Diverging and Converging for Successful Innovation in Higher Education

Quick Introduction

This article has been written for the ISPIM Teaching and Coaching Special Interest Group.

Skills needed by employers and the workforce of the future

With AI, automation and other technologies disrupting many industries, employers are seeking to hire individuals who can work well in teams, collaborate with diverse stakeholders, communicate at multiple levels, creatively solve problems, understand the commercial implications of their decisions and manage change and innovation (World Economic Forum Report, 2020). However, gaps continue to exist between the knowledge students acquire during higher education, and the skills they need to succeed in an ever-changing graduate workplace.

Universities seek to strengthen students’ employability skills using team-based activities and projects. Engaging in teamwork, however, is a challenge for many students. A student’s confidence level, personality type, cultural background, and proficiency in the taught language can all have an impact on engagement and inclusion.

Diverging and converging – as used in industry

The approach of diverging and converging is often used in industry as an integral part of design thinking, creativity and innovation related team activities. However, there has been little pedagogic research into the use of these techniques for teaching and learning in team-based activities and projects in higher education, or of the benefits students gain in terms of engagement, collaboration and inclusion. This blog post presents emerging findings from a study carried out by the authors Tony Morgan and Lena J. Jaspersen jaspersen, in conjunction with Louisa Hill and Emma Peasland, at the 英国利兹大学 .

Diverge and converge techniques are typically used as part of a two-step process to explore specific problems or opportunities widely or deeply before taking focused action:

1. Diverge – This step involves generating many different and diverse inputs into a task. The inputs are created by individuals working in isolation of each other to avoid (consciously or unconsciously) constraining, influencing or biasing the inputs of others. For example, during idea generation, team members work individually to generate and write down a wide range of ideas to address a specific problem or opportunity. They do this without sharing or discussing their thoughts and ideas with other members of the team.
2. Converge – This step focuses on the evaluation and selection of inputs generated in the diverge step, through group discussion, prioritisation and agreement. The collective power of the team is then used to make decisions. For example, during idea prioritisation, team members collaboratively review and develop the ideas generated. The team assesses each idea and agrees its relative value and feasibility in comparison to the other ideas generated. Once all ideas have been reviewed and prioritised, a limited number of ideas are selected for further review and development.

The rationale for applying diverge and converge techniques in industry is that they facilitate a more diverse set of inputs and generate a higher quality set of outputs in terms of higher value ideas and solutions.

New research into diverging and converging in higher education

Our research project used qualitative methods to analyse students’ reflections on the use of diverge and converge in team-based learning. It took input from a rich data set of students’ reflective journals and assignment reports from the University of Leeds’ flagship Innovation Thinking and Practice module, supplemented by alumni interviews.

The module places students into diverse interdisciplinary teams. Each team is assigned a real-world innovation challenge developed in collaboration with experts from industry, government, and non-profit organisations. Student teams are guided through a series of facilitated activities to progress their project. Activities include researching the challenge, developing empathy for stakeholders, generating and prioritising ideas, developing prototypes and commercial value and communicating innovation, including pitching to industry and academic experts. Many of the facilitated activities involve the practical application of divergence and convergence techniques.

Benefits of diverging and converging in higher education

Analysis of the three data sources surfaced strong evidence of students deriving benefit from engaging in diverge and converge techniques during their projects. These benefits can be summarised as primarily falling into the following categories:

• Benefits arising from diversity of inputs – for example, students highlighted how the interdisciplinary nature of their teams encouraged more diverse inputs. Students also reflected on how diverging prevented team members’ thinking from being biased or unduly influenced by others in their team and the benefits this generated in terms of the diversity of the inputs generated.
• Benefits arising from quality of outputs – in the reflective journals, assignment essays and alumni interviews, students highlighted how the quality of their teams outputs was improved by diverging and converging.
• Benefits for more introverted students – specific benefits were identified for quieter and more introverted students of using diverge and converge techniques. For example, students described how the process gave them “a voice” which they might not otherwise have had in standard group discussion and teamwork.
• Benefits for non-native speakers– students where English was not their first language reported that diverge and converge techniques enabled them to contribute on a more equal footing. Native speakers reflected that the technique helped them to appreciate better the important inputs that international students can make.

Pro-active student adoption of diverge and converge techniques during other activities – some students reported that after learning how to use diverge and converge techniques, they applied the same approach when undertaking other team activities and benefitted from doing so. This would seem to indicate it would be beneficial to signpost to all students that they can and should take this approach and encourage them to do so where relevant.

Summary and next steps

This blog on diverging and converging is based on a wider pedagogic research project on interdisciplinary and team-based teaching and learning.

If you’d like to find out more and hopefully use this approach yourself, here’s a few things which might help:

• Access additional information about our research, including links to a simple “how to” guide
• Our book Design Thinking for Student Projects provides guidance for running many diverge-converge activities (and lots more besides!), including links to free online resources

The book also has a LinkedIn group - please let us know if you'd like to join

• Article about our students in action: https://business.leeds.ac.uk/undergraduate/news/article/923/innovation-students-wow-industry-experts

Lastly, if you use this approach already, or plan to adopt it, let us know as we’d love to hear and learn from you.

Many thanks, Tony and Lena.

Tony Morgan, Associate Professor in Innovation Management Practice, Leeds University Business School.

Dr Lena Jaspersen, University Academic Fellow in Innovation Management, Leeds University Business School.

?

?

?

?

?

?

?