End State Exercise : Begin With The End In Mind
DESCRIPTION: This is a common DesignTeam assignment: build a model of the end state (organization, products, system, mechanism, et cetera). It is a…
Living Systems : Learning From Nature Exercise
DESCRIPTION: To understand organizations, it’s often instructive to look at life and how living things work. In this module, a DesignTeam (or teams)…
Creating a Group Mind Map Exercise
DESCRIPTION: To build a Mind Map is to build a visual association of ideas — words and key phrases that express your important thoughts around a core…
Legends : Role Playing Exercise
DESCRIPTION: This is an exercise in “coming from the future” and solving a problem by assuming a successful result. Participants are asked to project…
Inventions - Description
DESCRIPTION: In this module, each team is given the task of inventing, building and demonstrating a working device that performs some unusual task,…
"Joe Reporter" Interview Exercise
DESCRIPTION: This is an oddball assignment that can be useful. Singly or in small teams, participants go out into the organization and interview…
Interviews as a Group Exercise
DESCRIPTION: In this module, a facilitator or staff member interviews one of the participants (or interviews a panel of 2 or more participants),…
Focused Readings Exercise
DESCRIPTION: A common Scan module is Syntopical Reading: that is, the reading of work from several authors around a given theme. This is the…
Issues Matrix - Exercise For Managing Complex Issues/Problems
DESCRIPTION: A matrix is a simple format that is useful for analyzing many issues. A common DesignTeam assignment is for participants to build a…
Fishbowl - Synthesis - Group Intent Conversation
DESCRIPTION: A “conversation in a fish bowl” is when you have two or more people discuss a topic in front of a larger group, who actively listen yet…