Troika Consultancy

About the template

This template can be used for the Troika Consultancy method - a Liberating Structures framework enabling clients to gain advice from an audience of peers and colleagues. Typically, Troikas consist of 3 people - a client who wants advice and 2 consultants offering ideas. This template is enabled for larger groups using a Lean Coffee-style voting system to prioritise items for discussion and breakout rooms for smaller consultation groups.

The more diverse the audience of consultants, the more varied the discussion and advice.

How to run a Troika Consultancy workshop

For small group Troika - 1 client, 2 - 5 consultants:

• The client adds their problem/opportunity to the first column on the board, giving a brief 1 min verbal summary

• Move the item into the 'Clarify' column. At this point the consultants can ask clarifying questions to gain more context and a greater understanding of the issue. 3-4 mins

• Move the item to the 'Consult' column

• The client turns their camera off and mutes their microphone. The consultants generate ideas, advice and suggestions through discussion. 5-10 mins

• The client turns their camera and microphone back on and reflects on what they heard - what was most valuable about the experience? 2-3 mins

• Move the item to the 'Done' column. Repeat with a new client, or invite the existing client to add more problem/opportunity items to the board

For larger group Troika - e.g. 3 clients, 15 consultants:

• The clients add their problems and opportunities to the first column on the board. Advise clients that the issue must be clearly worded so everyone understands enough to vote on it. "What is your challenge?” and “What kind of help do you need?”

• The group votes on their preferred items. Suggest 3 votes per person or 20% of the problem items. Clients can vote on their own items. Place the top 3 voted items in order in the Problem/Opportunity column

• Split into 3 Breakout rooms

• All 3 problems are worked in parallel. Room 1 works on problem 1, room 2 works on problem 2, room 3 works on problem 3. The client for problem 1 is in room 1, client for problem 2 is in room 2 etc.

• Move the item into the 'Clarify' column. Use 5 mins for consultants to ask clarifying questions to gain more context and a greater understanding of the issue

• Move the item to the 'Consult' column. The client turns their camera off and mutes their microphone. The consultants generate ideas, advice and suggestions through discussion. 5-10 mins

• The client turns their camera and microphone back on and reflects on what they heard - what was most valuable about the experience? 2-3 mins

• After 10 mins consultancy, the rooms membership stays the same and the groups move onto the next problem. Room 1 is now working on problem 2, room 2 is working on problem 3 and room 3 is working on problem 1. The client for problem 1 moves to breakout room 3 and so on. The client gets 3 chances to hear consultancy on their problem

• Move the items to the 'Done' column

Some key points:

Invite participants to form groups with mixed roles/functions - the more diverse the audience, the more varied and potentially 'out of the box' the consultancy

Suggest that participants critique themselves when they fall into traps (e.g., like jumping to conclusions)

Avoid solutioning during the Clarification round. Focus on gaining greater context and understanding through insightful questions

Advise clients to stay focused on self-reflection by asking, “What is happening here? How am I experiencing what is happening?”

A note for clients. Often the experience of hearing the dialogue between the consultants - the journey to the solution - can be more insightful and rewarding than the solution itself

Guidelines on Troika Consultancy

Liberating Structure developed by Henri Lipmanowicz and Keith McCandless

Template and process contributors: Farah Egby, David Furlow, Simon Lawrence, Marcus Williams