The Creativity Diamond—A Framework to Aid Creativity

Abstract

There are many facets to creativity, and the topic has a profound impact on society. Substantial and sustained study on creativity has been undertaken, and much is now known about the fundamentals and how creativity can be augmented. To draw these elements together, a framework was developed called the creativity diamond, formulated on the basis of reviews of prior work, as well as the consideration of 20 PhD studies on the topics of creativity, design, innovation, and product development. The framework embodies the principles that quantity of ideas breeds quality through selection, and that a range of creativity tools can provoke additional ideas to augment our innate creativity. The creativity diamond proposed is a tool consisting of a divergent phase associated with the development of many distinctive ideas and a convergent phase associated with the refinement of ideas. The creativity diamond framework can be used to prompt and help select which tool or approach to use in a creative environment for innovative tasks. The framework has now been used by many students and professionals in diverse contexts.

Influence of Analytic Processing on Divergent and Convergent Thinking Tasks: The Role of Rational and Experiential Thinking Styles

“…Divergent thinking is an open-ended psychological process that emphasizes unconventionality, searching for variation, and exploring answers from different aspects, whereas convergent thinking emphasizes finding a single solution through analysis and deductive reasoning ( Zmigrod et al 2015 ). Generally, creativity can be achieved based on a combination of divergent and convergent thinking ( Childs et al 2022 ). Two prominent measures used in creativity research are the Alternative Uses Task (AUT, Guilford 1967 ) and the Remote Associates Task (RAT, Mednick 1962 ), which are most commonly used to assess divergent and convergent thinking, respectively ( Cortes et al 2019 ).…”

“…In contrast, some researchers have argued that analytic processing plays a critical role in the creative process ( Kaufmann and Vosburg 1997 ), and high-level creative problem-solving requires a rational and “rigorous information-processing model” ( Rothenberg 1990 ). The Creativity Diamond Framework ( Childs et al 2022 ) considers analytic thinking as an important tool for fostering creativity. Barr et al ( 2015 ) also confirmed a positive relationship between analytic processing and RAT creative task performance.…”

WikiLink: An Encyclopedia-Based Semantic Network for Design Creativity

“…Much research has endeavored to propose novel approaches for idea generation ( Childs et al 2022 ). The diverse idea generation techniques include brainstorming ( Osborn 1953 ), brainwriting ( Geschka 1983 ), checklists ( Ivanov and Cyr 2014 ) and synectics ( VanGundy 1988 ).…”

“…In many design models, the design creativity process involves two important phases: divergence and convergence ( Childs et al 2022 ). For example, there are rounds of divergent and convergent phases in the “double diamond” design process model ( The Design Council 2017 ).…”

Understanding creativity process through electroencephalography measurement on creativity-related cognitive factors

“…The former is mainly based on divergent thinking which is about finding different creative solutions to problems while the latter is mainly about insights of problem solving ( Benedek and Fink, 2019 ). Most times, creative ideas are generated based on the combination of the two processes ( Childs et al, 2022 ). This has been supported from existing cognitive models of creativity such as four-stage models ( Basadur and Gelade, 2005 ; Miller, 2014 ), dual-process models ( Gabora, 2010 ; Nijstad et al, 2010 ; Gabora et al, 2014 ), tripartite-process models ( Leschziner and Brett, 2019 ), and cognitive-factor process models ( Bhattacharya and Petsche, 2005 ).…”