Lotus Diagram Template
Visualize themes and explore alternative paths with a Lotus Diagram Template. Innovate when brainstorming and sharing ideas.
Trusted by 65M+ users and leading companies
About the Lotus Diagram Template
The lotus diagram template is a creative-thinking technique, also known as the "lotus blossom technique.” Proposed by Michael Michalko, it helps you expand your thinking beyond your usual paths. The lotus blossom technique focuses the power of brainstorming on areas of interest by using a visual representation of an idea. It's similar to mind mapping (but more structured) and pushes you in ways you don’t find in classic mind mapping.
What is a lotus diagram?
A lotus diagram is a brainstorming and organization tool. It helps define key concepts or parts of a broader picture. The center of the diagram represents the main idea, with eight surrounding boxes representing additional concepts.
Brainstorming can be a frustrating experience. Sometimes, your team comes in with a thousand ideas they’re ready to share. Other times, the well runs dry. A lotus diagram can empower you to run smoother, more effective brainstorming sessions. Use this lotus diagram template to visualize themes and explore alternative paths.
How to use a lotus diagram template
Start with a central idea or theme, and then expand outwards with solution areas or related themes in an iterative manner. The technique encourages you to have a fully fleshed-out idea space before considering the idea completed.
Benefits of a lotus diagram template
Many teams benefit from using a lotus diagram template, mainly because it gives a twist to a regular brainstorming session. Here are a few advantages of using the lotus diagram:
1. Have better brainstorming sessions
Lotus diagrams encourage lateral thinking. If people get stuck, you can return to the diagram to generate ideas that might be tangentially related to your main topic.
2. Promote logical thinking
In using a lotus diagram, you’re constantly filing topics according to their relationship to the main topic. That makes it a helpful tool for keeping your meetings focused and on task.
3. Foster creativity
A lotus diagram encourages you to ask critical, incisive questions about the main topic, generating new ideas for discussion.
4. Break down complex ideas
Lotus diagrams can be useful for discussing complex topics with many moving parts. By uncovering related ideas, you can better understand the main idea at the center of the diagram.
Getting started with Miro's lotus diagram template
When you use Miro to create the lotus diagram, you can:
Have endless space for your collaboration. Brainstorm ideas with your distributed teammates as if you were all in one room, and engage everyone in one visual workspace to ideate and discuss all topics together.
Customize and fill out the lotus diagram template as you go along. Change colors and add sticky notes and arrows to experiment with different ideas.
Upload documents and images to make your collaboration and ideation session more visual and vivid.
Save your completed lotus diagram in .JPEG or .PDF to always have it ready to view.
What is the purpose of a lotus diagram?
A lotus diagram is a brainstorming and organization tool. It is an effective thinking tool that helps you logically organize information to solve complex problems and manage tasks.
When should lotus diagrams be used?
A lotus diagram can be used in various ways within an organization. It is best used in a brainstorming process to help break down broad topics into smaller components to offer easy analysis and prioritization within a task.
Get started with this template right now.
Meeting Reflection Template
Works best for:
Meetings, Brainstorming, Team Meetings
When schedules get hectic, “learning by doing” becomes the default way to learn. So make time for your team to learn in other valuable ways — by reflecting and listening. Led by “learners,” (team members who share with the rest of the team), a meeting reflection lets teammates share new information about a client’s business or an internal business initiative, offer problem-solving techniques, or even recommend books or podcasts worth checking out. Meeting reflections also encourage colleagues at all levels to engage in each other’s professional development of their teammates.
Influence Diagram Template
Works best for:
Business Management, Decision Making, Diagrams
See the big picture of any business decision with this Influence Diagram Template. You’ll define the decision you have to make and brainstorm everything that could impact it. When you build connections between these factors, you’ll be able to put the right amount of weight into each one as you make your decision.
Block Diagram Template
Works best for:
Mapping, Software Development, Diagrams
Use this template to illustrate technical systems. Blocks represent important objects in the system, and arrows demonstrate how the objects relate to each other. Perfect for engineers, workflow managers, or anyone trying to build a better process.
UML State Machine Diagram Template
Works best for:
Software Development, Mapping, Diagrams
Visualize the workflow of a process and how objects perform actions based on different stimuli. State machine diagrams are valuable for understanding how an object responds to events at the different stages of its life cycle. They are also helpful for visualizing event sequences in a system.
UML Activity Diagram Template
Works best for:
Diagrams
Use our Activity Diagram template to break down activities into smaller decisions and subprocesses. Improve and optimize systems and processes in I.T., business management, and more.
DevOps Roadmap Template
Works best for:
Documentation, Product Management, Software Development
DevOps teams are constantly creating code, iterating, and pushing it live. Against this backdrop of continuous development, it can be hard to stay abreast of your projects. Use this DevOps Roadmap template to get a granular view of the product development process and how it fits into your organization's product strategy. The DevOps Roadmap lays out the development and operations initiatives you have planned in the short term, including milestones and dependencies. This easy-to-use format is easily digestible for audiences such as product, development, and IT ops.