Divergent vs. Convergent Thinking

One way to think about any team-based discussion that needs to lead towards a decision is that it occurs in two-phases. There’s a first phase that is focused on divergent thinking. In divergent thinking you want to get ideas on the table. So consider this team level process as equivalent to brainstorming. 

In brainstorming you want to get ideas and options on the table. You don’t want to judge, prioritize, or analyze them. You simply want to generate as many as possible. If your divergent time-frame is too limited, then team members will feel as if they haven’t had a fair sharing or vetting of their ideas.

So as a facilitator, letting a team ramble on or throw around crazy ideas is a perfectly sound thing to do. In fact, if you don’t do it, it will lead to less buy-in and less permanent decisions. Quite often, you’ll want to leave half of your meeting time-box for divergent conversation—fostering engagement across the entire team.

Then mid-way, you need to turn the discussions around and focus more on convergent thinking. That is, you want the team to start winnowing down ideas and converging on a single decision or at least a very small subset of options to decide upon later.

If you recall, I presented some decision-making tools in my last post. For example, as part of closing down or converging on an option, you could do some of the following: 

  • Vote on the options on the table; define loose, strong or unanimous majority before voting

  • Prioritize the options, keeping the top 2-3 in play for a second round of discussion

  • List Pro/Con for each option – leading towards prioritization & elimination

  • SWOT (Strength, Weakness, Opportunities, Threats) analysis for the top 2-3 options, then discuss and converge on a selection

  • Select a decision-leader to lead the convergence discussion; if resulting discussion exceeds your time-box, decision-leader decides

Usually the above are led by the facilitator—in the front of the room, active at a whiteboard or flipchart, collecting data from the team and converging towards a decision.

It’s this oscillation between divergent and convergent thinking that is the hallmark of good facilitation when making important or ground-breaking decisions. Striking the balance between over/under discussion and fostering a whole team view is crucial. I usually allocate set times for divergent, interim, convergent, and decision-making close as part of this exercise—even allowing these themes to cross over multiple meetings.