Diverge To Converge

I was working with someone recently who showed me their whiteboard with ideas on many post-it notes and scribbles that might become something. It looked energetic and exciting…kind of. But they were stuck, not on options but on priorities.

Too many options for too long don’t help us move from stuck to clear. First, we diverge: open up possibilities. Then we converge: narrow down and choose. Most of us forget that both parts are necessary. We either chase new ideas and options without committing. In a room full of experts, there is always a room full of articulate options!

It can be hard to manage, and I have seen many leaders lead to diverge well, and draw in all the options from the room, but leave the group hanging on the ‘what matters most’ part. Or we try to decide too early, shutting things down before they’ve had space to breathe. Both wider and narrower matter, but it is all about timing.

In a strategy session recently, I was shown a long list of options they could start (and never had). All good. All possible. But they were frozen. When I asked which idea they kept thinking about even when they tried not to, they knew the answer immediately. Their inner expert was pointing to a choice. It just needed to be named.  Sometimes the prompt to ‘converge’, to prioritise is missed.

I think we often mistake indecision for confusion, when really we’re just caught between creating and choosing.  Many are surprised by how prioritisation removes the confusion in the room, and many don’t step into prioritisation soon enough. I was asked to observe a debrief after an Olympics that lasted two days.  The leader was surprised that the opportunity for every expert on the team to share their lessons and learning ended up as two days of confusion.  I pointed out that on my count of decisions, there were three decisions made in 2 days!  Diverge uncovered the options, but converge was missing.

I see this play out in meetings and reviews all the time. Smart people. Good intentions. Everyone looking to uncover scenarios, explore opportunities, and surface risks. The divergence gets stretched and explored too long. We stay in brainstorm mode, in “what if” mode, long after the room is ready to shift due to the fear of missing out; a mental model deep in human nature, and so we miss the natural close, that point where we need to start aligning, prioritising, choosing.

Often, we’re so focused on unlocking the expertise and insight in the room that we forget: narrowing down is just as important as opening up. If we want to make others’ thinking visible, we also need to make their priorities visible, not just their input. That’s where real clarity lives. So if you're leading or contributing to something that feels wide open right now, try asking people to prioritise while they’re brainstorming. Not after. Not later. It doesn’t shut things down; it sharpens them. It’s a way to strategically simplify your system and empower alignment and decision-making in the moment, not weeks down the track.

Here are three things to notice in your own world:

1. When divergence overstays. Are you still creating options when it’s actually time to choose? You’ll often feel this as a kind of drift or fatigue or as my kids say ‘awkward silence’… in conversation.  People are ready to prioritise and act.

2. Where priorities stay private. Is everyone offering insight, but no oneis willing to say what matters most to them? That’s a sign to invite convergence.

3. What calls you back. Amidst the noise, and the options, which idea, path, or possibility keeps returning? That might be the thread to converge on!

   
   

This week look around and spot where the energy is. Are people exploring endlessly, or starting to align? When we balance possibility with priority, alignment speeds up and decisions stick.