depending on the situation. Yet, it's natural to lean more toward one or the other when budgeted problems and projects.

"Some people have a natural preference for divergent thinking. They are the people in organizations who love to come up with new ideas," says Manning, "They are likewise the people who are most useful when solving daunting, complex challenges because they are more than likely to clear ideas that are new and useful."

The real upshot lies in becoming also reliant on 1 method of thinking. "Likewise much divergent thinking can lead to countless ideation and no solutions. Too much convergent thinking tin lead to no new ideas and 'analysis paralysis,'" adds Manning.

Project Management and the Lure of Convergent Thinking

That's a trap that project management professionals—who are notoriously married to their plans and processes—tin fall into easily.

Let's break this all down with some examples. Divergent thinking starts with an objective—perhaps yous need to generate 1,000 new leads inside a month. You start by brainstorming creative ideas and solutions to satisfy that goal: happy hours with famous speakers, direct mailers including $100 gift cards, a man in a gorilla suit on the corner of Times Foursquare.

From in that location, you move into evaluating those options and settling on the one(south) that works best. This is an instance of convergent thinking.

That'south how successful projects should progress, but too often project managers skip that first piece. They're so eager to pin down a plan they don't allot time to let imaginations run wild. They point to a tried and tested solution, tie it back to a goal, and move onward.

This approach is dangerous for a few reasons. For starters, you'll rely on the same ideas over and over over again—not necessarily because they're the all-time, but because you're comfortable with them.

Secondly, it limits your success. Competitive organizations need to be flexible, active, and adaptable. They should explore what's possible, rather than diving direct into a planning process or relying on that dreaded "we've ever done it this style" philosophy.

"The issue isn't plans—plans are fine, in and of themselves," writes software manager, Kris Cuff, in her article for Medium, "The issue is people who tin't do anything without plans, whose articulatio genus-wiggle, default response to any unknown is to compulsively 'figure out a plan'—to go 'certainty.' News flash: there is no certainty. And when you lot captivate over perfecting something that'south inherently imperfect, you immobilize yourself."

How to Enable More Divergent Thinking

While project management professionals should empower teams to think divergently, managing timelines and efficiencies is still critical. So where'south the residuum?

How can you lot incorporate divergent thinking into your projection planning processes and exist creative—withal not disorganized? Hither are a few tips to remain nimble enough to meet evolving business goals and demands—without letting things run off the track.

i. Bank Aplenty Time for Both Types of Thinking

Both convergent and divergent thinking are important for artistic problem solving and projection planning—which ways you should accept time gear up aside for each of them.

"Nosotros already do that!" you're thinking to yourself, "We've had so many brainstorming sessions, you wouldn't believe it."

Merely, really retrieve about that for a moment: Were those brainstorming sessions truthful opportunities for divergent thinking—where any and all ideas were jotted down to be considered and evaluated at a subsequently point? Or, did y'all and other team members leap in immediately to write ideas off as impossible or irrelevant?

The latter—trying to recollect both divergently and convergently at the aforementioned time—is counterproductive. "In other words, mixing divergent and convergent thinking is similar putting your foot on the gas and and so the brakes. You end up going nowhere," says Manning.

While both types of thinking are necessary for success, it's smarter to divide them. Commencement by educating your project team members on these two different types of thinking. What is a divergent thinker? What is a convergent thinker? Why does it matter and how can people practise both well?

When you boot off a brainstorming session, emphasize that this fourth dimension is reserved for true divergent thinking. No idea is too big or crazy—every unmarried one will be considered. Remind team members this isn't the time to poke holes in others' suggestions.

This ensures you're giving people the breathing room to think divergently—before you jump correct into planning. 38% of employees say leaders dismissing ideas without exploring them is a key reason why they don't accept initiative, and then divergent thinking not just improves project results, but also boosts morale!

2. Implement a Collaborative Work Management System

Await.… a work direction organisation? Isn't this just another mode to document your plan and stick to your procedure?

True. A collaborative project management platform (like Wrike!) is a great way to provide ongoing visibility into project planning and progress. However, the best platforms also provide the flexibility necessary to support divergent thinking.

Real-fourth dimension @mentions and comments make it piece of cake to collaborate around big ideas without having to schedule tons of meetings or consolidate information across electronic mail threads. Flexible folder structures and custom fields allow projection managers to quickly spin upwardly new project templates and process workflows.

Put but, a good collaborative work management platform makes information technology easy for you to repeat what works, merely also gives y'all the flexibility to remember divergently and accommodate to changing goals and demands.

3. Free Yourself (and Others) From the Minutiae

Who has fourth dimension to think exterior the box when there are condition updates to exist sent, tasks to assign, and project plans to build? Projection managers often save fourth dimension past skipping straight to convergent thinking and knocking out tasks like these.

However, applied science is emerging that tin can gratis project managers and teams from painstaking administrative work. For example, workflow automation eliminates the need to manually assign task owners, create project templates, or send condition update notifications.

Solutions like Zapier and Azuqua make it easy to connect software systems and seamlessly pass data between platforms—no copy and paste required! Many leading platforms fifty-fifty offering native integrations.

Minimizing repetitive busy work leaves teams more time for divergent thinking that might have previously been pushed to the backburner. Offload a little planning and procedure to machines and focus on doing what they can't!

Planning to Be Creative: Information technology's Possible

Planning and creativity audio similar they're mutually exclusive. Merely, when you empathize the ins and outs of divergent and convergent thinking, you realize the ii can actually play squeamish together.

In that location's a time and place for both, and the most effective projection managers understand when and how to effectively leverage them. Utilise the tips we've outlined here, and you'll keep projects on track—while even so existence flexible, agile, and supportive of alter and new ideas.

Interested in trying a collaborative work management system that supports both divergent and convergent thinking? Sign up for Wrike's 14-twenty-four hour period costless trial!

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Source: https://www.wrike.com/blog/convergent-thinking-vs-divergent-thinking/