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Wise Crowds: Foster Collaboration and Solve Tough Challenges
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Are you looking for a quick yet powerful way to help people give and receive meaningful advice, strengthen their help-seeking and feedback-giving muscles, and forge trusted connections across departmental walls? Look no further than Wise Crowds! Whether you’re an agile coach, a manager, or a workshop facilitator, this structure will inject new life into how your teams solve problems and bond together.
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Last week we talked about the importance of connecting people across the organization. Now let’s explore a way to actually get the conversation going.
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Wise Crowds is a straightforward (and surprisingly fun!) structure that helps people share their challenges and receive targeted guidance in rapid cycles. If you’re an agile coach, a leader, or a workshop facilitator, keep reading—this is for you. Let’s explore how you can use Wise Crowds to nurture help-seeking behaviors, build trust across silos, and leverage the wisdom of your entire group.
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Why Wise Crowds?
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Because people often don’t ask for help.
In so many companies, there’s this unspoken culture of “figure it out on your own.” But guess what? Agile is all about collaboration and continuous improvement. If your team members remain solitary problem-solvers, you’re leaving valuable brainpower on the table!
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Because it trains us to listen without defending.
As a leader or coach, you know how crucial active listening can be—especially when feedback might be tough to hear. Wise Crowds makes the art of receiving input a key focus.
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Because we gain clarity by helping others.
The funny thing is, once we help someone else, we often clarify our own thoughts, too! Simply hearing another’s challenge sparks our own reflections and insights.
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Because it builds trust across departments.
When you drop your guard and openly share a challenge, and then the group responds with empathy and useful advice, you realize we’re in this together. We’re not just “random coworkers”—we are collaborators who care about each other’s success.
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Because you’ve already got a wealth of wisdom in the room!
You don’t always need an external expert to solve your toughest problems. Sometimes, all you need is the right format to unlock the expertise and creativity sitting right next to you.
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The Wise Crowds Structure in a Nutshell
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1. Set the Stage
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\n- Wise Crowds can be part of a larger workshop or done as its own activity.
\n- Invite a diverse crowd from different departments and disciplines.
\n- We will have groups of 4-5 people. One is the client seeking help while the rest are the consultants giving advice.
\n- Everybody must be the client once. After all, everybody has a challenge.
\n- Pro tip: Reinforce psychological safety right from the start—remind everyone that vulnerability and curiosity are celebrated here! Maybe do a few exercises upfront and frame the workshop accordingly.
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2. Organize the Space
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\n- Form small circles of four or five chairs. I prefer no tables in between, but if you want (or need to), it also works to sit around a table.
\n- Ensure there’s paper or sticky notes for note-taking (the client will want to capture those awesome ideas).
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3. Participation Rules
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\n- Everybody’s in! Each participant gets a turn to be the “client” and seek help.
\n- Everyone else acts as “consultants.”
\n- You want maximum cross-pollination—so mixing up people across departments, roles, and experience levels is ideal.
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4. Group Configuration
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\n- In each small group, identify who is the “client” for the round.
\n- The others are the “consultants.”
\n- Once the client’s challenge is clarified, the client turns their back so they can listen intently without feeling pressured to respond or defend. In a video call the client can mute their microphone and turn off the camera.
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5. Sequence of Steps and Timing (15 minutes per client)
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\n- Client Presents Challenge (2 min)
The client shares their situation and what kind of help they want. \n- Clarifying Questions (3 min)
Consultants ask short, open-ended questions to ensure they understand the challenge. (No sneaky suggestions disguised as questions—just real attempts to clarify!) \n- Client Turns Around
Time to let go of the urge to respond or justify—just listen and take notes! If virtual, turn off mic and cam. This helps to listen without the urge to defend yourself. \n- Consultants Offer Insights (8 min)
The consultants brainstorm solutions, discuss possible approaches, and throw out helpful ideas. The client listens silently, capturing the good stuff. \n- Client’s Feedback (2 min)
The client turns back around and shares what resonated. What was most useful? Any insights or takeaways? \n
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Making It Work: Tips and Traps
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\n- Ensure Psychological Safety First.
If folks fear judgment or shame, they won’t share real challenges. So spend some time building rapport. A quick icebreaker, reminding everyone of shared goals, or designing the environment to boost psychological safety (more on that soon). \n- Diversity Matters.
Don’t limit your circle to people in the same department or discipline. Mix it up! You’ll be amazed how a finance person can spark ideas for product development—or how a marketing viewpoint can open an Agile team’s eyes. Furthermore this breaks down silos and seeds communication paths across the organization. \n- Stay Curious!
If you catch people giving advice before clarifying the actual issue, gently remind them: “Wait, let’s stay curious about the problem first!” The best help emerges when we deeply understand the challenge. \n- Everyone Presents a Challenge.
Don’t let anyone sit it out. Sometimes the biggest breakthroughs happen when a seemingly “minor” issue is brought forward. \n- Use the Magic “Mirror.”
Having the client turn their back is more powerful than you might think! It forces the consultants to speak freely and keeps the client in receive-only mode. \n- Short on Time?
You can run multiple Wise Crowds sessions in parallel if you have a big group. Just keep the 15-minute micro-structure. \n
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When to Use It
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\n- Stand-alone Activity
Run Wise Crowds as its own session to solve specific problems. Enjoy the trust-building and communication training as a welcomed side effect. \n- Part of a larger Workshop
Include it as a session in a larger workshop. Ideally you do it once the group has already built some trust with each other. \n- Team Retrospectives
Why not use this format for our challenges in a retrospective? You could even invite folks from other teams to get more wisdom and seed the bonding. \n
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Next Steps
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Are you ready to take your teams to the next level? Don’t wait around for “the expert” to swoop in. You already have the experts—right in front of you! Try Wise Crowds in your next workshop. Emphasize asking for help just as much as offering it. Break down silos, spark trust, and unleash a truly collaborative culture.
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So, go on—give Wise Crowds a whirl. You’ll see how, in just 15 minutes per person, your group’s creativity and insights can flow freely, building connections and solutions that outshine any single expert’s advice. Let’s embrace the power of our collective intelligence and make work a place where people actually want to ask for help!
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And if you want help fostering cross-silo collaboration, I'm here for you. Just a quick free video call away.
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Remember: Our capacity for teamwork is only limited by our willingness to share and receive. Wise Crowds is a way to practice and model that willingness. Now go forth and unleash the brilliance that’s already in your room!
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P.S.: Side note: While the name “Wise Crowds” reminds of the concept of “Wisdom of Crowds”, the Wise Crowds format is actually closer to the concept of Collective Intelligence. If you’re interested in a deeper discussion, hit me up. I occupied myself with these concepts at university ages ago.
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