Exercises: The creative process: divergence and convergence

Explain the difference between divergence and convergence in the creative process, and provide an example of each movement applied to improving a school canteen.

In a brainstorming session, certain rules are followed: no criticism, aim for quantity, build on the ideas of others, and record everything. Explain the purpose of each of these rules.

The figure represents the creative process as a funnel: many ideas enter at the top and a single solution emerges at the bottom. Identify which phase takes place in the narrow section, marked with "?", and explain what it involves.

State whether each action belongs to the divergence phase or the convergence phase: writing down twenty possible uses for a paperclip, keeping the three cheapest ideas, discarding the illegal options, combining two ideas into one and noting all suggestions without discussing them.

In an ideas session to improve the school library, one participant interrupts: "that will never work". Explain which brainstorming rule that comment breaks and rephrase it so that the criticism can be noted without slowing down the session.

The SCAMPER list proposes verbs to transform a product (substitute, combine, adapt, modify, put to other uses, eliminate, rearrange). Apply three of those verbs to a café's best-selling sandwich and write the specific idea that would come out of each one.

A team settles for the first name that comes to mind for their shop. Explain why in the divergence phase it is worth generating many options before choosing (the first idea is rarely the best, ideas combine with each other) and how anchoring on the first proposal affects this.

Explain the difference between oral brainstorming and brainwriting (writing the ideas in silence and passing them to your partner), and why brainwriting can work better with shy people or when someone monopolises the floor.

A team tasked with improving a backpack starts their meeting by evaluating each idea as it comes up ("that's expensive", "impossible"), running out of options within twenty minutes. Analyse which rule of the creative process they broke, what the consequence was, and how you would redesign the session.

Match each technique to its ideal situation: SCAMPER (a list of verbs to transform a product), Six Thinking Hats (viewing a decision from six perspectives), and brainwriting (writing down ideas in silence). Describe a specific situation where you would use each technique and justify your choice.

Organise a 60-minute creative session to improve recycling at your school: divide the time between divergence and convergence, state which technique you would use in each section, and list the rules you would remind the group of before starting.

In a clothing shop, the boss opens the meeting by saying "I think we should copy the competition" and the team contributes only three timid ideas in an hour. Analyse what has gone wrong in the dynamic (anchoring, the weight of hierarchy, blocked divergence) and redesign the session step by step so that more options come out.

Apply the full SCAMPER list to a reusable water bottle: write a specific idea for each verb and point out which of the seven ideas seems most viable to you, justifying it.

A patisserie is unsure whether to open on Sundays as well. Organise the decision with the six thinking hats technique: write one sentence of analysis for each hat (facts, emotions, risks, benefits, creativity and organisation) and write the final conclusion of the blue hat.

After a session on how to improve a shared notes app there are thirty ideas on the table. Propose three selection criteria for the convergence phase (impact on the user, cost, speed of testing), explain how you would score the ideas with them and what you would do with the discarded ideas.

Some design companies set aside time to explore "crazy" ideas that will not fit into the final product. Explain what is gained with that deliberate divergence (ideas that are later combined, breaking assumptions, discovering needs) and what a company that always converges too early risks, with an example.

In a company where only "safe" ideas are rewarded, employees have stopped proposing novel concepts. Analyse how this culture stifles divergence, what medium-term effects it has on innovation, and propose three specific management changes to reactivate creativity.

Design a full creative process for the challenge "reducing single-use plastic in the school canteen": define the divergence and convergence phases, the specific technique for each, the final selection criteria, and how you would document the outcome.

The CEO of a company states: "Separating idea generation from idea evaluation is a waste of time; the efficient approach is to judge and discard each proposal as it is presented." Refute their stance by demonstrating what psychological blocks and power dynamics are triggered when evaluating on the fly. Justify why the strict temporal separation of phases improves both the volume and the degree of disruption of the generated alternatives.

The challenge: increase the sales of a neighbourhood comic shop by 30% in one year. a) Design the divergence phase: specific technique, rules for the group and duration. b) Design the convergence phase: selection criteria and how they are applied. c) Explain how you would document the process so that the session does not come to nothing.

In the board of directors of a fashion chain, all of the chairman's proposals are approved unanimously in under ten minutes without debate or objections. Months later, the company accumulates million-euro losses due to erroneous strategic decisions. Diagnose the group dynamics dysfunction that explains this behavior, analyze why rapid unanimity was a sign of weakness, and design a decision-making protocol that enforces contrasting viewpoints and neutralizes the pressure to conform.

Two teams tackle the same challenge: improving the service of a neighbourhood café. Team A generates ideas and judges them as they go; team B separates generation first and evaluation afterwards. Predict which team will get more ideas and more original ones, justify it with what you know about the creative process and point out what risk team B runs if the convergence drags on too long.

Design your own 45-minute creative dynamic for the challenge "reducing water consumption at school": give it a name, define the steps with their timings, the participants' roles and how the winning idea is chosen. Justify each design decision.

An investor claims: "Innovation relies exclusively on the flash of individual geniuses having a lightbulb moment; structured creative methods are completely useless." Refute their thesis based on the fundamentals of the creative process: justify how divergence and convergence interact versus mere intuition, what advantages friction brings to multidisciplinary teams, and prove your stance by analyzing a real business case of innovation born from a systematic process.