Tools of the Week

This week we decided to present two new tools. After have seen all the different tools that refers to service design, we decided to focus on the Lotus Blossom and Visionning ,that seemed to us potentially sources of innovation. 

Lotus Blossom:

Invented by Yasuo Matsumura, Lotus Blossom technique allows to animate very dynamic brainstorming sessions by getting maximum concentration and participation from the participants. The use of this tool has grown significantly within the definition of service, product, but also to set an experiment between a brand and its consumers or to highlight elements of the brand identity.

The advantage of this tool is that it allows to get out of his usual thought pattern by process of association of ideas.

The wealth of the results obtained can often be surprising.

This tool is often use:

• 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.
•  To create seeds of ideas that can trigger further good  ideas. 

  How it works:

   

• First step : Figure out the problem. In the middle of what we will call the Lotus, we will write the problematic, the topic that we have to explore.
• Second step : We fill the eight boxes around the center with eight ideas relative to the topic in the center.
• Third step : We report these 8 concepts / themes in the center of the eight lotus placed on the outer corners of the page.
• Fourth step : We think again around these eight concepts, trying to find out eight components, ingredients, solutions around each theme. The idea is to try to complete all the boxes to get more ideas. At the end, we will obtain 64 new ideas related to the original question. 

Visioning:

      Visioning is a technique that is used to support a group of stakeholders in developing a shared vision of the future. By asking the group, where they are now and where they can realistically expect to be in the future, you can develop a vision together. The goal of visioning is to develop written and visualized statements of a community’s long term goals and strategic objectives. This method which is settled on the future, install the basis of the future mission.

  

      This tool is often used :

·         When you want to create a common direction of motivation for a group of people.

·         To get an understanding of what you really want to achieve.

·         To get the subconscious engaged before other creative sessions.

·         To help define the problem as a vector towards a desired future.

  How it woks:

   

      This model can be divided in six main steps,

•       Step 1: Collect of information mainly from people involved in the organization, about the organization.
•       Step 2: Brainstorming which consist of an exploration that will help to learn more about the existent things and about their perception by others
•       Step 3: Synthesis that wil sum up the ideas and help to figure out the relevant ideas.
•       Step 4: Highlights triggers that are generators of strong ideas and defined the main themes.
•       Step 5: Create strategies that will be tested to identify if they are viable on long term and if they can be adopted by all. Furthermore, it is also important on this step, to identify if these visions are innovant or not and if they can perhaps be the source of the innovation.
•      Step 6: Implementing change. This last step is mainly the communication step which consists to the development of a flexible strategic plan after have explained and described the vision to the organization.