Divergent thinking: what it is and how to develop it

Divergent or lateral thinking is characterized by the ability to generate multiple and ingenious solutions to the same problem. It is a spontaneous, fluid and non-linear mental approach, based on curiosity and also non-conformity. In fact, it is also a very common type of thinking in children, where joy, imagination and freshness offer more freedom to their reasoning.

Divergent thinking is current. In a society accustomed to giving us similar skills, there comes a time when large companies begin to value other skills., other dimensions that contribute ingenuity, vitality and authentic human capital to your projects. Thus, someone capable of offering innovation, creativity and new objectives can become a great candidate for many of these organizational projects.

However, there is something we must admit. Our schools, institutes and universities continue to prioritize a clearly convergent type of thinking in their methodology. Let us remember, on the other hand, that it was in the 60s, when JP Guilford differentiated and defined convergent thinking and divergent thinking.

Even though he himself emphasized the importance of training children in this last type of mental approach, educational institutions have paid little attention to him. Typically, they have prioritized a type of reflection (or rather, lack thereof) where the student must apply linear thinking and a series of structured rules and processes to arrive at a single solution: the one that is evaluated as correct.

While it is true that on many occasions this strategy is useful and necessary, let’s admit another key; Real life is complex, dynamic and imprecise enough to believe that our problems can have only one option. Therefore, we need to develop authentic divergent thinking.

For this reason, there are many educational centers that encourage their students to not limit themselves to finding the correct answer. The objective is for them to be able to create and suggest new questions.

“Creativity is intelligence having fun”

-Albert Einstein-

Characteristics of divergent thinking

The characteristics of divergent thinking can be summarized as follows:

It is a flexible thinking, where different alternatives are evaluated until the most convenient one is achieved. It encourages creativity and originality. It is especially convenient when we want to find new and innovative solutions to certain problems or situations. It is a very common type of thinking in children, although this does not imply that adults cannot enhance it and put it into practice. It would be the opposite of convergent thinking, which solves problems through predetermined steps and only contemplates a single solution.

Divergent thinking and its psychological processes

Before continuing, it would be necessary to clarify one idea. No type of thinking is better than another. Convergent thinking is useful and necessary on many occasions. However, the real problem is that We have been “trained” to think in only one way, leaving aside (and even completely canceling) that spontaneity.that wit and captivating freedom.

In many courses aimed at training people in divergent thinking, it is common for students to be asked questions such as the following:

We are aware that at first, it may take us a while to get even a single idea. However, There are people capable of giving multiple answers and ingenious ideas. because they have a high potential in what Edward de Bono once called “lateral thinking.” To better understand how it works, let’s now see what type of psychological processes form it.

Likewise, in a study carried out by Dr. Kamran Abbasi, a physician and executive editor of the British Medical Journalreveals something important to us: divergent thinking deteriorates with age. Children between 10 and 15 years old are the ones who stand out the most in this competition. From then on, education or our social models weaken that potential.

Semantic networks or the theory of connectivity

Divergent thinking is capable of finding relationships between ideas, concepts and processes that apparently lack any similarity. Psychologists who are experts in creativity tell us that people have different mental association networks:

People with “steep” semantic networks are governed more by logic and linear thinking. For their part, people with “flat” semantic networks have much more connected and loose mental networks. That is to say, sometimes they relate two things to each other that do not make sense, but little by little they are helped by other networks until they reach an ingenious and innovative idea.

Right hemisphere and left hemisphere

We have all heard of that theory in which they tell us that the right hemisphere is the creative one and the left hemisphere is the logical one. Therefore, and according to this, people who use divergent or lateral thinking will make preferential use of the right hemisphere. Good, We have to be careful with these types of ideas about lateralization or cerebral dominance because in reality, they have great nuances.

We cannot see the brain as an entity with delimited areas. In fact, when generating an idea, whether ingenious, conservative, logical or highly creative, we make use of the entirety of this organ. However, the key is how we connect one idea with another. The most ingenious people make use of arborescent thinkingthat is, their brain connections are very intense in both hemispheres, and not in just one.

“Imagination is the beginning of creation. You imagine what you want, you pursue what you imagine, and finally, you create what you pursue.”

-George Bernard Shaw-

How can I train my divergent thinking?

We said it at the beginning, all of us, whatever our age, can train our divergent thinking. To do this we will focus on 4 very clear objectives:

Improve our fluency: ability to produce a large number of ideas.Improve our flexibility: be able to create varied ideas based on diverse fields of knowledge.The originality: ability to create innovative ideas.Improve our elaboration: ability to improve our ideas, to develop them with more sophistication.

Below, we propose four ways to achieve this.

Synectics exercises

Synectics is a term coined by psychologist William JJ Gordon. It basically means being able to find unions and relationships between concepts, objects and ideas that apparently have no union at all. This exercise requires high mental activity, and we can do it daily by choosing the concepts ourselves. For example:

What can I do with a paper clip and a spoon?What relationship could there be between Africa’s Limpopo River and Siberia’s Lake Baikal?

Scamper technique

The Scamper technique is another creative idea development strategy developed by Bob Eberle. It will be very useful for us to create something innovative and to train our thinking. For example, let’s say we have to generate an idea for our work. Once we have that “idea”, we will pass it through this series of “filters”:

Replace one element of that idea with another (what can we change about the way we have fun? And the way we work?). Now combine them all (what can we do to make our work more fun?). Adapt them ( What do they do in other countries to work with less stress?). Modify them (how to work and not get stressed?). Give them other uses (what is there in my job that can make it more fun, even if it was not specifically designed for that?) .Eliminate some (what if I came in a little earlier to make better use of the day?). Renovation (what would happen if I dared to…?).

Mood and good rest

In a study carried out by psychologist Nina Lieberman, from the University of Colombia, and which was collected in the interesting book “ “Playfulness: Its Relationship to Imagination and Creativity”, something interesting was revealed to us. Divergent thinking goes hand in hand with joy, optimism and inner well-being. He Having good social relationships, enjoying a good rest and being free of pressure, anxiety and stress optimizes divergent thinking.

For its part, a study conducted at the University of Bergen, Norway, examined the effects of positive and negative moods on divergent thinking. In this case, the results showed that A positive mood considerably facilitates divergent thinking; while a negative mood inhibits it.

That said, it is clear that sometimes, in our adult tasks, in our lifestyle so loaded with pressures and worries, we neglect a large part of these valuable dimensions. Therefore, we could also conclude that This type of thinking is also born from a type of attitude towards lifewhere we can be more free, happy, non-conformist, open to experience, etc.

Let’s cultivate those dynamics. Living well to think better can undoubtedly be a good goal to work on every day.

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