The conceptualization of 'dreaming, planning, doing and celebrating' being phases in a continuous cycle. This key concept of Dragon Dreaming methodology highlights distinct phases which 'naturally' follow each other, like the seasons. The concept posits that all of these phases must be present in a somewhat balanced way for a project to be sustainable and healthy. The interfaces should not be seen as rigid axis of separation and it should be considered that changing from one phase to another can be difficult. The cycle can be seen to 'fractalize' within a complex organization. Intentions can be clearly communicated by using the terms.

Overview

On the left side of the cycle, ideas arise from the current way things are and multiply into dreams. On the right side of the cycle, dreams are refined and prioritized in order to arrive at an outcome in the real world;

This graphic shouldn't be taken too literally; you don't have to plan one event strictly after the other. As a more abstract tool it can be useful to help align intentions.

Mismatched intentions

Frustration, confusion, fear, etc can arise if people try and work together with competing intentions. You may have heard things like;

"We spent two hours talking about vague ideas and ended up with no outcomes!" - Intended to be planning, meeting was dreaming.
"I had some great ideas, but everyone kept saying we don't have time for them" - Intended to be dreaming, meeting was doing.
"We were making a plan, but hadn't even looked over what we completed already" - Intended to be celebrating, meeting was planning
etc

Prevention and solutions

Try including the event intention when announcing it. Include a description of what this means (i.e. 'We won't be making decisions', 'We're going to be discussing how we implement this plan', etc)
If you want to work with new contributors, bear in mind they may have different dreams! Try starting at the celebrating phase and arrive at a common dream or clearly specify a previously agreed plan.
Re-announce the intention at the beginning of the meeting and make sure to keep it on track.
If there is an group decision to progress to the next phase, then do so - just make sure people are aware (consenting).
Integrate tools and methods which naturally guide the intention of the meeting - see next section.

Facilitating the intention

There are several events, tools and statements that can help infrastructurally facilitate the intention of a meeting. Using these will make manual facilitation easier, if not unnecessary. An assortment of these components are listed below;

Celebrating

Retrospectives
World cafés
Meditation
Rounds and circles
Parties
Presentations
Scrum: Daily scrum, review, retrospective

Dreaming

Brain-storming
Mind-mapping
'Thinking backwards, moving forwards'
'No idea too crazy'

Planning

Systemic consensus
Scheduling
Notary(ies) taking minutes
Consent
Scrum: sprint planning

Doing

Scrum: sprint, daily scrum
Kanban
Systemic consensus

Last positive review on 04/18/2016 by Joachim Thome

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