15% Solutions
Each person answers: "what is your 15 percent — where do you have discretion and freedom to act on this challenge right now, without more resources or authority?" Lists are shar…
Acting A4
Proactivity
Practicing future-oriented, accountable stewardship in the face of urgent challenges, grounded in solidarity and care for human dignity and the living Earth.
Tools for this skill (12)
Anticipating and addressing emerging issues
Many problems are easier to address when they are small than when they have grown into crises. Create regular practices for scanning the horizon: • What is coming that the team…
Being Proactive
A short talk and two sorting exercises on the difference between acting and being acted upon. The handbook defines proactive as taking responsibility for your life, choices and…
Circle of Influence
A reflection exercise from Covey's Habit 1 (Be Proactive): list current concerns, then sort them into the Circle of Concern (things you worry about) versus the Circle of Influen…
Next Step Commitment
Sustainability work requires action, not just discussion. This practice builds habits of translating awareness into concrete next steps. When to use: At the end of meetings, whe…
Owning outcomes rather than just completing tasks
Reactive teams complete tasks. Proactive teams take ownership of outcomes—they care about the larger result, not just their piece. Frame work in terms of outcomes to achieve, no…
Taking initiative without waiting for permission
In many teams, initiative is stifled by assumption that action requires explicit permission. Create explicit permission for initiative. Make clear that people are expected to ac…
The Anticipation Look
A seconds-scale daily micro-practice for Proactivity (VCoL collection): Take a moment to look ahead. Ask: 'What might be needed in the near future that I could prepare for now?…
The Initiation Practice
A seconds-scale daily micro-practice for Proactivity (VCoL collection): When you notice something that could be improved or represents an opportunity, pause. Instead of waiting,…
The Sphere of Influence Focus
A seconds-scale daily micro-practice for Proactivity (VCoL collection): When you notice energy going toward what you cannot control, pause. Ask: 'What is within my sphere of inf…
What's My Plan of Action
The closing worksheet of the training, which turns everything before it into something dated. Participants write why they want the work at all, restate or redraw their vision, t…
WOOP
A four-step, minutes-long goal practice with an unusually strong evidence base: name a Wish (challenging but feasible), vividly imagine the best Outcome, then — the counterintui…
Also develops it (17)
Building and maintaining relationships across team boundaries
The quality of external relationships significantly affects the team's ability to accomplish its goals. Start by mapping the team's key external relationships. Which other teams…
Calculated risk-taking practices
Significant achievement requires risk. Collective courage involves calculated risk-taking—risks that are proportionate to potential benefits, informed by analysis, and bounded.…
Coordination across team boundaries
Most significant work requires coordination across team boundaries. Effective coordination multiplies the team's impact. Identify where cross-boundary coordination is needed: wh…
Daily-to-long-term connection practices
To maintain a thread between daily work and longer-term goals. Integrate brief long-term references into regular team meetings: • Occasionally ask: 'How does this relate to wher…
Integrity, Accountability, Responsibility
Separates three words usually used interchangeably, and asks what it takes to embody each as a leader and instil them in a team. The guide places it in the chapter on making cha…
Multi-horizon tracking
To make visible the team's progress and impact across multiple time horizons. Create a simple tracking tool that includes indicators across at least three time horizons: Operati…
Norms for effective information sharing
Teams need information to function, but information flow is often inadequate. Establish explicit agreements about information sharing: what information should be shared, with wh…
Options Place
A meeting without a preset agenda: participants post the topics they care about on a breakout board, sessions run in parallel stations, and people move freely to wherever they c…
Pattern identification discussions
To build the team's ability to notice recurring patterns across situations. Periodically hold a discussion specifically focused on patterns: Internal patterns: What situations k…
Periodic team health assessment
To create structured opportunity for the team to assess its own functioning. Use questions that team members respond to individually, followed by collective discussion. Dimensio…
Personal Behavior Change (five-step process)
A repeatable five-question process for a behaviour or emotional pattern someone wants to shift: Awareness (what am I actually doing), Meaning (why does changing it matter to me)…
Progressive assumption testing
To test critical assumptions before committing fully to a plan. When facing a significant decision: 1. Identify the 2-3 most critical assumptions (15 min). What has to be true f…
Prototyping (Theory U)
Explore the future by doing: a small core team (~5, a microcosm of the challenge) moves an idea into a concrete experiential prototype — clarify intention, sense the system, hol…
Regular team retrospectives
To create ongoing opportunities to reflect on how the team is working. Hold a retrospective every two to four weeks with a simple format: What has been going well that we should…
Second-order effects questioning
To build the habit of considering not just direct effects but downstream consequences. When discussing proposed actions, regularly ask: 'And then what?' If we do this, what happ…
SMART Goals for a Vision
Participants lie on the floor or sit, picture the vision they chose, and look at what has to change to get there from the present. The gap is then written as SMART goals — speci…
Step Up Your Courage
A scale-walking coaching format in triads: each person places their current courage level for a real challenge on a physical 1–10 line, walks the scale, visualises the journey u…