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| Criterion | ![]() Facilitation World Café | ![]() Facilitation Lean Coffee | ![]() Innovation Brainstorming | ![]() Innovation Lotus Blossom |
|---|---|---|---|---|
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 group without a fixed agenda needs to get into useful conversations quickly, Lean Coffee structures the start around interests rather than a presentation. The group itself negotiates which topics get time first and which wait. | When a team faces an open question with many obvious directions, the method first creates breadth instead of premature commitment. It separates idea flow from evaluation and makes lines of thought visible, creating a pool for selection and further development. | 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. |
Complexitydifferent | Medium | Low | Low | Low |
Timedifferent | 60-180 min | 30-90 min | 30-60 min | 45-90 min |
Participantsdifferent | 12-100+ | 3-20 | 4-12 | 3-10 |
Formatsame | Workshop | Workshop | Workshop | Workshop |
Outputdifferent | Table Notes, Emergent Themes, Shared Questions | Prioritized Topics, Discussion Notes, Action Items | Idea pool, Theme clusters, Shortlist | Lotus Diagram, Idea Themes, Shortlist |
Tagsno overlap | FacilitationDialogueLarge groupSensemaking | FacilitationAutonomyDialogue | BrainstormingIdeationCreativityWorkshopDivergence | BrainstormingIdeationCreativityDivergenceWorkshop |



