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Ecocycle Planning

The purpose of Ecocycle Planning is to help groups analyze and rebalance their portfolio of activities to improve performance, agility, and resilience. It does this by:
  • Identifying bottlenecks, such as activities that are under-resourced (starvation) or overly rigid and blocking progress.
  • Engaging everyone involved, rather than limiting planning to a small group behind closed doors.
  • Visualizing the full system, so participants can see how their work fits into the broader context.
  • Encouraging creative destruction and renewal, not just growth and efficiency.
  • Supporting all four phases of development—birth, maturity, creative destruction, and renewal—to foster sustained performance and adaptability.
In short, Ecocycle Planning helps teams make smarter, more inclusive decisions about where to invest, what to let go of, and how to evolve.

  • Time needed

    95 minutes

  • Preparation

    1. Online
      • Prepare Miro Board to collect ideas
      • In Miro preparte a blank Ecocycle map worksheet for each participant and one bigger one for all
      • Prepare split into groups (first pairs then 4 people)
    2. Offline
      • Prepare pieces of paper for participants
      • A blank Ecocycle map worksheet for each participant and a large wall-poster version posted on the wall 
      • Arrange chairs for people to sit in pairs and then groups of 4

  • How to start

    1. Invite the group to view, organize, and prioritize current activities using four developmental phases: birth, maturity, creative destruction, and renewal
    2. Invite the group to formulate action steps linked to each phase:
      • acceleration of growth during the birth phase,
      • extend life or increase efficiency during the maturity phase,
      • actions that prune dead wood or compost rigid practices during the creative destruction phase,
      • actions that connect creative people or prepare the ground for birth during the renewal phase.
    3. The type of leadership needed at each stage can be described as being an entrepreneur, a manager, a rebel, and a networker.

  • Step-by-step and timing

    1. Introduce the idea of the Ecocycle and hand out a blank map to each participant (5 min)
    2. Ask participants to generate their individual activity lists: “For your working group make a list of all the activities (projects, initiatives) that occupy your time.” (5 min)
    3. Ask them to work in pairs to place every activity in the Ecocycle (10 min)
    4. Form groups of four and finalize the placement of activities on the map (15 min)
    5. Each group put its activities on Post-it notes and place them on the large map (15 min)
    6. Groups focuses on all the activities on which there is consensus on large map. Ask, “What activities do we need to stop? What activities do we need to start?” (15 min)
    7. In groups, for each activity that needs to be stopped (Rigidity Trap), create a first-action step (10 min)
    8. In groups, for each activity that needs to start (Scarcity trap), create a first-action step. (10 min)
    9. Ask all the groups to focus on all the activities for which there is no consensus. Do a quick round of conversation to make sense of the differences in placement. When possible, create first-action steps to handle each one (10 min)

  • Hints

    1. Identifying the Rigidity and Scarcity Traps, plus connecting specific activities with these labels, launches the search for solutions
    2. Be very clear on the domain or type of activities being considered—check activities to be sure they are on a similar scale and domain

  • Examples of use

    1. Set priorities
    2. Balance a portfolio of strategies
    3. Identify waste and opportunities to free up resource

  • Link with other Liberating Structures

    Use together with:

    1-2-4-All

    25/10 Crowd Sourcing

    Panarchy

    Open space

    TRIZ

    What 3 debrief

    What I need from you

  • Link to Liberating Structures page

    Ecocycle

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