Written phase
Generating ideas in writing, in a discussion space made safe by the feed-forward technique.
CENTAURIUM
The workshop for hybridizing ideas
Decide what no one could have decided alone
Powered by the Digital Sprint protocol
Centaurium is a discussion space designed to encourage the hybridization of ideas for innovation (Design Thinking) and for solving operational problems (productivity, Lean management, operational excellence) and strategic challenges (collective transformation, decision-making excellence).
The concept
What is a Centaurium?
A Centaurium is a workshop for hybridizing ideas based on the Digital Sprint protocol, a written round-table system. It follows the rules of an oral round table, but in a discussion forum enhanced by generative AI.
Oral debriefing
An oral debriefing in 4 phases, enhanced by generative AI, to hybridize ideas.
Enhanced meeting report
A report produced with AI acting as a quality auditor, ensuring that the decision can be explained and traced.
Hybridization is a process in which ideas of different kinds meet, transform one another and generate an idea that no participant could have conceived alone.
Synchronous or asynchronous
Centaurium is designed for synchronous discussions, like any meeting or video conference: a sequence for generating ideas in writing, followed by an oral debriefing to hybridize ideas with AI support. However, you can use the written phase asynchronously and hold the oral debriefing by video conference.
On your servers, alongside your tools
The solution can be deployed on your organization's servers as a tool specializing in hybridization, complementing your existing discussion forums such as Teams or Slack. It can also be integrated into collaborative solutions through partnerships with software publishers.
Who is it for?
Centaurium was designed for…
Agile coaches
who facilitate workshops (Scrum, Kanban).
Facilitators
of large groups (seminars).
Organizations
in the public or private sector that lack suitable discussion forums.
Managers
who need anonymity to encourage open discussion in teams where certain topics create psychological insecurity.
Protect your career!
Whether you are an expert or a manager, a successful career often means a series of good decisions. Career-ending mistakes by decision-makers are often linked to:
A poorly framed problem
When root causes have not been identified, people work on a solution instead of solving the problem.
A misunderstood problem
Speaking the same language does not mean working within the same frame of reference.
Cognitive biases
Risk aversion, negativity or overconfidence, defending our own interests rather than the organization's, favoring the status quo and the short term at the expense of long-term risks.
Lost in collaboration
Meetings become verbal ping-pong, with some people interrupting or monopolizing the conversation. Deep listening is impossible when you have to fight to speak or keep the floor.
Centaurium was designed to help you manage decision-making risks better and avoid fatal mistakes for your organization… and then your career! This approach turns you into an architect of decisions, protects you from ivory-tower syndrome and ensures your decision can be explained and traced if things go wrong, through an AI-enhanced meeting report in which AI acts as a quality auditor.
Six months later, you will be able to explain why and how you made your decision to managers who may be influenced by hindsight bias: judging your decision after the event in light of facts that stakeholders did not know when developing it.
Lost in translation
Centaurium's interface is multilingual. When installed on an organization's servers, an API can integrate automatic translation of written contributions into each participant's native language. You have probably attended meetings involving stakeholders from several countries where 'Lost in collaboration' is compounded by 'Lost in translation'. This creates 'a lot of frustration' and, above all, major decision-making risks.
Scientific foundations
A workshop grounded in research
Silent meetings (Silent Meeting)
An article by Steven G. Rogelberg and Liana Kreamer, published in Harvard Business Review in 2019, summarizes research showing that using writing at the start of a meeting improves creativity and problem-solving.
A Centaurium discussion begins with a written idea-generation phase in a space made safe by the feed-forward technique, and ends with an oral debriefing in 4 phases enhanced by generative AI.
Hybridization
A new idea is very often an original recombination of existing knowledge. When several people contribute different knowledge, experiences or perspectives, the number of possible combinations increases, provided that a protocol genuinely enables these contributions to be compared and recombined, and that participants bring cognitive diversity.
Novelty therefore does not necessarily come from creating something from nothing, but from connecting things that are not usually associated.
- Gilles Fauconnier & Mark Turner, The Way We Think: Conceptual Blending and the Mind’s Hidden Complexities (2002)
- Ronald Burt, Structural Holes and Good Ideas (2004)
- Gabrielle Halpern, Tous centaures ! Éloge de l’hybridation (2020)
Testimonials
« The Digital Sprint method is remarkably effective, both in terms of efficiency and the quality of the thinking it produces. Put it into practice as soon as possible! »
« The Digital Sprint is a powerful accelerator of collective intelligence through digital technology. It brings the active listening of round-table discussions to a writing platform where attention is the key to success! »
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Free
Open an account
to hybridize your stakeholders' ideas
Accounts are for discussion creators. Your participants do not need one: they join the discussion using the unique access link you provide, without giving an email address.
The origin of the name
What does Centaurium mean?
Listening to one another to hybridize ideas better and decide what no one could have decided alone.
Centaur+Auditorium=CENTAURIUM
Centaurium brings these two words together: a place where people listen to one another to hybridize ideas.
Centaur
A creature from Greek mythology with the body of a horse and a human head, torso and arms. The centaur symbolizes hybridization.
The name was inspired by the book by Gabrielle Halpern, PhD in philosophy: 'Tous centaures ! Éloge de l’hybridation'.
Auditorium
A Latin word for a place where people gather to listen.
Common centaury
Centaurium is also the Latin name of common centaury, a medicinal plant that ancient tradition associates with the centaur Chiron, a mythological figure renowned for his great wisdom.
Privacy
Centaurium works much like a video conference: to access a discussion, a participant must have the unique access link supplied by the organizer. Having this link is enough to reach the discussion's identification screen. We do not ask participants for their email addresses. Discussion creators, however, provide an email address for their administrator account.
If you want control over the hosting of the application and its data, Centaurium can be installed on your organization's servers under the corresponding offer.
Usage rights
Centaurium is proprietary software, free to use. The platform, its instructions and the Digital Sprint protocol, derived from books published by Olivier Zara on www.axiopole.com (new window), are protected by copyright.
Self-hosting on your servers requires a usage license. This license includes the source code, database schema and installation tools, so you retain control over your hosting and the data produced by your users. To ensure the scientific integrity of the hybridization models integrated into our solution, the code may not be modified or redistributed without our prior authorization.