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| Criterion |  Systems Thinking Rich Picture |  Facilitation Alignment Mapping |  Innovation Lotus Blossom |  Systems Thinking CATWOE Analysis |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Purposedifferent | A Rich Picture brings an unclear situation onto a shared drawing. It captures actors, tensions, information flows, and blind spots before the team jumps to solutions too early. | When several people work toward one goal but hold different mental maps, Alignment Mapping makes the discrepancies visible. It arranges goals, assumptions, and priorities so shared direction becomes verifiable. | When a central question feels too large, the method breaks it into neighboring topic fields with their own depth of ideation. It holds structure and openness at the same time, so adjacent perspectives don't get lost. This grows an idea space out of a core problem. | CATWOE structures a problem from six viewpoints and prevents too narrow a view of the situation. Different experiences of the system become comparably discussable this way. |
Complexitydifferent | Low | Medium | Low | Medium |
Timedifferent | 30-90 min | 1-2 h | 45-90 min | 45-90 min |
Participantsdifferent | 2-10 | 4-12 | 3-10 | 3-8 |
Formatdifferent | Workshop | Workshop | Workshop | Workshop + async |
Outputdifferent | Rich Picture, Problem Framing Notes | Alignment Map, Open Issues, Decision Questions | Lotus Diagram, Idea Themes, Shortlist | CATWOE Canvas, Root Definition, Stakeholder Perspectives, Constraints |
Tagsno overlap | Systems thinkingSoft systemsFramingVisualization | AlignmentStakeholdersStrategyFacilitation | BrainstormingIdeationCreativityDivergenceWorkshop | Systems thinkingFramingStakeholders |