Invite Creative Destruction to Make Space for Innovation with Liberating Structures - TRIZ

How it used to go

The team had tried a lot already.
New plans. New words. New formats. And each time the same outcome: small adjustments, little real change.

In conversations there was optimism. On paper everything looked logical. But beneath the surface it kept chafing. People did what was asked of them — and not much more than that.

As a team coach she heard the sighs more and more often:

“We actually know quite well what doesn’t work.”
“But we don’t do anything about it.”

Not because it was secret. But because it felt too uncomfortable to say out loud.
There hung a kind of tacit agreement in the air: we name improvements, but don’t touch the core. Because what if we then also have to see our own part?

A new structure

During a work session she decided to do it radically different.
No brainstorm about solutions. No future vision.
She started with a provocative question:

“Suppose we really wanted to make this team fail. What would we have to do?”

There was laughter. Uncomfortable. Relieved too.
She introduced TRIZ.

The assignment was clear:

1. Design the worst possible system — everything that breaks collaboration
2. Recognize what we sometimes do ourselves
3. Determine what you can stop, reduce or do differently tomorrow

In small groups it burst open. Cynicism, humor, sharpness.

“Make sure decisions always remain unclear.”
“Meet without mandate.”
“Always act as if everyone agrees.”

She let it happen. No interpretation. No nuance.
Then came the second step. Quieter conversations. Chuckling. Looks of recognition.

“We actually do this too.”

What was liberated

What emerged was honesty without blame.
Because everything was first exaggerated and made into a caricature, people could recognize themselves without feeling attacked. It wasn’t about who was wrong, but about patterns.

The atmosphere changed. From laughing to thinking. From distance to engagement.
Someone said:

“This is painful — but also enlightening.”

For the first time what everyone already knew was said out loud. Not as an accusation, but as a shared observation.

What shifted

After this session it didn’t stop at insight.
In follow-up meetings it was asked more often:

“Is this something we actually wanted to stop?”
“Are we doing one of those TRIZ things again here?”

She used Appreciative Interviews as a counterpart to also look at what the team was already doing that worked well.
With Ecocycle Planning the team later looked at which destructive patterns could really end, which positive patterns deserved more attention and where space emerged for something new.

The culture shifted from cautiously improving to consciously dismantling and choosing again.