Ecocycle Planning

Duration: 1 - 2 hours
Difficulty Level: Hard
Group Size: < 20
Level of interaction: High
Multilanguage fit: No
Preparation Time: Long
Purpose: Development, Knowledge Construction
Type of Online Events: Webinar, Workshop

Identify obstacles and opportunities for progress

Ecocycle planning is a method for projects and strategies that allows all participants simultaneously to reorganise an action plan by exploring four fundamental steps. Participants can transform stagnation into progress and failure into success through a cycle of birth, maturity, creative destruction, and renewal.

Use this method to:

Identify waste and opportunities to free up resources.
Bring and hear all perspectives at once.
See the broader picture and the details.

Steps to apply this method:

Preparation

1. Choose a topic or theme that will be explored. For example, review the service portfolio of a department or accelerating performance of an executive team. Optionally you can select the main topic after an initial brainstorming session with the same group of participants.

2. Choose a tool to facilitate the learning activity and allocate time in your session for participants to try the selected tool, if they are unfamiliar with it.

3. Prepare a set of questions to guide brainstorming in each area of the cycle:

Birth: What activities have just started?
Maturity: What activities are still running?
Creative Destruction: What activities may be stopped?
Renewal: What activities need to be started or improved or supported?

Delivery

Start the learning activity:

1. Brief the participants and explain the learning activity and requirements.

2. Present the example prepared and topic or theme that will be explored.

3. Introduce the tool to facilitate the learning activity.

4. Show the previously designed space without zooming into the content, and explain the structure.

5. Follow a similar dynamic as in the 1-2-4-All method and explain it to the participants:

individually (5 minutes): Participants silently list aspects they consider key for the topic.

in pairs (10 minutes): Invite the pairs to revise and organise the Post Its. New items can be added.

in groups of four (20 minutes): Participants organise the stickies on the Ecocycle, one group focusing on one assigned area, in separate breakout rooms.

as a whole group (30 min): The facilitator asks in plenary each group to share their results with the others and leads a common analysis on using 15% solution.

NOTE
For the learning activity, you will need a timer. Depending on the phase of the learning activity, participants can mute their microphones.