Divergent Thinking (Idea Generation)

Divergent thinking is one of the original factors identified by E Paul Torrance and used as a measure of creativity in the Torrance Test of Creative Thinking (TTCT) as well as an identified factor in the RDCA (Reisman Diagnostic Creative Assessment).  Divergent thinking or the ability to come up with ideas has been a quality used to measure creativity going back over 60 years to J P Guilford (Guilford, 1950).  JP Guilford was one of the first to coin the term divergent thinking and make the connection between divergent thinking and creativity (Guilford, 1950, 1959, 1967).  

It wasn’t only Guilford who identified divergent thinking as a critical factor in creativity.  Osborn, an advertising executive who is attributed to the practice of brainstorming, generated ideas and eventually became one of the pioneers around Creative Problem-Solving (Isaksen, et. al, 2011; Osborn, 1953).  

Within this study, it is the intention of the author to use a daily practice of idea generation or an idea quota.  This is one of the two methods of quantitative evaluation of creativity within the practice of everyday creativity.  The idea quota comes from Michael Michalko’s book Thinkertoys which is a reference manual for ways to come up with original ideas (Michalko, 2006).  In his book, he derived a daily practice in which one sits and writes down as many ideas as possible in a specific period of time he puts it this way:

“Give your mind a workout every day.  Set yourself an idea quota for a challenge you are working on, such as five new ideas every day for a week.  You’ll find the first five are the hardest, but these will quickly trigger other ideas.  The more ideas you come up with, the greater your chances of coming up with a winner (Michalko, 2006).”

Each day, the author will sit for 15-minutes and collect as many ideas as possible.  He will post these ideas publicly on the website (see Chapter 3 below).  The author will highlight and elaborate on ideas that seem interesting and offer public comments to provide feedback on the ideas.