Divergent thinking is defined as thinking that strays from the norm. Some studies in the 1960’s tried to correlate divergent thinking with creativity. Scientists of the time created programs to increase divergent thinking in children.
There was a problem with this strategy. Despite all their efforts they could not link divergent thinking to creativity. When asked the question “how are you?”, you could answer “purple”. That could be a creative answer or it could be utter nonsense.
The thing that makes that answer a creative answer would be context. Perhaps, you could relate the color purple to some emotions that you feel when you think of that color. You can consider that explanation creative. But that process of creating the link between the color and your experiences and emotions is actually a process of convergent thinking.
I believe that creativity lies in providing interesting responses that are divergent but can be explained in a way that the general population would accept as the new convergence.
For example, Shakespeare essentially innovated the English language. His use of the word “table” as a verb was completely divergent at the time. Today, we table discussions for later all the time.