Introducing the Doughnut theory for business

I held this free workshop for participants from various backgrounds : entrepreneurs, employees from the private and the public sector, self-employed. I was really thrilled to discover the enthousiasm this workshop generated. They were 16 participants.

I had no idea of the level of awareness my participants had about the current environnemental and social issues, and they didn't know each other.
 
Taking these points into account, here is how I organised the workshop :

1. Quiz (20') : I divided the room in 2 teams. The quiz's  aim was double : an ice-breaker as well as getting everybody to share a common level of awareness about the social and environnemental issues and how they are connected. 

2. Introduction to the Doughnut theory (25') : based on the DEAL presentation

3. Applying the Doughnut theory to business (30') : based on the Doughnut Design for Business tool
As it was really important for me to get participants understanding how concrete and powerfull the tool is, I have imagined a short business case. I got the group to work on a company's impact cartography, after a short presentation of its activity. I split the group in 4 sub-groups that would represent 4 stakeholders (clients, supplyers, local community, the Earth). I was amazed to see how, in just 5 minutes, the group identified the company's positive and negative impacts, and risks as well, with such a rich overview.

Key learnings
- Starting the workshop with a quiz seems really helpful to connect the participants of course, and mostly to make sure that everybody share the same level of understanding of the issues the Doughnut theory adresses.
- It is not easy to find the right balance between theory and practice. It can get frustrating not to get into details when explaining the theory, but it seems to me that this second part could have been shorter, in order to let more time for the 3rd part.
- Participants really enjoyed to embody stakeholders, and to imagine how impacted they were by the companies activities. It has been a very nice way to see how the Doughnut concretely applies, and also to understand the importance of a wide approach of impacts.
- Some participants expressed that they would have been interested in more exemples of companies that actually use the Doughnut as a compass. Food for thoughts !