Triopticon

This technique has been developed to conform with the three principles of anthro-complexity systems interventions:

• Optimise the granularity
• Distribute and diversity the cognition
• Disintermediate decision-makers

The name Triopticon results of the combination ot two words: trichotomy and the Panopticon.

Supporting theory

The technique uses silent listening which implies presenting and then listening to people discussing what has been said without the ability to clarify or explain. As a result individuals listen better and improve communication, at a group level we radically reduce first respondent bias and increase the range of information scanned during situational assessment. So the idea of observation and reflection is important.

Preparation

Different groups of people need to be involved. Each group has specific roles:

• Eagles: Three people with deep expertise from different backgrounds who soar above the field and have enough differences to be interesting, but not so much as to be in major conflict (there is a variation that handles conflict but I am not describing that here).
• Raven groups: Three members of the wider audience, they are the canny ones, they are there to make sense of the ideas.
• Beaver groups which are the recombination of people from the Raven groups (if you have nine Raven groups of three each, then you can have three Beaver groups with nine people in each. As numbers increase you might have parallel Beaver Groups but the idea is these groups synthesis the material, they are the builders and makers.
• An Eagle facilitator who is rather like the conductor of an orchestra and needs subject matter expertise (they could occupy the Eagle role and are there as backup)
• A Raven facilitator who managers the Raven and Beaver Process.
• Owls (normally two or three) who stand aside and act as scribes and reporters.
• A technical team to handle the recording of sessions and also standard forms, electronic capture of ideas etc.

Workflow

English text with any general instructions to be given at the start

For a minor method the table may be omitted

STAGE INSTRUCTION	COMMENTARY & TIPS
first instruction	first set of tips

Do's and Don'ts

Simple bulleted list including common mistakes

Virtual running

Default is to state that it cannot be until we have developed and tested practice. If it can be run virtually then we describe it here.

It is acceptable to add a third column to the workflow if needed

References

Link to other articles on this wiki if they are relevant.

Articles

Specific articles can be referenced here

Blog posts

Link with commentary

Cases

Link to case articles here or third party material