Divergent Thinking
Creative Thinking
Terry A. Ring
Chemical Engineering
University of Utah
Knowledge
• Traditional academic disciplines
still matter, but as content and
knowledge evolves at lightning
speed, educators are talking
more and more about “process
skills”
• Process Skills
• Strategies to reframe challenges
and extrapolate and transform
information and accept and deal
with ambiguity.
What type of thinker are you?
• Left Brain
• Right Brain
What Type of Thinker are you?
• I am most motivated by …..
• A) a need for a clear
understanding of the facts.
• B) a great idea.
• C) an opportunity to perfect and
existing solution.
• D) a job to do.
• I learn best through ….
•
•
•
•
A) facts, research, ideas.
B) stories, ideas, concepts.
C) evaluating options.
D) trying things out.
What Type of Thinker are you?
• I like to spend time …
•
•
•
•
A) working with information.
B) thinking about new possibilities.
C) making things “just right.”
D) testing, prototyping, doing.
• Your Score:
• How many times did you answer
•
•
•
•
A)
B)
C)
D)
What Does it Mean?
• Profiles:
• A) Clarifier: cautious, structured
thinker who likes to gather data to
understand the reality and to identify
problems, gaps and opportunities.
• B) Ideator: playful, original thinker
who likes to see the “big picture” and
make new connections that may break
the paradigm.
• C) Developer: detailed planner who likes
to evaluate and perfect the best version
of a solution and anticipate how it will
move forward with the most success.
• D) Implementer: confident, actionoriented risk taker who likes to learn
by doing.
• More than 20 % of respondents select
a different letter for each question.
Their strength is in moving evenly
through the process and harmonizing
the group.
FourSight™
Creative Thinking vs. Critical Thinking
• Critical Thinking
• Essential Engineering Skill for
Success
• Synthesis of engineering solutions
• Evaluation of designs
• Analysis
• Creative Thinking
• On Demand Inventiveness
• Creating replaced “Evaluation” at
the top of Bloom’s Learning
Taxonomy.
• “Synthesis” is removed
• New Educational Objective!!
What it is not_______
What evidence is not_______
What criteria is not used to assess__
Everyone is Creative!
• You can learn to be more Creative!
• Creativity sits at the juxtaposition of two or more fields.
• When ideas from different fields collide, new ideas are generated.
• You do this with Divergent Thinking
• Generating multiple ideas as solutions to a problem.
• Do not stop at one idea.
• How do you generate more than one idea that is a potential solution? – Creativity Tools
• Testing ideas in your head
• You do this with Convergent Thinking
• Finding what works.
• Testing all the ideas to identify which one has the greatest chance of working.
• This generates new ways to overcome difficulties of you initial ideas – A NEW IDEA!
Creativity Tools
• Thinking by analogy
• Think about problems as
opportunities.
• Looking for Patterns
• Making Patterns
• Playing to encourage ideas
• Be curious
• Looking with fresh eyes
• Learning to abstract problems to
their essence.
• Rephrase problems as questions
• Learn not to shoot down an idea
instinctively
• 1st find 3 positives about the idea.
• Categorize problems as
• Requires action
• Requires planning
• Requires invention
How do you generate more than one idea?
Getting into a creative mind-set involves a lot of trial and error.
• Clarifying – asking the right question
• Critical because people misstate and misperceive the problem
• Without the correct frame for the problem it is difficult to come up with a breakthrough
• Ideation – brainstorming
• Getting rid of your inner naysayer to let your imagination fly free.
• Break Cultural Norms
• Examine what in cultural is preventing you from creating something new or different.
• You will look foolish because a lot of ideas do not work out. (How do you handle looking foolish?)
• Failure is a critical path to a successful end! (Note: Academics run away from failure!)
• Bold Risks are a creative and competitive necessity.
• Developing – building out a solution
• Maybe it does not work
• Fail quickly and reformulate
• Starting over with another idea
• Implementing – convincing others your idea has value.
Brainstorming Basics
Alex F. Osborn, 1939
Defer judgment!
Strive for quantity! - not quality
Be Wild and Unusual!
Build on Other’s Ideas!
• a group or individual creativity technique by which efforts are made to find a conclusion for a
specific problem by gathering a list of ideas spontaneously contributed
• Principles of Brainstorming
• Defer judgment!
• Strive for quantity! - not quality
• Rules of Brainstorming
• Focus on quantity: This rule is a means of enhancing divergent production, aiming to facilitate problem
solving through the maxim quantity breeds quality. The assumption is that the greater the number of ideas
generated, the greater the chance of producing a radical and effective solution.
• Withhold criticism: In brainstorming, criticism of ideas generated should be put 'on hold'. Instead,
participants should focus on extending or adding to ideas, reserving criticism for a later 'critical stage' of the
process. By suspending judgment, participants will feel free to generate unusual ideas.
• Welcome unusual ideas: To get a good and long list of ideas, unusual ideas are welcomed. They can be
generated by looking from new perspectives and suspending assumptions. These new ways of thinking may
provide better solutions.
• Combine and improve ideas: Good ideas may be combined to form a single better good idea, as suggested by
the slogan "1+1=3". It is believed to stimulate the building of ideas by a process of association.
Brainstorming
Flow Chart
Brainstorming Problem
• Junk Mail
•
•
•
•
Wasted Paper
Wasted Postage
Wasted Gasoline
Wasted Labor
• What can be constructively done about junk mail?
Conclusions
• Understand the Difference between
• Creative Thinking
• Critical Thinking
• Everyone can improve their creativity!
• Learned about Creativity Tools
• Practiced Brainstorming