Brief

What is proposal forming and why does it matter?

A Proposal Forming meeting is a facilitated group process for co-creating a response to a tension (i.e. need or opportunity). Opus Co. uses a format to describe tensions know as Driver Summary

• draws on the collective intelligence and diversity of perspective within a group
• involves people in co-creating agreements
• fosters accountability and sense of ownership

The benefit

• it purposefully draws upon a wide array of informed perspectives
• assists the group through a rapid and robust creative process.

The output

• High-fidelity sense-making content which will go on to inform a high-fidelity proposal (i.e. value in, value out!)
• Typically produces more well-thought-out solutions less likely to lead to undesirable, unintended consequences, than solutions imposed in a more top-down manner.
• Spoiler alert: we don’t actually form a proposal during proposal forming!

Participants will also discover a powerful new meeting process for rapidly harnessing diverse perspectives for shaping team decisions.

Isn’t this just brainstorming?

The defining characteristic that sets proposal forming apart from brainstorming is the rigid adherence to group creative process. In a less structured setting, typically strongest voices dominate and individuals can be at very different stages of a creative process. Some will suggest solutions well before the problem space has been thoroughly described. Facilitation and process is designed to harness the collective intelligence to evolve better solutions.

Learn more about Proposal Forming on the Sociocracy 3.0 Patters website

Driver Summary we are responding to

<aside> 💡 A driver summary is an effective way to concisely describe the nature of a tension, challenge or opportunity. This is a core pattern in S3 practice.

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