| Syntegration is a protocol developed by professor
Stafford Beer during the early 1990's that provides a framework for the
synergetic interaction of a group of people who want to achieve a
consensual integration of multiple perspectives about a topic of
discussion (for details see: Beer, S., Beyond Dispute: The Invention
of Team Syntegrity, Wiley, Chichester, 1994). The term syntegration
comes from a combination of synergy and integration.
The protocol is usually applied for groups ranging from 6 to 40 persons and has been successfully used in more than one hundred of meetings in different countries. Each member of the group plays three different roles: the role of a participant, the role of a critic and the role of an observer. For a group of 30 people the protocol is better explained by using an icosahedron as a metaphor. Here, each person is represented by an edge whereas each vertex corresponds to a topic, therefore in this case we have 12 topics. Usually each vertex (i.e., a topic) is associated with a colour so each member of the group is represented by two colours, the two colours that connect its edge in the icosahedron. This structure implies that in order to discuss a topic five participants meet in a place (i.e., five edges lead to a vertex). In fact, according to the protocol, in order to keep a good tension on each meeting, five other members join the discussion assuming the role of critics during the meeting. Another five members can also attend a meeting, assuming the role of observers. So, in each meeting of a particular topic we may have 15 persons at the same time (5 participants, 5 critics and 5 observers). This means that with 30 people it is possible to run two meetings on two different topics simultaneously. Normally each topic is discussed three times along the process following a very precise agenda. During the whole event a set of multiple feedback loops is established in order to produce an effect of reverberation throughout the whole group. This structure has been proven to be an optimal way to distribute information rapidly to all members of the group (see Beyond Dispute cited above). At the end of the process 12 final statements are produced as the outcome resolve of the syntegration. |