Name: Diverge, Converge, Recombine: Using innovation tools virtually
Uploaded: 2022-02-08T16:17:15.511Z
Duration: 789.77
Description: How can you update the innovation process for Zoom? Product manager at ExxonMobil, Christopher Bailey, leads us through the tools you can use and the pitfalls to watch out for when you take an ideation session online.

Diverge, Converge, Recombine_ Using innovation tools virtually.vtt

English

{{00:00:10}}
The spontaneity and freethinking
that is needed for a successful

{{00:00:13}}
ideation session can be
tricky to replicate online.

{{00:00:16}}
Christopher Bailey takes us through
how to adapt some of the traditional

{{00:00:20}}
innovation process tools and
update them for virtual sessions.

{{00:00:28}}
How does the innovation process
fit into this whole thing?

{{00:00:32}}
The way that fits in, may look
different depending on your goal.

{{00:00:37}}
If you are trying to not just like
come up with a new idea, but then

{{00:00:42}}
also have the community work on and
execute it, then you're gonna have

{{00:00:47}}
a lot of different systems you're
going to have to put in place in

{{00:00:50}}
order to execute based off of that.

{{00:00:51}}
So that sort of defines your
goal that you're going for.

{{00:00:55}}
What I tend to find is that most
teams, when they're trying to do

{{00:00:59}}
virtual innovation, that they're
really just talking about that front

{{00:01:03}}
end piece of creating a novel idea
that you can then go out and start

{{00:01:07}}
building experiments on and put a
team around and go out and execute

{{00:01:11}}
the experimentation phase for that.

{{00:01:14}}
So if we zoom into just that part
of it, what you're really looking at

{{00:01:19}}
is a diverge and converge approach
to generating novel thought.

{{00:01:26}}
And that's a very common approach
in the innovation community for

{{00:01:30}}
your sort of ideation exercises
that you're trying to do.

{{00:01:34}}
But the nice thing about that is that
you can tailor this to a one-hour

{{00:01:39}}
session or to a multi-week session.

{{00:01:43}}
So it's very scalable depending
on what you're trying to look for.

{{00:01:48}}
The general idea is that at the
beginning, while you're diverging, you

{{00:01:52}}
are putting a call for general ideas.

{{00:01:56}}
Maybe a little bit afterwards, you
might put in a couple of stimuli

{{00:02:00}}
prompts to engage that group a little
bit further, get their ideas a little

{{00:02:05}}
bit more outside of the normal.

{{00:02:07}}
And then do some sort of voting
or clearing house where you

{{00:02:11}}
can get sentiment around what
do we think about these ideas?

{{00:02:16}}
And then at that point, have
that sponsor come in and say,

{{00:02:19}}
yeah, here's the line, here's
the ones we want to focus on.

{{00:02:21}}
That's where you're now pivoting
towards the converging side.

{{00:02:25}}
And you're now looking at the different
ideas combining or recombining them in

{{00:02:30}}
different ways and getting down towards
that smaller set of these are the

{{00:02:34}}
ones that we actually want to go for.

{{00:02:36}}
So that's that general
process that you might use.

{{00:02:44}}
Where I kind of want to dive a little
deeper is around that converged and

{{00:02:49}}
diverged and kind of those inner
points where, and you mentioned a

{{00:02:52}}
lot around the stimuli and providing
things like pictures and some kind

{{00:02:58}}
of constraints, different types of
things like that, is there anything

{{00:03:02}}
else that you haven't mentioned yet
that could be useful at these points

{{00:03:06}}
where people might be getting a little
bit blocked, stuck in some of ideas?

{{00:03:11}}
Yeah, there's a set of tools
and there's an ever increasing

{{00:03:17}}
number of these that get created.

{{00:03:19}}
So I'm not going to say
that this is the definitive

{{00:03:22}}
set or anything like that.

{{00:03:24}}
These are some of just my favorites
to use and there are plenty of

{{00:03:29}}
others that you can go out and search
for different creative stimuli.

{{00:03:34}}
So you had mentioned pictures.

{{00:03:36}}
You had mentioned that the constraints.

{{00:03:37}}
Another easy one to do, sort of at
the beginning while people are sort of

{{00:03:42}}
still fresh in their ideas, is doing
brain writing where there's maybe

{{00:03:47}}
two different ways you can do this.

{{00:03:48}}
You can have them just jotting
down their ideas at the beginning,

{{00:03:52}}
that's actually one of the
ways that we like to do it.

{{00:03:53}}
That way you create more anchor
points within the discussion, instead

{{00:03:58}}
of people shouting out their ideas.

{{00:04:00}}
And as soon as one person shouts
out, like all the ideas now start

{{00:04:03}}
to just sort of frame around that.

{{00:04:05}}
And so if you can create more.

{{00:04:07}}
The spots that creates multiple
anchors that people can

{{00:04:10}}
start to diverge off of from.

{{00:04:12}}
So that's one way of brain writing.

{{00:04:14}}
The other way that I've seen
that's common is people will

{{00:04:19}}
write down a couple of ideas.

{{00:04:20}}
And then they'll write those down on a
either digital sticky note somewhere.

{{00:04:26}}
But they'll pass that to another
individual in the virtual group

{{00:04:32}}
and have them build off of it.

{{00:04:33}}
They have to sort of
'yes, and' that idea.

{{00:04:37}}
You tend to find that ideas will
sort of get bigger or crazier or

{{00:04:41}}
more novel associated with that.

{{00:04:43}}
They don't have to build off of
that specific one, but it sort of

{{00:04:47}}
gives them a jumping off point.

{{00:04:48}}
So those are some easy
ones with brain writing.

{{00:04:52}}
Exploring other people's context
is also a really helpful one.

{{00:04:57}}
This may help with the multi-week
forum where you're saying, hey,

{{00:05:03}}
we're trying to solve this problem.

{{00:05:05}}
How would Amazon solve this?

{{00:05:08}}
How would Disney solve this?

{{00:05:09}}
How would Shell or BP or whomever.

{{00:05:13}}
Pick that and then have them explore,
help us understand what are some

{{00:05:17}}
of the values that they have?

{{00:05:19}}
What are the ways that they
like to solve problems?

{{00:05:20}}
What do their products
tend to look like?

{{00:05:23}}
And then use that value system to
say, now let's create some new ideas.

{{00:05:27}}
That's a little bit more
of an advanced technique.

{{00:05:29}}
It requires that they have some
knowledge of who you're talking about.

{{00:05:32}}
So you might have to prompt
them with a little bit of that.

{{00:05:35}}
Other ones that I find pretty
helpful are things like

{{00:05:38}}
the 10 types of innovation.

{{00:05:40}}
That's another helpful one that you
can say let's look at these different

{{00:05:44}}
types and explore just this one area.

{{00:05:47}}
All of the similar nature that happens
across each one of these tools that

{{00:05:52}}
you're using is you're asking them
to think and abstract their context.

{{00:05:58}}
So you've been thinking
about things in this mindset.

{{00:06:02}}
I'm going to force you into a
different context in mindset, and now

{{00:06:06}}
you need to let through that lens.

{{00:06:07}}
And so that's why there's
lots of different tools to get

{{00:06:11}}
people to reshape their lens.

{{00:06:16}}
And you mentioned a lot around this
individual voting kind of system.

{{00:06:20}}
Can you talk a little bit about how
that might help, how that works?

{{00:06:25}}
Depending on the tool that you're
using, the digital tool, it'll

{{00:06:30}}
happen in a number of different ways.

{{00:06:32}}
But if we think about this in
simply voting, some form of

{{00:06:36}}
voting individuals are going to be
placing bets on different ideas.

{{00:06:41}}
To get that right, you want to make
sure that they're voting with the same

{{00:06:47}}
criteria that your sponsor is voting.

{{00:06:50}}
And so just make sure that's clear
when you tell people like, hey, you've

{{00:06:54}}
got this many votes and go out and
you can spread them this way, make

{{00:06:57}}
sure that context is helpful for them.

{{00:06:59}}
But then, say like we're looking
for ideas that look like this, or

{{00:07:03}}
that are successful in this way.

{{00:07:05}}
It is okay to go out and say which
ones are the most intriguing or

{{00:07:10}}
which ones excite you the most.

{{00:07:12}}
Those are also really
good success criteria.

{{00:07:15}}
You just want to make
sure that's super clear.

{{00:07:17}}
The other thing to make sure
is clear is that we're avoiding

{{00:07:22}}
group think by the fact that the
sponsor is the one that actually

{{00:07:27}}
gets to select which things we're
going to be using, going forward.

{{00:07:31}}
And if the audience or the community
is not aware that the ideas getting

{{00:07:36}}
selected are not going to necessarily
be the highest voted ones, that's

{{00:07:41}}
a factor that your sponsor is
using in order to make a decision

{{00:07:45}}
about what success looks like and
which ones they want to go for.

{{00:07:49}}
If that's not clearly stated
at the beginning, then the

{{00:07:52}}
community is gonna get upset
and this was the top voted one.

{{00:07:56}}
And why is that one
not being worked on.

{{00:07:58}}
Oh, because the sponsor knows
that we're already working that

{{00:08:01}}
one, and so we're not going to
focus in on that one right now.

{{00:08:04}}
We're going to plug those people in.

{{00:08:06}}
They can talk with that team, but
now we're going to go for this one

{{00:08:09}}
over here, or while the criteria that
they're using that was clear for the

{{00:08:14}}
group, but he, she sees it through a
different lens or something like that.

{{00:08:18}}
You're going to need that person that
can come in and say, I can make the

{{00:08:23}}
sort of political choices around which
things we want to focus on in here.

{{00:08:27}}
So that voting system, as
simple as it seems to like doing

{{00:08:31}}
digital sticky dots, there's
some easy ways to get it wrong.

{{00:08:35}}
And so make sure that you're doing some
of those things to it to get it right

{{00:08:43}}
Now we really kind of are understanding
this whole process around diverging

{{00:08:47}}
and the kind of facets, those different
arms that come from the starting

{{00:08:53}}
point and how you get people to
think differently, and then the ways

{{00:08:59}}
in which you kind of communicate to
ensure that they know what they're

{{00:09:03}}
expecting at the end of it and sort
of the outcomes and the goals overall.

{{00:09:07}}
But I really want to understand a
little bit more the converged side.

{{00:09:11}}
So how do you converge,
what does this really mean?

{{00:09:16}}
And, when you have a couple of these
different ideas that are kind of

{{00:09:20}}
honing in towards the end, how do
you kind of connect that all up?

{{00:09:23}}
This is admittedly, one
of the harder parts to do,

{{00:09:27}}
particularly in digital forums.

{{00:09:30}}
You need some good tooling for it
and some good structure around the

{{00:09:36}}
process that you're going to use
and how you're going to keep the

{{00:09:38}}
community engaged through this.

{{00:09:40}}
It's really easy to keep them
engaged when you're like going wide

{{00:09:42}}
and like we need input input input,
but here, now you're talking about

{{00:09:47}}
refinement, and starting to actually
park a couple of ideas, and that

{{00:09:52}}
process is a little bit painful.

{{00:09:53}}
Sort of compartmentalise that as
like those are things that you have

{{00:09:57}}
to consider is associated with this.

{{00:10:00}}
There's a range of different
ways that you can do this.

{{00:10:04}}
The easiest way is that you just
say these are the ideas that

{{00:10:08}}
we're selecting and we're creating
projects or ventures or whatever

{{00:10:12}}
to go out and explore those.

{{00:10:14}}
And we just need your input on what are
the assumptions we need to consider.

{{00:10:19}}
And then you're closing it off there.

{{00:10:21}}
So you're sort of saying we've selected
the things we're going for, and now we

{{00:10:25}}
just need your input on some details,
and then we're closing things off.

{{00:10:29}}
That's sort of one end of
the spectrum of convergence.

{{00:10:33}}
A more rigorous area of convergence,
and this is where you need

{{00:10:37}}
some good tooling for this, is
recombining ideas in different ways.

{{00:10:43}}
So one, one way that the sponsor
may look through the ideas,

{{00:10:46}}
particularly if you used a lot of
really creative constraints and

{{00:10:51}}
stimuli in the environment, you're
going to get ideas in there that

{{00:10:54}}
say we should make it invisible.

{{00:10:58}}
Okay.

{{00:10:58}}
What do I do with that?

{{00:11:00}}
And in a lot of people I've
seen them complain about why

{{00:11:04}}
even bring up ideas like that.

{{00:11:06}}
We don't know how to make
something invisible right now.

{{00:11:09}}
Well, right now.

{{00:11:10}}
Watch this in five years and
we'll have that technology.

{{00:11:14}}
And that's a part of it.

{{00:11:16}}
But.

{{00:11:17}}
What's most important about that is
that somebody who thought there's

{{00:11:21}}
something valuable to them about
the idea of it being invisible.

{{00:11:27}}
And so let's unpack that.

{{00:11:29}}
And so you're going to take
maybe a subset of ideas and

{{00:11:31}}
say we want it to be invisible.

{{00:11:34}}
It needs to satisfy this customer.

{{00:11:36}}
And this is what we think that
product is going to look like.

{{00:11:39}}
And as you take a look at those
ideas, unpack first what's valuable

{{00:11:43}}
about each of those individual ideas.

{{00:11:45}}
And so you sort of unpack
that and you'll have a

{{00:11:47}}
listing of what's valuable.

{{00:11:49}}
And then unpack it and say
what do we need to work on?

{{00:11:52}}
What are some of our, how do we, or how
to questions that we have about this?

{{00:11:56}}
Well, how do you make it invisible?

{{00:11:59}}
But the thing on the other side that
I can balance that with as well.

{{00:12:02}}
The thing that I like about
invisibility is the fact that it's

{{00:12:06}}
hidden from the customer's view.

{{00:12:07}}
Like they don't know that
it's actually happening.

{{00:12:09}}
And if you get that value statement
out of there that enables you to now

{{00:12:14}}
recombine that and say, oh, well,
how could we take the product that

{{00:12:19}}
we like and this value of the fact
that it's hidden to the customer,

{{00:12:24}}
they didn't know, or didn't have
to be aware that this was happening

{{00:12:28}}
on their behalf, in a positive way,
and solve some of those challenges.

{{00:12:33}}
And then just start doing some
ideation again on the new ideas.

{{00:12:37}}
So that the simple process
for that, you start off

{{00:12:39}}
with those original ideas.

{{00:12:41}}
You unpack them into a set of value
statements and how to questions.

{{00:12:46}}
And then you look at those
two sets of data and ideate

{{00:12:49}}
on recombined solutions.

{{00:12:51}}
And then from that you select
one out of all that whole set

{{00:12:54}}
that you want to go through.

{{00:12:56}}
So through that unpacking, you're
sort of doing another diverge and

{{00:12:58}}
converge, but it's sort of mini
within, we're using this to recombine

{{00:13:02}}
into a smaller set of ideas.

The spontaneity and freethinking
that is needed for a successful

ideation session can be
tricky to replicate online.

Christopher Bailey takes us through
how to adapt some of the traditional

innovation process tools and
update them for virtual sessions.

How does the innovation process
fit into this whole thing?

The way that fits in, may look
different depending on your goal.

If you are trying to not just like
come up with a new idea, but then

also have the community work on and
execute it, then you're gonna have

a lot of different systems you're
going to have to put in place in

So that sort of defines your
goal that you're going for.

What I tend to find is that most
teams, when they're trying to do

virtual innovation, that they're
really just talking about that front

end piece of creating a novel idea
that you can then go out and start

building experiments on and put a
team around and go out and execute

So if we zoom into just that part
of it, what you're really looking at

is a diverge and converge approach
to generating novel thought.

And that's a very common approach
in the innovation community for

your sort of ideation exercises
that you're trying to do.

But the nice thing about that is that
you can tailor this to a one-hour

So it's very scalable depending
on what you're trying to look for.

The general idea is that at the
beginning, while you're diverging, you

Maybe a little bit afterwards, you
might put in a couple of stimuli

prompts to engage that group a little
bit further, get their ideas a little

And then do some sort of voting
or clearing house where you

can get sentiment around what
do we think about these ideas?

And then at that point, have
that sponsor come in and say,

yeah, here's the line, here's
the ones we want to focus on.

That's where you're now pivoting
towards the converging side.

And you're now looking at the different
ideas combining or recombining them in

different ways and getting down towards
that smaller set of these are the

So that's that general
process that you might use.

Where I kind of want to dive a little
deeper is around that converged and

diverged and kind of those inner
points where, and you mentioned a

lot around the stimuli and providing
things like pictures and some kind

of constraints, different types of
things like that, is there anything

else that you haven't mentioned yet
that could be useful at these points

where people might be getting a little
bit blocked, stuck in some of ideas?

Yeah, there's a set of tools
and there's an ever increasing

So I'm not going to say
that this is the definitive

These are some of just my favorites
to use and there are plenty of

others that you can go out and search
for different creative stimuli.

Another easy one to do, sort of at
the beginning while people are sort of

still fresh in their ideas, is doing
brain writing where there's maybe

You can have them just jotting
down their ideas at the beginning,

that's actually one of the
ways that we like to do it.

That way you create more anchor
points within the discussion, instead

And as soon as one person shouts
out, like all the ideas now start

The spots that creates multiple
anchors that people can

The other way that I've seen
that's common is people will

And then they'll write those down on a
either digital sticky note somewhere.

But they'll pass that to another
individual in the virtual group

They have to sort of
'yes, and' that idea.

You tend to find that ideas will
sort of get bigger or crazier or

They don't have to build off of
that specific one, but it sort of

So those are some easy
ones with brain writing.

Exploring other people's context
is also a really helpful one.

This may help with the multi-week
forum where you're saying, hey,

Pick that and then have them explore,
help us understand what are some

What are the ways that they
like to solve problems?

What do their products
tend to look like?

And then use that value system to
say, now let's create some new ideas.

That's a little bit more
of an advanced technique.

It requires that they have some
knowledge of who you're talking about.

So you might have to prompt
them with a little bit of that.

Other ones that I find pretty
helpful are things like

That's another helpful one that you
can say let's look at these different

All of the similar nature that happens
across each one of these tools that

you're using is you're asking them
to think and abstract their context.

So you've been thinking
about things in this mindset.

I'm going to force you into a
different context in mindset, and now

And so that's why there's
lots of different tools to get

Best Practice

How can you update the innovation process for Zoom? Product manager at ExxonMobil, Christopher Bailey, leads us through the tools you can use and the pitfalls to watch out for when you take an ideation session online. 

thumbnail_9cfa9426-1a1e-42aa-90c5-ebd105407250.jpeg

9cfa9426-1a1e-42aa-90c5-ebd105407250.jpeg

Christopher Bailey

Principal Professional Services Consultant 

Bailey explains diverge and converge and how they are common approaches for ideation exercises in the innovation community. 

Diverge & converge

Brainwriting and exploring people's contexts are two techniques that are useful to use when individuals feel blocked creatively.

Unblocking

When placing bets on different ideas, individuals must ensure they're voting with the same criteria that their sponsor is voting with.

Voting & clearing house

Recombining is at the more rigorous end of the convergence spectrum and it requires good tooling.
The first step is to start with original ideas, unpack them into a set of value statements and how to questions, and utlimately, look at those two sets of data and ideate on recombined solutions.