Fleck’s Synergy

With this method, you can enable mutual support and peer coaching, improve collaboration, reduce time for formal meetings, get more done – and have more fun. The structure is itself empowering.

A Synergy meeting engages all participants in agenda-building and time-keeping. For each agenda item it focuses attention on the ‘topic owner’; all other participants become a resource for that person to meet his or her objectives. It is widely practiced in two different contexts:
1. As a ‘container’ for personal and professional development, enabling a group (nominally of six people) to act effectively as peer coaches for each other
2. As a method for conducting any scheduled meeting, especially when decisions are to be made.


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About
What is Fleck’s Synergy method?

All participants contribute to building the agenda

If you are inviting people to a meeting you may well start preparing the agenda in advance: but always open the meeting by asking participants what topics they want to raise. Only when the agenda is complete do you begin work on the first topic. 

Every topic has its own block of time

The person who proposes a topic also specifies how much time s/he would like the group to spend on it, including presentation, discussion, decision – everything you need to do to get results. Once agreed, the time must not be exceeded!  (But you can take less time if you like.)

Consensus on order of topics

The group is invited to decide "what to do now", i.e. to select one topic at a time (and only one). There is no pressure to "get in first" because we know in advance that every topic will receive its agreed block of time.

When is Fleck’s Synergy useful?

This method is useful in two different contexts:
For regular peer coaching meetings, including coach and facilitator training.
For radically improving the quality of workplace and other action-oriented meetings, including enabling an improvement in collaboration and relationships.

The method was originally developed by Erhard Fleck.

Categories
  • Appreciative / Community building
  • Awareness Raising
  • Collective Intelligence
  • Conflict resolution
  • Decision making
  • Empowerment
  • Group communication
  • Harvesting
  • Idea generator
  • Problem Solving
  • Strategy / Planning
  • Team Building / Trust Building
Innovation Phases
  • 1 Understanding the challenge
  • 2 Creating an Innovation-Friendly Culture
  • 3 Fostering New Perspectives & Ways of Thinking
  • 4 Idea Generation
  • 5 Grounding the Idea
  • 9 Evaluation
Train the Trainer seminars including Fleck’s Synergy can be found here:
Target Group
Who benefits from Fleck’s Synergy Method?

Any group that cares about a common purpose, whether that purpose is work- or action-related, or concerns peer-supported personal and professional development.

Is participant experience relevant?
It's okay if participants haven't seen the inside of a classroom in years.
Physical trust needed
Mental trust needed
Other prerequisites for participants 

They need to care about the common purpose of the group, at least to the extent that they take the exercise seriously.

Does it matter if participants differ widely, eg in age, education or position?

For a peer coaching group, general recommendations are a) some similarity of experience or education can be beneficial, b) gender balance is positive
For a meeting: no. As long as you manage to establish that everyone’s input is valued equally, a mixed group can be an advantage; if possible all stakeholders in the subject matter should be invited.

REQUIREMENTS
Experience level of the facilitator
routine as participant OR professional facilitator
How stationary?
Stationary necessary, at least in parts
STEP BY STEP GUIDE
1

Build the agenda

One person facilitates agenda building. Each person names his/her topic(s). The facilitator writes the emerging agenda on a flipchart or whiteboard, for everyone to see. Any participant can propose any number of topics (including none).
Here an example from a peer coaching context.

The time blocks requested are added up (in the second case 2 h 50 min), and compared with the total time available for the meeting. If there is enough time for everything, the meeting skips Stage 2 and goes on to Stage 3.

2

Negotiation

Only the person who has requested the topic can decide to reduce its time (or even take it out, for example till the next meeting). The negotiation itself takes time, so everyone is eager to reach agreement. Changes are noted on the agenda.

3

Do it

One person facilitates; this can be a member of the group, or an external facilitator. Their job is to help the group stay on track.
* The facilitator asks: Who/what item do we start with? Anyone can suggest her/himself or someone else. The group must agree before anyone starts. The facilitator notes on the agenda whose turn it is. At that point the clock starts ticking.
* The topic owner is responsible for guiding the discussion, and for ending in time. S/he may ask someone else to help with time keeping.
* When the topic is closed the facilitator crosses the time slot off the agenda and asks the first question again: what do we do next?

The meeting ends on time – or early! – and everyone has had their say and their time.

ONLINE & VARIATIONS
MATERIALS

Empowerment - A guide for Facilitators

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Live Your Power


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Shelf Wood

Shelf Wood

Compendium - Unlearning for a thrivable future

Empathic Interview questions

Future Music Canvas

Future Music Canvas Guide

Evolution Line Flags


unten

Project Tree template

Perspective Carousel video

Online Transformative Learning
- a practical guide


Click on cover to read or download.

Overview BLAST

Online Transformative Learning Enquiry

A transformative Edge

Click on cover to read.      Get the real book here.

 

 

Risk Assessment

A simple way to get an overview of possible risks, and how to deal with them.

IMPACT






Well done, you made it to the end!
If you have a personal story to share you may go on, but the following part is even more optional than the other parts. In fact this is an invitation to other authors to share their stories. So if you know of someone experienced, please ask her or him.