Small groups of three, deliberately mixed across roles and teams, each working on a few short micro-projects. For teams that live in complexity or chaos for long stretches: it builds the connections and routines that keep people well and able to act.
Teams that spend months in complex or chaotic situations rarely run out of plans. They run out of people: the same few carry every crisis, everyone else waits, and the informal connections that let an organisation absorb a shock wear thin.
Entangled trios are a method from Dave Snowden and The Cynefin Company. Instead of another programme on top, people work in small groups of three, deliberately mixed so that they would not normally work together, on several short micro-projects. The projects are real, small and safe to fail. What grows along the way matters more: new relationships across the organisation, shared routines, and the habit of acting together before anyone has the full picture.
How it works
We agree the scope on a call first: who takes part, and which kinds of micro-projects are worth doing. We then form the trios for diversity, get them going on their first projects and hold short, regular check-ins where they share what they tried and what they noticed. Trios can be re-mixed as projects finish, so connections spread instead of settling into new silos.
What you get
- A network of trios that cuts across your usual teams and hierarchies
- Small, real improvements from the micro-projects themselves
- Routines your people keep using in the next crisis: short check-ins, small experiments, asking someone outside their own team
- A short write-up of what the trios learned, and where your informal network is still thin