At Futurebetter we want people working in systems change to have the tools and knowledge to create  strategies that work - even in low resource settings. So our gift to you today is Rose, Thorn, Bud.

Anyone who has worked with me will know this is one of my favourite tools ever. I've used it in board meetings, to structure stakeholder research, strategic presentations, workshops, for project management, personal reflection and family life. It was given to me as a gift by the wonderful Heather and Maeve at Futuretonic, as part of their excellent and highly recommended LUMA Human Centred Design Thinking training. Rose Thorn Bud is a gift - because feedback itself is a gift - so long as you know how to ask for it.

Rose/Thorn/Bud originates in digital product design as a way of structuring feedback so a product or service concept can be effectively iterated and developed. Feedback is crucial. All kinds of feedback - positive, negative and creative - are necessary in order to develop effective solutions, effective strategies.

Rose/Thorn/Bud is super simple: it's just a conceptual formula around which you can ask for feedback.

The most important thing about Rose/Thorn/Bud is order in which you use it  The human brain defaults to negatives: if we start with Thorns (and many clients or users will), we miss out on identifying the good that's already there, and we walk away from the very thing we needed to keep. So always start with Roses:

Roses: What's good about this? What worked well? What do you like?

Thorns: What problems can you see? What's not working. What don't you like

Buds: What ideas are emerging? What solutions can you see?

The last question is so important. Too often we think that we need to come up with all the answers ourselves and forget that human creativity, intelligence and imagination is universally distributed - people just need to be asked. This has worked particlarly well for me in healthcare settings where we are innovating around service design. Asking patients how they would fix the system that currently exists produces highly actionable ideas. It also works well as a structure for stakeholder feedback within large organisations when seeking to finalise and embed a new strategy or vision.

I like to give people some time to identify one or two of each kinds of response - on an online workshop this time for silence works well. Asking people for their 'top 1' or 'top 2' of each of these categories helps people prioritise their own feedback so you get the feedback that really matters, rather than the laundry list. Over the years I have found it works best in a workshop session if you give time for ALL the Roses, first, before moving onto Thorns - usually the Buds emerge as part of the Thorns discussion, though you may want to give more time at the end to identify any unspoken ideas.

Do you use Rose/Thorn/Bud in your professional or personal life? How does it work for you?