Thematic groups
This method is a simplified and faster variation of the World Café method, which I have successfully implemented and tested. The goal is for each participant to contribute to the co-construction of ideas on given themes, leveraging collective intelligence.
How it works
Let’s take an example. Imagine a group of 27 people. It is divided into three teams of nine. Each team has 30 minutes to work in parallel on a given topic. For example: What are the qualities needed to effectively welcome young people in cultural and social structures within a city? In each group, one person is designated to take notes and synthesize the ideas to present them later.
Steps of the process
- Brainstorming (10 minutes): Each participant proposes ideas on the theme, either orally or in writing (markers and paper are provided). This step aims to gather as many ideas as possible.
- Structuring (5 minutes): The ideas are organized and structured, ideally visually (for example, in the form of a diagram). Tools like scissors, tape, or glue can be used to group or reorganize elements. This step lasts about 5 minutes.
- Sharing experiences (10 minutes): Participants exchange personal experiences related to the proposals. For example, on the theme of welcoming, they might discuss how to remain kind in difficult situations.
Once these steps are completed, the groups remain at their tables and work on a new theme following the same process.
The challenge is to move beyond a simple list of ideas, which might seem to immediately answer the question. What is enriching is to deepen the embodiment of the topic through the sharing of experiences.
Key points
- Groups should consist of fewer than 10 people to encourage rich and attentive exchanges.
- It is essential to mix participants to include individuals from different services or positions.
- The structured exchange during the experience-sharing phase goes beyond informal discussion and aligns with collectively defined objectives.
Expected outcomes
One of the main goals is to strengthen mutual understanding among participants and build trust within the group. Depending on the time available, two or three themes can be addressed (two often being sufficient).
Presentation of results
At the end of the session, time is dedicated to a collective presentation. For example, if two themes were addressed by three groups:
- For each theme, one person per group summarizes orally in two minutes what was developed.
- During this oral presentation, the documents produced are projected using a visualizer (a small camera that projects the content on a large screen). This allows for a complementary approach between written and oral content: the written support facilitates collective listening.
Audio recordings made during these presentations can be saved and shared via a collaborative space (such as a drive). These recordings, along with the written documents and possible transcriptions, are then used to produce a synthesis. This synthesis can lead to concrete recommendations or even a charter developed by the group.
In the context of businesses, as well as in associative, social, artistic, cultural mediation, cultural action, initial or professional training, and social action settings, mobilizing the collective intelligence of participants is a very powerful lever. It enables mutual enrichment, improved relationships, stronger cohesion, the emergence of ideas, the invention of projects, greater engagement, and more.
Collective intelligence tools are also powerful democratic tools. They have been largely developed within the field of popular education, where the contribution of each individual is valued far more than in the national education system, which, in France, unfortunately often remains too traditional in its approaches.
I have frequently participated in collective intelligence workshops, and I have facilitated, applied, refined, adapted, and even invented a number of them. Here, you will find a collection of tools that I have personally used, which are integrated into the methods I propose, supported by real-life use cases. I believe these tools are highly worth sharing, as I have seen so many beneficial effects from them! I often find myself thinking, during collective moments such as conferences, for example: it’s a shame to limit ourselves to passive listening—all these minds gathered together could, if mobilized more effectively, produce something greater collectively.
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The Shared Secret
When the intimate becomes collective: a method of collective intelligence through whispering, listening and creation.
Creating a space where the intimacy of a whisper becomes a collective work. Engaging empathic listening, emotional regulation and creative (…) -
The Implementation of Methods
When Words Are No Longer Enough: Toward an Embodied Transformation of Professional Practices
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Cooperative Narratives
Creating polyphonic narrative devices to transform academic knowledge into living and operative knowledge.
How can we overcome the limits of academic narrative to create truly shared knowledge? A concrete experience of collective writing devices that (…) -
For an ecology of dispensability
Rethinking authority and transmission.
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The Group Flag
Between cohesion and freedom: the fertile paradox of shared culture.
How can a common symbol liberate singularities? I propose here a reflection on the paradoxical role of the “group flag” function as guarantor of (…) -
The State of Openness
For democratic and transformative facilitation.
How can we cultivate a welcoming posture that allows everyone to contribute fully? Openness is not a method but an inner state that transforms our (…) -
Formalizing the informal
Informality, essential to learning, resists structure while calling for it. How to tame it.
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Framework, purpose and transgression
So as not to get lost along the way.
When the framework of a project becomes inadequate, transgressing it often allows for better achievement of the objectives by prioritizing lived (…) -
Speech takes on PowerPoint
For more useful collective exchanges.
PowerPoint presentations hinder collective intelligence by rigidifying exchanges—this is well-known and documented—yet they remain almost (…) -
Collective surveying of texts
Enrich a text with the intelligence of other readers.
Collective text surveying is a method where a group divides a document into sections, with each subgroup working on one part before sharing their (…) -
Potential development space
Collective innovation method.
The potential development space is a method of collective innovation based on intuitive encounters, without predefined objectives, where mutual (…) -
Mapping the Collective Territory
Geographical Identification of Connections within a Group.
This activity allows visualizing connections and origins within a group by creating a human world map. By positioning themselves according to (…) -
Web platform for professional training
An astonishingly powerful device.
Following the democratization of remote work, it has been necessary to rethink approaches to professional training. This proven method offers a (…) -
Digital traces as a link
The power of digital to bring people together.
The immediate sharing of activity traces (recordings, photos, mind maps) via an accessible digital space strengthens the connection between (…) -
Listener contributions via digital tool
Unleash the power of the brains involved.
In a conference where one or more people address a large audience, it is common, after the presentation, to have a moment of discussion or Q&A (…) -
The sustainable links workshop
Create meaningful connections in collaborative workshops.
This “Workshop of Sustainable Connections” encourages the creation of lasting bonds between participants in collective events. Each person (…) -
Collaborative mind-mapping
An instituting, evolving form of writing.
Collaborative mind mapping is a visual and tree-like note-taking method, projected in real-time during meetings or training sessions. This (…) -
World Café
A tried-and-tested technique that’s always being reinvented.
The World Café is a collective intelligence technique that fosters the collaborative creation of ideas and concrete projects. Through successive (…) -
Thematic groups
Elaborate together.
This method is a simplified and faster variation of the World Café method, which I have successfully implemented and tested. The goal is for each (…) -
A web platform for collective intelligence
Support collective action with a specific digital tool.
Discovering the Power of a Web Platform Specifically Designed for Collective Intelligence Contribution, Through a Concrete Example. A Digital (…) -
Exchanges in pairs
To give everyone a voice.
A collective intelligence exercise that stimulates thinking and listening. Working in pairs, each participant builds his or her own argument on a (…) -
Book synthesis
Boosting professional training in collective intelligence.
How to use collective intelligence in professional training in a way that is not anecdotal but enriches the subject in depth? Bringing a moment of (…) -
The importance of expression
Identifying an essential path to emancipation.
Expression, often overlooked, is a key element for individual and collective emancipation. By providing a legitimate framework, appropriate tools, (…) -
Reception
Interaction practice exercise.
An activity to explore welcoming and interaction: each person alternates between welcoming and being welcomed, experiences strong emotions, and (…) -
Secret tips
In-depth mutual enrichment.
A powerful exercise to nurture creativity and collaboration: each participant presents a project or idea in 3 minutes, then receives intimate, (…) -
Collective bibliography
An encounter with oneself through books.
This activity is very useful at the beginning of meetings, gatherings, or workdays. The idea is to bring a number of books that address the topic (…) -
Sit Stand
Playfully identifying the links between participants.
Sit Stand, a playful and profound exercise to identify the concept of community. The “Sit Stand” exercise is often presented as an icebreaker, (…)
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Systematize mutual discoveries between cultural players Removing obstacles to cooperation.
Common-sense proposal for better mutual understanding among cultural actors in the same territory. Why don’t we know each other well enough?In (…) -
World Café A tried-and-tested technique that’s always being reinvented.
The World Café is a collective intelligence technique that fosters the collaborative creation of ideas and concrete projects. Through successive (…) -
Moving screenings to reweave the link between the theatres and their spectators Post-confinement cultural action project.
Itinerant projections on city walls, in the neighbourhood around a cinema, to experience again the happiness of shared projection, without any (…) -
Design of a professional day on “Artistic and digital practices for young people” Act’art, artistic and cultural action in Seine-et-Marne.
As part of its mission to promote collective intelligence by facilitating local think tanks, Act’art asked Benoît Labourdette to design, (…) -
Towards the cultural experience Essay, by Emmanuel Vergès
In the construction of cultural proposals, focus attention on the lived and shared experience. Short essay on the philosophy of action and the (…)
