There two related concepts are quite separate if you need them to be – in fact most people, especially in business, don’t bother thinking about the distinction.

Business thinking is about just that, thinking. Many business people are driven by panic and evolution seems to be latched on to this by some.

Evolution is the steady incrimination and change of something. That’s not to say that whatever is born of evolution is the best option – just the speed at which it goes. Or, importantly, the steps it takes.
Evolution requires steps, steady, well placed, firm steps. One step after another, without skipping – at least not making a habit of it.

Revolution is much more of a burst. Steps are leaped over, and resistance is almost always strong and determined. That determination is found on both sides of the fence, the call for and the augment against.

Many business people, quite rightly, get a bit shaking when talking about revolution. It’s high risk, and the potential for high returns doesn’t always mitigate the stress.

Here’s the thing though.

A lot of businesses seem to mistake evolution for revolution. They see the slow, small steps of change and start to get worried. They panic, and say, “No - leave it how it is”.

If you’re in business, and see opportunities for change, and you find yourself saying “no”; it might be prudent to think about whether said change is evolution or revolution. If it’s not radical, it’s not hard to dip your toes in, if it’s not an explosion of differences – it’s not too difficult to put things back how they were.

You don’t always have to fight the change.

Con-di-vergence

When looking at an idea, there are usually two main themes of thinking. These two different ways of looking at things are: Convergent Thinking and Divergent Thinking.

Convergence:
Involves judging and aims to eliminate all options but one.
Divergence:
Involves moving away from current beliefs and options

So why do you need to know about this?

When being creative, especially within a group, these two types of thinking affect the how productive you are. It’s important to understand their impact so that we can personally ensure we are offering what is most needed in a group at any one time.

Convergent Thinking

This type of thinking (which is the most natural) is used to find a single thought or idea and to challenge all others to beat it. Any other ideas that do not measure up are discarded.
When you have a series of good, well thought out ideas, and you’re not sure which one to choose - this process is good. However, when you are in the middle of being creative, it’s no good shooting down every single idea, because it’s not amazing the very second it’s thought of.

Divergent Thinking

You will find that there are many ideas you will create that wont sound too practical when you first think of them. If you give them room to blossom however, they can mature in to brilliant and intelligent ideas. You can increase the amount of ideas you have by changing the way you look at old ideas, or by looking at your new ideas from different angles.

So what about the ones that don’t make it? Isn’t it a waste of time working on ideas that don’t mature?

The benefit of working on an idea, even if you know it’s not going to work, or you’re unsure whether it will, are:

Most of all, you’ll have fun, which is important (humour is a right brain activity, as is your creativity).
Ideas beget ideas (every time you throw ideas around, you think of even more).
Most of all, you get experience at playing with ideas.

A very important creative skill is to be able to take something you don’t like, and make it into something you do like. This is the essence of changing things for the better; there is always a starting point. The same goes for ideas, just because you don’t like the idea, that doesn’t mean you’ll never like any version of the idea.

Imagine a ‘discussion’ between three people Nimisha, Craig and Darren, on the subject of increasing empathy:

Nimisha: ‘How about giving training on empathy skills?’

Craig: ‘We did empathy ages ago and it didn’t work’.

Darren: ‘They’ll only end up being ‘too’ empathetic, a that scares the customers away’.

Nimisha: ‘What about an incentive scheme for showing empathy?’

Craig: ‘That will only de-motivate the staff that aren’t empathetic’.

Darren: ‘What they need, is not more training but a kick up the backside; they should know how to be empathetic anyway’.

How long will Nimisha continue to offer ideas? Convergent thinking, which involves judging and aims to eliminate all options but one, drives out divergent thinking. The two have to be kept separate. Divergent thinking needs a safe environment, free from judging, where ideas can feed off one another.

The first and most important lesson for creative thinking is that the two types of thinking have to be kept separate. You cannot have only good ideas, but if you have enough ideas there may be some good ones amongst them.

So, is convergent thinking always bad?

Certainly not, there are many times when convergent thinking helps. Convergent thinking only really becomes negative and is a draw back when one gets stuck, and only uses this style. Being aware of its time and place is the most important thing, so as to ensure you don’t sour your productivity.

When is convergent thinking good?

A lawyer is a good example of someone who would use convergent thinking in a productive manor. Lawyers will often think of all the arguments for and against something systematically in an attempt to anticipate potential pitfalls in their clients’ position.

You too can spend time systematically attempting to find potential problems with the ideas your working on; as long as you are aware that that is what you are doing. In most situations however, you should try to only interject convergent thinking in to a small percentage of your working time.