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| Criterion |  Facilitation World Café |  Facilitation Dot Voting |  Innovation Lotus Blossom |  Facilitation Consensus Workshop |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Purposedifferent | When a group needs to connect many viewpoints in a short time, World Café creates a calm alternation between closeness and rotation. It sets thinking in motion without forcing the conversation into full-plenary rigidity. | When a workshop has produced too many options and the group needs to condense quickly, dot voting makes preferences visible in a short time. It bundles individual votes into a solid signal for the next selection. | 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. | When a group needs a solid decision without outvoting individual factions, a Consensus Workshop creates a negotiable common ground. It makes agreement, reservations, and open tensions discussable at the same time. |
Complexitydifferent | Medium | Low | Low | Medium |
Timedifferent | 60-180 min | 5-15 min | 45-90 min | 1-3 h |
Participantsdifferent | 12-100+ | 3-20 | 3-10 | 5-30 |
Formatsame | Workshop | Workshop | Workshop | Workshop |
Outputdifferent | Table Notes, Emergent Themes, Shared Questions | Ranked list, Consensus signal, Shortlist | Lotus Diagram, Idea Themes, Shortlist | Consensus Clusters, Theme Titles, Priority Areas |
Tagsno overlap | FacilitationDialogueLarge groupSensemaking | FacilitationVotingConsensusPrioritization | BrainstormingIdeationCreativityDivergenceWorkshop | FacilitationConsensusWorkshopAlignment |