Since 2020, Dreamocracy has been training Brussels Environment (BE) civil servants in collective intelligence tools. In order to move towards more collaborative modes of governance, BE has commissioned Particitiz, which has called on Dreamocracy, to train 180 agents in the principles and tools of collective intelligence and creativity.
These training courses have made it possible to:
- Present the advantages of collective intelligence in terms of the different objectives pursued, and the conditions necessary for its emergence, in order to give participants the confidence to adopt and implement effective collective intelligence methods that transform the way things are done and enable new practices to be developed, while at the same time providing them with sufficient knowledge and skills to continue to develop these practices independently.
- Enabling the practical appropriation of highly practical tools for coming up with ideas around issues that are immediately useful to staff.
- Put collective creativity into practice to develop and implement innovative solutions, such as new formats for citizen meetings, new methods for sharing knowledge internally, or devising solutions to concrete public policy challenges.
- After the training session, encourage participants to take ownership of the ideas and put them into practice in their own context.
Services provided
- Listening deeply, clarifying creative challenges and systemic analysis
- Enabling constructive dialogue between a diversity of participants
- Ideating to enlarge the range of policy options and the Overton Window
- Co-creation, collaboration and teamwork
Methods used
During these courses, a number of tools and methods were passed on and practised by the participants, in a spirit of ‘learning by doing’, in particular :
- Energizers and boosters (such as the human knot, equilateral triangles and many others) and other creative warm-ups to prepare the group for productive interactions.
- Creative Problem Solving for finding innovative solutions to complex challenges, including ideation boosters to facilitate the generation of original ideas (including: reverse thinking, personae, brainwriting, walking ideation…) and convergence tools to select and deepen ideas (such as the PPCO evaluation matrix, the evaluation target…).
- Clarification, ideation and development techniques such as design thinking, photo-language, the famous ‘Bono hats’, the ‘X curve’ method or the design sprint to support change processes, etc.
- Emotional intelligence tools (emotions tree, the emotions matrix, the emotions map, human thermometer) to reinforce the quality and efficiency of exchanges
A total of 450 days of training in collective intelligence for environmental management
Among the 180 trained agents who are now ready to apply collective intelligence methods in their departments, the feedback shows that they are being used on a daily basis. Evaluations of the training have been very positive.
