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DEVELOPING NEW BUSINESS IDEAS Step 1 Step 2 Step 3 Step 4

Diverge Converge

Seeking and Idea Evaluation Planning
shaping generation and for

opportunities selection implementation

Figure 2.3 Divergent–convergent thinking throughout the idea development
process

the innovation journey As we saw in Chapter 1, the Minnesota

Innovation Research Program, a major longitudinal study led by
Andrew van de Ven and others which involved 30 researchers tracking
14 diverse innovations in real time and in their natural field settings,
concluded that the innovation journey is a ‘cycle of divergent and
convergent activities that may repeat over time and at different
organisational levels if resources are obtained to renew the cycle’.34

Later chapters of this book illustrate convergent and divergent
techniques which are particularly well suited to specific steps of the
process. It may appear paradoxical that some of these divergent
techniques may at first almost ‘force’ an imaginative approach. Our
intention is to offer you a structured approach which over time will
become natural and intuitive to you. It is no different to learning how to
drive a car: after all, how many times did you almost crash as a learner
because you were so busy looking down at the gearstick? How many
years ago did you last need to do that?

finding the correct balance While both intuition and logic are

required at each of the four steps, the relative weight of each style of
thinking varies at each step. The shift of emphasis is shown in Table
2.2.