I watched an online webinar once on applying design thinking in the pursuit of social impact that was presented by Stanford Social Innovation Review. There were lots of things I took away from it, but the one I use the most is the importance of distinguishing whether you are focusing or flaring. Here's a helpful visual for this.
Flaring is the top of the funnel. It's when you're going wide to generate ideas, gather information, listen to and learn from different sources and most importantly not to close yourself off to any of the ideas no matter how crazy they seem. Focusing comes when you've spent some time flaring and then need to synthesize, test, tinker and start to actually land some of these ideas, concepts, etc.
It's important to distinguish when you are doing either. Both for yourself as an individual and when you're working with others. It helps to set the ground rules, get in the right mindset and ensures that you aren't frustrating either process by trying to introduce the other.
It's also a helpful check to think about what you, your team, your organization, your family have been spending time doing. Have you been keeping a good balance of both? It can be a helpful check sometimes, especially if you're feeling stuck. Sometimes switching to the other can help you gain some momentum back.
I'm actually shifting to focus from a period of flaring. I love learning new things and am always hungry for more knowledge. The tricky part I have to watch is staying too much in flare because I just love the idea generation. I'm ready to spend a little more time though digging deeper into some concepts that are resonating and strengthening my focus muscles.
Being a Force for Good 