Exploring the effects of a convergence intervention on the artifacts of an ideation activity during sensemaking

Organizations must enlist the efforts of groups to solve important problems. Six patterns of collaboration describe group behavior as they work towards solutions. The convergence patterns of collaboration- reduce and clarify are key in helping a group focus effort on issues that are worthy of further attention. These group behaviors have not been extensively studied in the literature. In the current study, we further this research effort by exploring and characterizing the effects of a fast focus intervention on an ideation artifact. Researchers conducted an observational case study of executives addressing a real task within a large organization. Analysis of the problem statements generated during a problem identification and clarification session revealed several implications about convergence activities. The FastFocus thinkLet was found to reduce the number of concepts from 246 down to 30, a reduction of 76%. Ambiguity was reduced from 45% in the ideation artifact to 3% in the converged artifact. A serendipitous event in the field allowed researchers a window into comprehensiveness, showing that the FastFocus thinkLet may not contribute to comprehensiveness as much as was previously thought. Finally implications for brainstorming instructions were identified that may contribute to reduced ambiguity in ideation artifacts.