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.

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 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.