Most people aren’t good at creative problem solving for two reasons: (1) They are not trained in how to be creative. (2) They don’t understand group strength well enough to harness their power to maximize group creativity.
大多数人不善于创造性地解决问题，有两个原因：（1）没有接受过创造性培训；（2） 不太了解团队的力量，无法最大限度地发挥团队创造力。
A key element of creativity is applying existing knowledge to a new problem. The more people getting involved in solving it, the more knowledge there is to work on it. Unfortunately, research shows that the traditional brainstorming methods fail to achieve that goal. When groups get together to exchange ideas, they actually come up with fewer ideas overall than if they each had worked alone.
创造力的一个关键要素是将现有知识应用于新问题。参与解决问题的人越多，解决问题的知识就越多。然而，研究表明，传统的头脑风暴方法无法实现这一目标。当团队聚在一起交流想法时，他们实际上提出的想法总体上比他们单独工作时少。
To fix this problem, you should consider the two stages of group problem-solving: divergence and convergence. Divergence happens when the group considers as many different potential solutions as possible. Convergence happens when the various proposed solutions are evaluated and reduced to a smaller set of candidate solutions to the current problem.
要解决这个问题，你应该考虑团队解决问题的两个阶段：分散和集中。当团队考虑尽可能多的不同候选解决方案时，就分散。当评估各种建议的解决方案并将其简化，减少为当前问题的少数几个候选解决方案时，就集中。
The essential principle of group creativity is that individuals working alone diverge, whereas group members working together converge. In groups, once a member states a potential solution, that makes others think about the problem similarly. That is why groups working together diverge less than individuals working alone.
团队创造力的基本原则是，单独工作时分散，而团队成员聚集在一起时集中。在团队中，一旦一个成员提出了一个潜在的解决方案，就会让其他人对这个问题有相似的想法。这就是为什么一起工作的团队比单独工作的个人差异小。
Therefore, be aware of when to diverge and when to converge. For example, early in the problem-solving process, have group members work alone to write down statements describing the problem. Then get them back to discuss their descriptions. The group discussion will lead everyone to accept one or a small number of these statements to work on - this is healthy convergence.
因此，要注意何时分散，何时集中。例如，在问题解决过程的早期，让小组成员单独写下描述问题的陈述，然后让他们回去讨论各自的描述。团队讨论将引导每个人接受其中的一个或一小部分陈述——这是一种合理的集中。
When starting to generate solutions, you again want divergence. Have people work alone to start. Then collect people’s initial ideas and send them around to others and allow the divergence to continue as everyone individually builds on the ideas of other members.
当开始生成解决方案时，您再次需要分散。让人们单独工作，然后收集人们最初的想法，并将其发给其他人，让分散继续，以便让每个人都在其他成员的想法基础上构建。
Finally, let the group discuss the resulting ideas. This discussion will gradually lead the group to converge on a small number of candidate solutions.
最后，让团队讨论由此产生的想法。讨论将逐渐导致团队集中于少数几个候选解决方案。
This simple method works effectively, because it respects what individuals and groups do best.
这种简单的方法非常有效，因为它让个人和团体表现最佳。
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