Page 161 - 100 Great Business Ideas: From Leading Companies Around the World (100 Great Ideas)

SUMMARY OF STEPS

I A centrol idea, problem, or issue is written in the center of the
MY lotus blossom diagram.

2. l'articipants brainstorm related ideas, issues, solutions, applica-
tions, and so forth. These are written in the surrounding eight
circles.

3. Each of these eight ideas becomes the center of a new lotus blos-
som.

4. Participants brainstorm related ideas, issues, solutions, applica-
tions, and so forth for each of these eight diagrams.

5. Further iterations may ensue.
6. The resulting ideas are discussed and evaluated.

84/10. MITSUBISHI BRAINSTORMING METHOD

Sadami Aoki of Mitsubishi Resin has developed a Japanese
alternative to traditional Western-style brainstorming. 40 It
follows these steps:

1. Participants are given a chance to warm up by writing
down their ideas before sharing them with others. This
step may take fifteen minutes or longer.

2. Each participant is asked to read his or her ideas aloud,
volunteering to do so as he or she chooses. Participants
are encouraged to write down new ideas that build on the
ideas of others that have been read aloud. Participants
who didn't have very many original ideas at first can wait
and read aloud their piggybacked ideas along with their
original ones.

This reading aloud is similar to what occurs in the U.S.-
developed nominal group technique described later. And
it has become part of the Mitsubishi method for essen-
tially the same reason that it was incorporated into the
nominal group technique: to keep aggressive personali-
ties from dominating a session. But there are important
differences, as you will note after you have compared it to
the nominal group technique.

3. For the next hour or longer, participants explain their ideas
in detail to the group. A group leader creates an "idea
map" on a large writing surface, detailing the inputs of

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