The importance of divergent thinking for excellence
Do you tend to be hypercritical of yourself, and perhaps also hypercritical of others on your team and/or in your family? Many of us are, oftentimes in the name of perfectionism. However, upon reflection, you may notice that it’s most frequently counterproductive and counter performance. While a critical lens can help us get clarity on a challenge or issue, it is not necessarily the best form of thinking to generate novel solutions, grow our confidence, and sustain excellence. Divergent thinking is an important form of thinking that broadens our perspective and allows us to contemplate a multiplicity of ideas, strategies, and potential solutions, and therefore can support confidence in our ability and help sustain efforts to excel.
What is divergent thinking?
Divergent thinking is often thought of in relation to creativity and innovation, though it differs in significant ways. “Guilford proposes attributes of creativity that includes divergent thinking, where divergent thinking is defined as the exploration of many possible answers rather than thinking toward one right answer (convergent thinking). Kozbelt, Beghetto and Runco say divergent thinking occurs when ideas and associations move in varied directions, and as a result new and original ideas can be found… Divergent thinking relates to fluency (the quantity of ideas generated), flexibility (the variety of ideas), and originality (the uniqueness of ideas), but is not synonymous with creativity as aspects of “value” are not considered” (Loudon & Deininger, 2016).
Divergent thinking, innovation, and excellence
Performance in most domains of excellence can be optimized through effective divergent thinking. For example in business, “ideation is an important talent for entrepreneurs” (Ames & Runco, 2005). In the military, one leadership study examined “the relationship among intelligence, expertise, and divergent thinking as they influence creative problem solving and performance in a sample of 110 military leaders… it was found that divergent thinking exerted unique effects on creative problem solving that could not be attributed to intelligence or expertise” (Vincent, Decker, & Mumford, 2010).
At the core of excellence includes the ability to effectively understand, solve, and overcome complex problems by coming up with novel solutions. Whether you’re trying to master a complex composition in music, trying to create and/or execute a great play against a strong opponent in football, whether you’re trying to find a cure or effective treatments for a major illness, or whether you’re trying to bring the best product to market, your confidence in your ability to succeed will be determined at least in part by your ability to think divergently. In other words, those who succeed and sustain excellence over time don’t hyper-focus on their mistakes. They integrate that information, then re-focus and broaden their lens to come up with new ideas and possibilities. “[C]reativity in different domains has the diverse influences from domain knowledge and divergent thinking ability, which support the domain-specificity of creativity” (Huang, Peng, Chen, Tseng, & Hsu, 2017).
Divergent thinking and emotions
Often overlooked, divergent thinking is also important in terms of our emotional intelligence and emotional self-regulation. Noteworthy, “studies have shown that divergent thinking influences emotions: Akbari Chermahini and Hommel (2012) found the positive effect of divergent thinking on emotions, while Liknaitzky et al. (2018) showed that lack of divergent thinking or cognitive rigidity was correlated with depression” (Zuo, Wang, Qiao, Ding, & Wen, 2021). Intuitively, we know this. In the context of sport for example, after a tough game or competition, you might find yourself feeling terrible, and ruminating on your perceived mistakes for hours. In such cases, athletes oftentimes become narrowly focused on their shortcomings, which impacts their emotions, increases their fear of failure, and leads to lower confidence. The good news? Divergent thinking is a mental skill that can be trained, enhanced, and optimized. In fact, studies are beginning to show that “people’s negative mental state could be alleviated by disrupting negative associations with things that scare them” (Zuo, Wang, Qiao, Ding, & Wen, 2021).
One way I sometimes help my clients practice this is when they find themselves scared of failing, or catastrophizing with negative what if’s. We use divergent thinking in such instances to practice contemplating potentially positive what if’s that could happen instead. Using divergent thinking gets people to consider many potential outcomes, including desirable ones, and find themselves feeling better, more optimistic, and confidant as a result. “Self-efficacy, a belief in one’s ability to achieve a desirable outcome, was proposed by Bandura (1977)… Bandura (1977) and Benight and Bandura (2004) proposed that self-efficacy could be improved by lowering the perception of threat, which allows for the promotion of self-efficacy through divergent thinking” (Zuo, Wang, Qiao, Ding, & Wen, 2021).
So the next time you find yourself feeling particularly self critical, re-open your mind into alternative perspectives: What else may be true or possible? While you can acknowledge what needs improvement, begin to notice what went well too. While some problems may not have been solved, challenge yourself to note the daily evidence of your excellence, learning, growth, and ideas generation. After all, an open and agile mind is much better equipped to help you carve your path on your journey of excellence.
Here’s what I had to say about divergent thinking on Learn from a Leader with host Jen Muller:
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