LCO — for facilitators

Samvinas

• Pipe in the ideas you want to react to. Each becomes a card with three sections:
  • Likes — what appeals about it.
  • Concerns — worries, stated as questions ("How to…?").
  • Opportunities — new possibilities or directions it suggests.
• Do the Likes first and genuinely — the affirmative start is the point.

LCO consumes idea items; pipe it onward into a fresh Brainstorm to turn the opportunities (and the open questions) into new ideas.

Paper and pen

You need: a flip-chart sheet per option, fat markers, sticky notes, and a blank wall for the next round.

• Rule each sheet into three columns — Likes, Concerns, Opportunities — with the option written across the top.
• Take the columns strictly in order, one sticky per point, said aloud as it goes up. Likes must come first, and be genuine.
• Concerns go up only as questions ("How to…?"); rewrite verdicts before posting.
• Treat the Opportunities column as the harvest: lift those stickies onto the blank wall as seed notes, write the strongest as fresh "How might we…?" prompts, and open the next brainstorm from there.
• Failure mode: letting the session become a verdict on the option. LCO is a springboard — if the group starts thumbs-up/thumbs-down, point them back at the Opportunities column.
• Photograph the sheets before anything moves.

When & why

Reach for LCO in the develop stage when an option needs building rather than filtering — or when the group's first instinct is to attack. Starting positive on purpose changes the posture: people engage more when their first move is to build.

Concerns phrased as questions become springboards, not dead ends — see problems as questions.

• Do the Likes first and genuinely — the affirmative start is the point.
• Treat Opportunities as the real payoff: they are where the next ideas come from.
• What usually follows: a fresh Brainstorm seeded by the opportunities, then a focusing tool such as Voting once the new field is open.