The method in eight pages

In brief

What if we collectively had the capacity to overcome any crisis in a matter of days? This is the question of my doctoral thesis, Healing Communities (Concordia University, 2023).

The thesis describes a method for teams of teams, that is, groups made up of several groups with different realities. It helps them converge within a few days, in four steps. Here they are: welcome and listen to each other, agree on priorities, pool resources, take care through the group.

The group does not try to solve everything. It creates a few solutions, but essential ones. It publishes them so that others can reuse and adapt them.

Each step comes from a stage of my path. In order: hospitality, organisational consulting, health co-design, and groups that take care of themselves. The method was built with and by the people concerned: patients, care teams, young people, volunteers and creators.

It draws on 12 game jams since 2015, from Montreal to Ouagadougou, and on the European EUvsVirus hackathon in 2020. The Prenons soin ensemble festival, in 2022, was its pilot.

This synthesis is written for four audiences. Researchers can study and discuss it. Teachers can pass it on. Practitioners can apply it in a team, an organisation or a large group. Citizens can use it in an association, a neighbourhood or a collective.

Each step is presented in the same way: what it is, why, in practice, a small practice to try and a field example.

The method helps when people living different realities need to build a common project. For example: consulting the people concerned, preparing a citizens' assembly, bringing a large group together for a few days, or facing a crisis.

The stance matters as much as the tools: start from the group's own resources rather than from outside expertise. The approach is systemic, participatory, experimental and research-based. The method is not therapy and does not replace medical or psychological care.

Sources : Balli, F. (2023). Healing Communities. Doctoral thesis, Concordia University ; Thesis abstract in English (2023)

The simple rules

These five rules sum up the method. They fit on a card and apply from a team meeting to a large group. Each one comes from field experience, described in the following pages.

If you keep only one page of this synthesis, keep this one.

1. Start from the group's own resources, rather than from outside expertise.
2. Listen before looking for solutions, including to what goes unsaid.
3. Say from the start what the group will decide itself, and what others decide.
4. Set a clear frame, then let the group reach agreement without you.
5. Do little, but the essential, and publish it so that others can reuse it.

1. Welcome and listen to each other

What it is. Each person says what they are going through and what matters to them, including what usually stays unspoken. The group forms a shared picture of the situation before looking for solutions.

Why. When people do not speak up, decisions are made without part of what the group knows. In the United States, out of 10 malpractice claims, 3 involve a communication failure. The study covers 23,658 claims, from 2009 to 2013. This is what hierarchical dialogue works on: making sure what teams know reaches those who decide.

I learned this kind of welcome as a hotel duty manager, from 2002 to 2008. It means hearing what matters to each person before looking for a solution. For my MAS, with Sandro Fanchini and Niels Rump, I spent 18 months observing Lausanne's first neighbourhood contract. We drew from it eight good practices to help residents support the process.

In practice. The Art of Hosting sets up an environment where energy and resources can unfold. It then leaves room for co-creation to emerge. Eric Berne's transactional analysis sheds light on relationships, emotions and power games, so that each person can take their rightful place.

Before starting, I write an ethics and safeguarding protocol. I announce the experiential nature of the format, so that everyone can protect themselves. I also provide a referral when an experience touches on identity.

In the field In 2022, the Prenons soin ensemble festival lasted nine days, in Geneva and the canton of Vaud. It was prepared in 122 days with 115 co-hosts. Its 65 activities included 25 sharing circles. Bruno Meessen, economist: “I like this way of interacting because it is a safe way to meet strangers, to share thoughts and feelings.” Read the story

Sources : CRICO Strategies (2015). Malpractice Risks in Communication Failures, reported by STAT (2016) ; Balli, F., Fanchini, S. and Rump, N. (2012). How to foster support for a participatory process? MAS thesis, HES-SO (in French) ; Preserving our health: a common heritage, synthesis of the Prenons soin ensemble festival (2023, also in nine other languages)

2. Agree on priorities

What it is. Together, the group chooses the few challenges to act on now. The others are noted for later. The choice belongs to the group, not to an outside authority.

Why. A tool only changes practice if teams make it their own. In eight hospitals in eight countries, teams adopted a 19-item checklist proposed by the WHO. For 1,000 operations, there were 7 fewer deaths. In Ontario, where the checklist became mandatory, the difference in mortality was not significant. The research team points to a mandate without the teams' buy-in.

From 2009 to 2017, I brought teams into dialogue with their management. I saw that a group moves forward when it chooses its own challenges.

In practice. Emerging Change, a method by Madeleine Laugeri, rests on three contracts. The leader holds the vision contract, and the team the cooperation contract. Both meet in the mission contract.

I present the purpose and the frame, then I leave the room. The group agrees on how it will cooperate and comes back with a common proposal. I welcome it, or we adjust it together. The approach stays the same from a 35-minute workshop to a conference.

Mindset mapping, based on René Rupert's management compass, completes this work. For each activity, it compares the useful, perceived and desired levels of autonomy. The gaps show where to act together.

In the field At Nescafé, Curt Blattner applied the Three Contracts with 250, then 500 people. He estimates that his unit's results were multiplied by three. Eight of eleven online workshops led to common proposals, with 5 to 32 people. I also mapped autonomy at Fujitsu, then with 84 teachers at the Lausanne Hospitality School (EHL). Read the story

Sources : Haynes, A. et al. (2009). A surgical safety checklist to reduce morbidity and mortality in a global population. New England Journal of Medicine ; Urbach, D. et al. (2014). Introduction of surgical safety checklists in Ontario, Canada. New England Journal of Medicine ; Les clés du dialogue hiérarchique (InterEditions, 2024, in French) ; Blattner, C. (2020). The Heartbeat of Excellence. LID Publishing ; Balli, F. (2013). Sustainable performance in companies: co-building in autonomy (Fujitsu, in French)

3. Pool resources

What it is. Skills, time, equipment and data are shared according to rules the group sets for itself, as commons. What each person brings becomes a resource for the others.

Why. Pooling avoids paying several times for the same thing. When designs are shared, the money that develops a piece of equipment is spent only once. In 2018, in the European Union, every euro invested in open source had an effect of 65 to 95 euros on GDP.

I learned this step with Breathing Games, from 2016 to 2023. Patients, care teams and creators shared skills, code and hardware under free licences.

In practice. A game jam brings together, in two to six days, the people concerned, professionals and creators. Together, they design game prototypes. A team profile such as Leonardo 3.4.5 shows each person's talents and how they complement each other.

Free licences close the loop. What the group creates stays available to everyone, and anyone can reuse or improve it.

In the field Breathing Games is a health commons, co-founded in 2014 in Montreal; it belongs to its community. Children, care teams, designers and engineers design games and breath controllers together. Everything is published under free licences. The controller costs EUR 30 to 70 in components and was validated against spirometry with 158 children. About a hundred volunteers translated two games into 13 languages. Research funds from Switzerland, Canada and France moved this one project forward. Read the story

Sources : Pearce, J. (2014). Cut costs with open-source hardware. Nature ; European Commission (2021). Study on the impact of open source on the European economy ; Validation of the breath controller (JMIR Serious Games, 2021) ; Game jams as participatory research (FQS, 2018)

4. Taking care through the group

What it is. The group makes a few solutions, but essential ones. It publishes them so that others can reuse and adapt them. Along the way, it learns to regulate itself, and each person gains autonomy.

Why. An example from home care shows what a self-organising group makes possible. At Buurtzorg in the Netherlands, teams of 10 to 12 nurses organise themselves. For 10 people cared for at home, they use about 600 fewer hours of care a year. Total cost, medical care included, stays close to average.

Gains are not automatic. A randomised trial found no effect of a standard workplace wellness programme on health, spending or job performance. That is why I start from the group's situation and from what it decides for itself, rather than from a ready-made programme.

Since 2020, from the EUvsVirus hackathon to the Prenons soin ensemble festival, groups have worked this way. Within a few days, they created a few essential solutions.

In practice. Sharing circles let each person say what they are going through, without advice or answers. The group thus learns to regulate itself. Creation-as-research is an iterative, traceable process: methods and contents emerge from creative work. It is useful when a group has to invent rather than apply.

Finally, the group publishes what it has created under a free licence. Each process ends with pointers to carry on without me.

In the field In spring 2020, 380 volunteers set up the European EUvsVirus hackathon in less than a month. Over three days, 20,900 people designed responses to the pandemic online, on 39 challenges. They submitted 2,150 projects, about one for every ten people. I was one of the ten project leads. I coordinated the civil society group, with Emmanuel Kellner and Martin Burr. I also created a guide to help participants and non-profit organisations work together during and after the event. The lesson: a very large group can organise itself within a few days, if the frame is clear. Otherwise, most of the collective investment is consigned to oblivion. Read the story

Sources : Gray, B., Sarnak, D. and Burgers, J. (2015). Home care by self-governing nursing teams: the Netherlands' Buurtzorg model. Commonwealth Fund ; Song, Z. and Baicker, K. (2019). Randomised trial of a workplace wellness programme, JAMA (reported by Harvard Medical School) ; Team-building and information flow for large groups such as online hackathons (presentation, 2020) ; Co-creating health. Learnings from 20 game jams for health and the European hackathon against covid (2021) ; Global crises, democratic solutions—within days (preprint, 2021)

From scarcity to abundance

The framework of the thesis fits in one diagram. Each stage of a cycle can be lived in a mode of scarcity or in a mode of abundance. The method helps a group move from the first to the second. The diagram contrasts three pairs.

Scarcity or abundance, perceived or created. On one side: spiritual, social and material misery; exhaustion of the self and of resources; dis-eases and corruption of bodies and ecosystems. On the other: serenity and equanimity, cultivation, dynamic equilibrium.

Survival or fullness. In survival mode, greed and aversion prevail. People inhibit their thoughts and feelings, to the point of ignoring themselves. Belonging to the collective narrative becomes critical. In a mode of fullness and reliance, there is presence, love (agape) and inner peace. Freethought, introspection and interoception become possible. The congruence of one's own narrative becomes critical.

Egocentric competition or emerging cooperation. Competition leads to economic or ideological wars, between nations or in the market. Value is extracted from the collective. Control relies on techniques and imposed rules. Emerging cooperation lets plural realities and value systems coexist. Value is generated with and for the commons. The group converges through soft skills and local customs.

The four steps respond to these three pairs. Listening to each other lifts the inhibition of thoughts and feelings. Agreeing without imposed rules replaces control with convergence. Pooling generates value in the collective. Taking care through the group aims for dynamic equilibrium rather than exhaustion.

Sources : Balli, F. (2023). From impoverishment to empowerment: re-creating healing narratives. IASC conference, Nairobi (editable diagram) ; Balli, F. (2023). Healing Communities. Doctoral thesis, Concordia University

Reusing it

A method too closely tied to one person may fade away with them. At FAVI, researchers asked in 2017 whether the system would outlive its leader, Jean-François Zobrist. In 2025, Isaac Getz notes that the new management returned to conventional practices.

What people learn in training also fades. According to training professionals in 150 organisations, 4 in 10 trained people still apply what they learned six months later. These are their estimates, not measurements. That is why this synthesis is short, free and made to be reused without me.

What to keep. The four steps, the stance that starts from the group's resources, and clarity on what the group decides itself. Also keep an ethics and safeguarding protocol, written before you start. It provides for consent that can be withdrawn, and a focal point for anyone who needs one.

What can change. Everything else can be adapted. The duration ranges from a 35-minute workshop to a nine-day festival. You can meet in person or online. The tools in this synthesis are options: choose them according to the situation, or replace them with others.

To study it. The thesis is participatory research-creation. It favours traceable reasoning over conventional reproducibility. Researchers create or reinforce certain realities, if only by formulating their questions. Mixed methods, including loosely structured interviews, let plural realities coexist. If you study a reuse, document it openly, from start to finish.

To teach it. Start from what people already know, then have them play, create and debate. Each small practice in this synthesis can serve as an exercise, alone or in a group.

Licence and citation. This synthesis is under a CC BY-SA 4.0 licence. To cite the method, cite the thesis: Balli, F. (2023). Healing Communities. What if we collectively had the capacity to overcome any crisis in a matter of days? Doctoral thesis, Concordia University. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5007167

Guides and tools. Several resources are freely available. The guide Facilitating large groups (2023) shows how each participant can contribute to a common project. The diagram From scarcity to abundance can be edited. The festival synthesis exists in ten languages. The Terre des hommes toolkit (2025, in French) came out of the Ouagadougou game jam.

Tell me what you do with it. Have you reused or adapted the method? I would be glad to hear about it, though it is not a condition. Write to me through the contact form, choosing “Something else”. Say what you kept, what you changed and what the group gained from it. With your consent, your experience could enrich a future version of this synthesis.

In the field In 2024, in Ouagadougou, 23 young people created a game in five days to talk about humanitarian aid. They came from refugee, displaced and host-community families. Six members of the Terre des hommes local team were trained at the same time, to reproduce the method in other towns. In Tougan and Ouahigouya, 70 more children then tested and modified the game. In 2025, Terre des hommes published a toolkit that credits the children as co-authors. Read the story

Sources : Gilbert, P., Teglborg, A.-C. and Raulet-Croset, N. (2017). L'entreprise libérée, innovation radicale ou simple avatar du management participatif ? Gérer & Comprendre, 127 (in French) ; Getz, I. (2025). Tribute to Jean-François Zobrist, op-ed in Les Echos (in French) ; Saks, A. M. and Belcourt, M. (2006). An investigation of training activities and transfer of training in organizations. Human Resource Management ; Facilitating large groups where each participant contributes to the emergence of a common project (guide, 2023) ; En jeux research notebook (in French)