Lotus Blossom is a creative-thinking technique that helps expand thinking beyond the usual paths. It is a framework for idea generation, starting from one central theme, where eight conceptual themes grow out from the main theme and each of them are used as central theme to generate additional themes.

The tool is quite useful in helping generate a number of ideas quickly. Further it can be used when you want to develop creative ideas, when you are having problems creating more ideas, when you are trapped by a single mode of thinking, or when you want to create seeds of ideas that can trigger further good ideas.

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Draw a square in the middle of your paper and write down the central theme in it. Think of 8 related ideas and write them around a square using a new square for each idea.

2. Take each of the 8 previous themes and create 8 new themes around it. Write them in new squares.

3. Repeat the previous step of the process, surrounding each of the copied idea cards with secondary ideas, using only the copied idea cards as stimuli. This should result in ideas which are further removed from the original problem.

4. This can lead to many ideas, as in the diagram below. You do not have to fill in every space - if ideas run out, you can move on. Also, if an idea seems to be leading somewhere, you can repeat the whole process ad infinitum until you get somewhere or nowhere.

5. When you are working in a group of people, you can rotate them around the lotus. Thus a person puts one secondary idea against a copied idea and then moves on to the next copied idea. This creates a dance around the ideas, moving the thinking on at each step.

Here is an example where a team might start brainstorming ways to run better meetings using the Lotus Blossom Technique –

The Lotus Blossom works to stretch thinking away from the rut that can surround the original problem by using ideas as triggers for further thinking, thus asking you to move further way from the problem than you might otherwise go. Using this technique, you’ll discover that ideas continually evolve into other ideas and applications, as ideas seem to flow outward with a conceptual momentum all their own.

An important aspect of this technique is that it shifts you from reacting to a “static” snapshot of the problem and will encourage you to examine the significant themes of the problem and the relationships and connections between them. The connections you make between the themes and ideas and applications will sometimes create a emergent new property or feature not previously considered.

Use the Lotus Blossom in your next team meeting or project! Enjoy!