To generate the most creativity, a team needs to engage first in divergent thinking, and then in convergent thinking.
During divergent thinking, team members ask questions that haven't been asked before, analyze problems and situations from different perspectives, and make connections among facts or events that others have missed. Divergent thinking generates a wide variety of options that in turn trigger new insights and ideas.
Once the team has completed its divergent-thinking sessions, it moves to convergent thinking. Convergent thinking answers the question: "Are the insights we've generated valuable?" Through convergent thinking, team members evaluate the ideas generated by divergent thinking to determine which are genuinely novel—and which are worth pursuing.
Convergence sets limits, narrowing the field of solutions within a given set of constraints. How do you determine those constraints? Your company's culture, mission, priorities, and high-level context for the team's project all contribute to the answer. They help you rule out options that lie beyond the scope of your project. But you can facilitate this process by asking specific questions.
For example, suppose your team is developing a new product. In this case, you might ask:
• "Which functions are essential from the customer's point of view?"
• "What are the cost constraints? Which of our ideas would fit within those constraints?"
• "How soon must the project be completed? Which of our ideas can we implement within that timeline?"