The Method
The Vortex method,
A different way of thinking
Juliette
Lead project
Nicolas
Company Owner
Arnaud
Consultant
Christine
University
Fabienne
Directrice de centre culturel
Valérie
Humanitarian aid worker
The Vortex is currently the subject of academic research at UQAM’s School of Management (Montreal).
to deal with uncertainty
The Vortex is a creative emergence tool designed to help individuals, teams and organizations deal with complex situations, based on the premise that complexity is not just a feature of certain problems, but a way of thinking that challenges rational worldviews. It can be used on its own, or as a complement to other approaches such as coaching, design thinking, foresight or strategic analysis. It increases their relevance and effectiveness.
The Vortex can also be used to support a team or a project, like a dashboard. It helps align everyone around a common intention, triggers collaboration and facilitates action.
The Vortex applies
4 FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES
1
Linear thinking is limiting
2
The context is changing, and so are the problems
3
A problem is the subjective expression of a situation
4
Short-term and long-term are simultaneous
The Vortex is taught in the Executive MBA program at UQAM’s School of Management (Montreal).
WORKSHOPS
The number of participants
In a company, a Vortex approach can involve dozens of people, as long as they are all concerned by the complex situation to be explored.
In coaching, where each situation is individual, it’s best to get several coachees together to work on their respective Vortexes at the same time.
Exploration
and Emergence
A Vortex workshop can take place face-to-face or remotely, on behalf of an individual, a team or an organization. It begins with the construction of a Vortex on the floor or on a screen, into which each workshop participant deposits his or her information. It ends with a “Vortex opening”, which consists of soaking up everything that has been produced during the workshop and synthesizing it into an intention.
Between the two? Explorations, either self-facilitated or defined in advance by the person in charge of facilitation, who chooses exercises, information sharing and exchanges likely to nourish reflection and explore the multiple dimensions of the situation.
Each of these experiences, whether fortuitous or deliberate, is an opportunity to “fill in the Vortex”, as one would a diary or dashboard. Some decoding exercises can complete the reflection.
Going further with the vortex
The Vortex is a free-to-use methodology, licensed under a Creative Commons license.
Would you like to use the Vortex to carry out a complex project, conduct your business under uncertainty, find your alignment in action? Contact us to discuss your needs.
You can also choose to train at the Vortex; events are published here.
Finally, if you’d like to find out more about the Vortex by attending an event where it’s on offer, you can do so here.
The Vortex designers
Developing the Vortex approach required 7 years of experimentation with the tool,
the facilitation posture and user learning.
Sophie
HARVEY
Engineer (Polytechnique Montréal),
coach (PCC) specializing in somatic intelligence.
Anne-Laure
SAIVES
Engineer and Doctor of Strategy,full professor of management
and creativity atUQAM (Montreal)
Edouard
LE MARECHAL
ESSEC graduate, consultant specializing in anticipation and radical innovation, founder of Tangenciels (Paris).
The Vortex was born out of concern about the lack of performance of innovation projects in companies. Initially conceived as a disruptive innovation approach, its use was extended to strategic issues and corporate anticipation, and then to individual coaching.