Convergent Thinking
These articles are about the need for critical thinking and convergent thinking in exploring relevant creative solutions to problems. One could say there is a two phase process to coming up with creative ideas to act on. First one engages divergent, wild, uninhibited thinking to come up with new ideas. Then one needs to move to the second phase of convergent, critical thinking, wherein you sort through which ideas are relevant and which are not. Often in collaborative efforts these two thinking styles clash because teams are not utilizing them at the appropriate times. This clash of thinking styles that often stifles creativity can be tempered with the understanding that both wild, divergent thinking and convergent, critical thinking are needed for relevant creativity to emerge.
Renowned Creativity expert Michael Michalko shares an interesting story about the invention of velcro and offers a couple tests for pattern recognition and lateral thinking when problem solving.