Convergent Thinking Week - When Is It Better to Go with What You Have?

While much of Brainzooming is focused on divergent thinking (i.e. expanding the range of possibilities considered), it's important to also have strong convergent thinking skills for times when you have to narrow possibilities, make decisions, and implement a recommendation.

Beyond the benefits of honing your skills at both types of thinking, it's important to know when each approach is most appropriate. There are definitely more instances now where I'm willing to shift toward convergent thinking, even though I might have previously ardently fought for exploring more possibilities.

Here are five situations where it may make sense to go against an inclination to push for more possibilities and instead settle for an existing alternative:

• It's an issue that "doesn't matter" based on a lack of either significance or permanence.


• Multiple unsuccessful cases have been made for alternatives, and you're at risk of deteriorating strategic relationships through continued persistence.


• Resource constraints (time, people, investment, etc.) clearly preclude exploration of better alternatives.


• Someone is resolute in a choice and clearly beyond "being helped" by considering what you view as a more appropriate approach.


• The best current alternative is good enough relative to expectations.

All week, we'll cover topics related to convergent thinking, and how it can be used appropriately within a strategic thinking orientation.

Convergent Thinking Week - A DBTP Perspective

Over the Christmas holiday, several of us (despite being on "vacation") came into work to pull together a project plan from several disparate sources. It was quickly apparent the three of us, each fairly detail oriented in our own ways, could take all week to get this done.

Wanting to get back home as quickly as possible, I went over to the easel pad in the room and wrote in large letters: BDTP

I explained to the other two guys that the acronym stood for a variation on a statement made by an A.T. Kearny consultant: Better Done Than Perfect.

The phrase is a great reminder at appropriate times that my standards for an end product may be beyond what is called for in the normal course of business. It's a slightly different twist on the 80-20 rule that helps me stay focused on maximizing my contribution in relevant ways across as many areas as possible (vs. cratering myself with outstanding work in a very narrow area).

Think about your own efforts. If you tend toward perfectionism, consider whether a BDTP attitude might free you to have the greatest overall business impact.

For us, it meant finishing in two days vs. spending the whole week and having our deliverable spill into the new year.

And with that, while this week's posts on convergent thinking may not have been perfect, they are certainly done. Have a great weekend!

Convergent Thinking Week - Time's Up!

Here's a variation on the 4 p.m. List approach with a slightly dishonest implementation method.

I was leading an all-day group session on a contentious topic. We'd spent much time in divergent thinking mode with interesting discussions exploring many points of view. Still, we hadn't clearly advanced toward a recommendation even though we had to make demonstrable progress by the end of the day.

I broke away during lunch and handed Dawn, the front desk receptionist, my cell phone number, asking her to call it at 1:15 p.m. and not worry about what would be said.

When the phone soon vibrated, I made a point of heading to the back of the room and starting a loud, faux conversation with the project's sponsor expressing my displeasure with him scheduling time with our CEO at 3:30 p.m. to review our recommendation. Given the timing, we'd have to wrap-up by 3:15 p.m. to get him ready. By the end of the call, I had everybody's attention (and had Dawn wondering what was going on).

Playing back the other end of the conversation for the group, our challenge was clear - get to agreement within the next couple of hours so we wouldn't embarrass ourselves by not having our project sponsor ready for the CEO. All of a sudden, it became easier to find points of agreement, determine how we'd solve uncertain areas, and structure what a final report-out included.

As 3:15 approached and the sponsor didn't show up, group members noticed something wrong. I admitted the meeting was a ruse designed solely to get the group moving. While they were frustrated, they quickly realized the satisfaction of finishing the assignment outweighed two hours of pressure.

If you want to borrow this, know that you can only use it once with the same people, so pull it out when you don't have other better options to force closure. While enough time has passed to probably try it again, sharing it here means I won't be able to use it for another year!

Convergent Thinking Week - Creating a 4 p.m. List

Working to identify criteria describing attractive target customers, our small group had spent several weeks considering, selecting, and tracking down what we thought were the most relevant variables. There was a sense we could spend weeks more refining and tweaking things to get to our list of top prospects. Problem was we didn't have time to do that.

At that point, the group's leader made an intriguing suggestion. Our meeting was set to end at 4 o'clock. His direction to the group was to assume we had to report our list of 15 accounts by the end of the meeting. If that were the case he asked us, did we have confidence in our ability to come up with a defensible recommendation. Our answer was a resounding "Yes," and we generated our list based on the work we'd done to that point.

With our proposed short list, we had an artifact for our effort. In additional analysis we did, we quickly matched up new possibilities against what became known as the "4 p.m. List" to see if they provided significant improvement. In all, the list paved the way for us to wrap up our recommendation in a timely fashion.

We learned from this, and with one of my strategic thinking partners, all we have to say is, "Let's do a 4 p.m. list," to know it's time to force a recommendation assuming we know most of what we're ever going to know at that point.

So if you're stuck on a project, turn the clock to 3:50 p.m., and wrap it up!

Convergent Thinking Week - 4 Ways to Narrow and Prioritize Possibilities

Prioritization and narrowing possibilities have been touched on at various points since starting Brainzooming.

Here are links to some helpful approaches on prioritization and decision making. The "She Loves Me, She Loves Me Not" happens to be one of the most viewed posts since the blog started!

• Deciding Between Two Options - She Loves Me, She Loves Me Not?
• Choosing Uncomfortable Ideas
• Striving for Simple Revolutionary Ideas
• Prioritizing Things Others Are Depending Upon

I'd love to hear what approaches you use to prioritize. Please share them in the comments section!