Number of words – 141

To understand how Divergence and Convergence function together in sequential back and forth rounds, consider Thomas Edison’s development of the light bulb. Prior to Edison’s work, to produce light you had to start and then maintain a fire. That is you had to keep wood burning in a fireplace, wax in a candlestick, oil in a lantern. An effective process of Divergence and Convergence might have lead to additions or to try to develop better sources of light, to come up with a more efficient type of oil a better wax. Safer protective lantern glass or some other such improvement. Instead Edison and his assistants came up with a wholly new box: incandescence. The fundamental premise of the incandescent light bulb is to preclude the filament from burning.

Excerpted from ‘Thinking in new boxes’ by Alan Iny and Luc de Brabandere