Free Association Activities: “Blue Skies” 197
Related Activities
- Brain Mapping [36]
- Doodles [37]
Procedure
- Distribute the Lotus Blossom Handout, review the exercise example with the par-
ticipants, and answer any questions they may have. - Tell each group to tape together two sheets of flip-chart paper, side-to-side, to a
wall or other hard surface such as a table. - Instruct them to replicate the drawing in Figure 7.3, starting with writing a central
theme (problem) in the center of the paper, as shown in Figure 7.3. - Have them think of related ideas and concepts and write them in the surrounding
circles, A through H. - Tell them to use each of these ideas as a separate central theme or problem for the
surrounding lotus boxes. - Encourage them to try to generate eight ideas for each of these themes and write
them in the surrounding boxes, 1 through 8.
Debrief/Discussion
Consider having participants debrief using the following questions:- What was most helpful about this exercise?
- What was most challenging?
- What can we apply?
- How would you rate the value of this exercise to helping us with this issue?
- Will this exercise be helpful in the future for other sessions?
- What did you learn?
- What will we be able to use from this exercise?
- What ideas were generated, and which ones were most interesting?
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