Liberating Structures
Henri Lipmanowicz
Keith McCandless
Plexus Institute, 2009
Our inventory of useful methods. Which of these
methods are familiar to you? One point for each:
1. Appreciative Interviews
2. Agreement / Uncertainty Matrix
3. Creative Destruction via TRIZ
4. Wicked Questions
5. Min Specs
6. Chunking via Rapid Prototyping
7. Improv
8. 15% Solutions
9. Open Space Technology
10. Ecocycle Sifting & Gathering
11. Panarchy: Cross-Scale Change
12. Conversation Café Dialogue
13. Discovery & Action Dialogue
14. Wise Crowds Group
Consultation
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.
21.
22.
23.
24.
25.
26.
Smart Network Mapping
Generative Relationships
Purpose-To-Practice Design
Scenario Planning Critical
Uncertainties
Impromptu Speed Networking
1-2-4-Whole Group
Troika Consulting
Fishbowl Sessions – “What I
Need From You”
Celebrity Interview
5 Whys & 10 Hows
Storyboarding Agendas
Positive Deviance
YOUR TOTAL SCORE IS: _____?
Question 1
•
How long have you used
complexity-inspired methods -such as the approaches in the
last slide -- in your organization
or consulting work?
A.
B.
C.
D.
E.
> 10 years
3-10 years
1-3 years in the last year
not started yet
The Story We Tell in
Airplanes
“In one week we can have a
transforming
impact on an organization!!!”
Power in Combining Elements!
Immersion in a
large # of simple
self-organizing
methods
A mix of top,
middle & front
line participants
(+ customers)
Focus on complex
challenges that require
diverse participation to
make progress
Invitation to try many
simple methods to your
challenges immediately
One on one coaching
to launch immediate
use in local context
Rapid cycles jointly
shaping solutions &
insights in-the-moment
Hope has never trickled down. It has always sprung up.
In organizations,
patterns and results emerge
from how people interact
with each other and
affect each other’s
behaviors and ideas.
~ Simultaneous mutual shaping at play ~
New Option to Affect a System
• Same people
• Same structure
• Same incentives
• Change processes
& patterns of relating
Culture eats strategy for lunch
Purpose
Liberating Structures
Stimulate and unleash
innovation and productivity
at all levels
by using and inventing new ways
of working together
and interacting with
peers, clients, students,
and community members.
The Story We Tell in Airplanes
“in one week we can have a transforming
impact on an organization!!!”
How? With a LS Workshop:
•
•
•
•
Up to 120 participants, all levels
20 to 25 LS
2-3 days
2 days 1-on-1 coaching
How we start the LS workshop:
• Impromptu Speed Networking (15 minutes)
• Appreciative Interview (45 minutes)
Impromptu, Speed Networking
Power of loose connections,
small things can make a big difference
What is YOUR
biggest challenge
right now?
How to move
from product to
customer focus
Better ways to
address chronic
problems
How to maintain
momentum in a
rough downturn
Our customers
think we don’t
care
The frontline
resists all
change
I have a
new
I want to
bust the
silos
What do you
hope to get from
and contribute to
the workshop?
Find a partner…3-5 minutes sharing…
Then find another partner… then find another.
The merger!
I have no idea
what will happen
here!
Why start this way?
What did you notice?
 Liberates energy (no speech…)
 Invites deeper engagement with a
provocative or profound question
 Repetition deepens stories
 Listening quickly connects people
 Loose connections can be powerful
 Little things can make a big
difference
Brainstorm
Where and how could you use
Impromptu Speed Networking:
• In Meetings?
• Events?
Why “Liberating Structures”?
Structure/Control
Minimum
Liberation/Freedom
Maximum
Appreciative Interviews
Creating Momentum by Building On and
Designing With “What Works Right Now”
Find a partner you don’t know
well and share a story about a fabulous
personal achievement…
(re a complex challenge)
Insights
• Building on what works with an appreciative
approach (people are attracted to light!)
• Storytelling versus PowerPoint
• Pairs, then Quartets
• Retelling and listening
• Recognizing patterns
• Collecting Whole Group wisdom
• When you repeat appreciative interviews in
rapid cycles it can draw out more discovery
& knowledge for innovation
1-2-4-Whole Group
Progressive, Rapid Cycle Conversation
– Self-Reflection (no talking)
– Pairs
– Small Groups
– Whole group
Brainstorm
Where and how can you use
Appreciative Interviews
Or 1-2-4-Whole group
Liberating Structures Defined
Processes and methods
that make it easy and quick
for groups of people
to liberate their energy,
tap into their collective
intelligence,
be creative, adaptable,
build on each other’s ideas,
and get results
Question 2
•
What is the degree to which your
organization or your clients rely on the
following practices to address complex
challenges:
–
–
–
Importing “evidence-based” best practices
Driving change & buy-in strategies
Extensive training or more personal development
A.
B.
C.
D.
E.
never
rarely
not sure
frequently
always
Are You Also Experiencing
These Challenges?
 Imported best practices spreading
poorly or not at all in local settings
 Buy-in which can't be achieved
without painful, often futile armtwisting (after the initial hoopla &
charismatic messaging fade away)
 Expensive efforts to train or educate
people that fail to change behavior
(or show only modest results)
Diagnosis
These are classic symptoms of ineffective or
neglected methods for unleashing social
invention.
For a large class of challenges, selecting
whom to include and how they are best
engaged in addressing the problem-athand is critical but overlooked. Technical
mastery overshadows the subtle power of
local wisdom in crowds.
Problems & Opportunities
Awareness Iceberg
4%
known to
top leaders
9%
known to
middle managers
74%
known to
supervisors
100%
Action
unleashed @
the front line
Adapted from study conducted by Sidney Yoshida,
initially presented at the International Quality Symposium
known to
the front line &
customers
Solution
Engaging more people at multiple levels,
earlier and more strategically, can
dramatically boost capacity for solutions
that generate spectacular and unexpected
results. Methods that shift patterns of
interaction are most helpful.
Simple approaches like Liberating
Structures will help you and others
discover for themselves more productive
and innovative solutions.
Question 3
•
In your direct experience, is your
organization getting better at using
complexity-inspired methods to
address complex challenges?
A.
B.
C.
D.
E.
yes, definitely getting better organization-wide
making progress in pockets
getting worse, not better
no change
not sure
Question 4
•
For participants with direct
experience, what is your selfassessment of how complexity
methods are spreading across your
organization (top-to-bottom-toclients)?
A.
B.
C.
D.
E.
Active, fully distributed spread
Active use in units and pockets
Active use by champions within pockets
Isolated use only when facilitated by experts
Very limited or no spread
Early Design Flaws - Failing Forward
In Spreading Complexity-Inspired Methods
Design Attributes
• Science- and conceptbased learning sessions
focusing on scientific
advances & principles
• Learning sessions in faraway places with
homogenous groups
(e.g., leaders, trainers,
change agents)
• Expert facilitation using
one or two methods to
address a single complex
challenge
Hard Lessons
• Only a few people really
cared and this did not
prepare them to take
action in local settings
• We assumed individuals
could effectively share
and spread methods
“back home”
• This seemed to create
“facilitator dependence.”
Plus, only so much
progress can be made in
an offsite session.
Liberating Structures Workshop
• 25+ different methods
• Single organization: all
layers together, top to
bottom
• Community with shared
interests
• Ideal 2.5 days + 2 days of
coaching sessions
• Experiential, “try it NOW”
• Intense, rapid cycles
• Fun, Seriously!
• Complexity Theory – little
or none, adjustable to
interests
• Focus on real challenges,
mundane and sublime
Learning Approach
• Experiential learning with a minimal amount
of “telling” and a maximum of self-discovery
• Methods are introduced and woven into
interactions around key challenges selected
by participants
• We draw out and build on the direct
experience of you and everyone in the room
• We search for the minimum structure to
liberate the maximum innovation
Liberating Structures
An expanding, adaptable mash-up of open source methods
1. Appreciative Interviews
2. Agreement / Uncertainty Matrix
3. Creative Destruction via TRIZ
4. Wicked Questions
5. Min Spec s
6. Chunking via Rapid Prototyping
7. Improv
8. 15% Solutions
9. Open Space Technology
10. Ecocycle Sifting & Gathering
11. Panarchy: Cross-Scale Change
12. Conversation Café Dialogue
13. Discovery & Action Dialogue
14. Wise Crowds Group
Consultation
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.
21.
22.
23.
24.
25.
26.
Smart Network Mapping
Generative Relationships
Purpose-To-Practice Design
Scenario Planning Critical
Uncertainties
Impromptu Speed Networking
1-2-4-Whole Group
Troika Consulting
Fishbowl Sessions – “What I
Need From You”
Celebrity Interview
5 Whys & 10 Hows
Storyboarding Agendas
Positive Deviance
We search for the minimum structure to liberate the maximum innovation
Typical Workshop Agenda
DAY I – 8:30am-5:00pm
Welcome and Purpose
[] Impromptu Networking
Quick Rounds of Conversation With “Strangers” [20]
[] Introducing LS and Purpose
[] Appreciative Interviews
Creating Momentum by Building On and Designing With
“What Works Right Now” [45] twist: flip a problem into an
appreciative search for solutions
DAY II – 8:30am-5:00pm
[] Conversation Café Dialogue
Making Sense of and Forming Consensual Hunches
about Big Challenges [60] Themes: using LS in your
work…
[] Graphic StoryBoarding
DAY III – 8:30am-1:30pm
[] Open Space Technology
Liberating Inherent Creativity and Leadership In Large
Groups with an Action-Orientation [120] Application of
Liberating Structures to an important challenges for ABC
organization
Illustrating a Design Process for Key Meetings [10]
[] Generative Relationships
Matching Simple, Complicated, & Complex Approaches
to Specific Challenges [30] self-reflection, then pairs,
then place challenges on BIG wall chart. Group review.
Framing a Paradoxical Challenge That Engages
Everyone’s Imagination [30] Link to Café: how can we
confidently use Liberating Structures without knowing
what will unfold?
[] Mad Tea Party or Webbing or “25”
Engaging Groups in Growing and Sifting Their Portfolio of
Activities [60] What do you notice about the distribution?
Any surprises in the Poverty or Rigidity Traps?
Challenges Hidden Right Before Your Eyes [60-90]
Theme: effective meetings or a chronic challenge
[] Agreement)(Certainty Matching Matrix
[] Ecocycle Planning
[] 15% Solutions + Troika Consults
Noticing and Using the Influence, Discretion and Power
Individuals Have Right Now Twist: move one challenge
(from the Ecocycle) forward with a 15% Solution, then
Troika consult
[] Lunch
[] Making Space with TRIZ
Designing a Perfectly Adverse System to Make Space
[45-60] Themes: important customer or patient or peer
interaction
[] Flocking CAS [15] How do innovations spread?
[] Wise Crowds Group Consultation
Tapping the “Wisdom of Crowds” To Solve Problems
Together [60] Possibilities: a big launch, coordination
across silos or boundaries, a chronic/messy problem
[] Design Party Debrief Session
Reflecting on Your Design-In-Progress and Making
Adjustments-As-You-Go (what? so what? now what?
among a small group in the front of the room… link to
ladder of inference)
[] Social Time and Dinner Together
[] Wicked Questions
[] Positive Deviance: Discovery & Action
Dialogue Self-Discovering Solutions To Big
Understanding Patterns in Relationships that Create
Surprising, New Sources of Value Pick a key group you
are in right now and apply the STAR self-assessment…
then action steps.
Paired Self-Reflection in Fast Cycles [20] in Spanish,
English, Swedish, French and Portuguese. Use when
energy gets low.
[] Lunch Together and Closing
[] Min Specs
Unleashing Innovation & Action by Specifying only “Mustdo’s” & “Must-not-do’s” [30] Start with why, why, why…
to clarify purpose, then sift activities.
[] Smart Networks Mapping
Weaving Social Connections and Informal Networks To
Develop & Advance Practice [20] draw personal maps by
hand or review Smart Maps, then Webbing: who do you
go to for expertise… inspiration… permission?...
[] Lunch
[] “What I Need From You” Fishbowl
Articulating Clear and Actionable Needs Across
Functions [60] focus on a new strategic challenge that
requires coordination to meet clients needs
[] Chunking, User Research, Prototyping
Tapping Tacit and Latent Knowledge in Seriously-Playful
Rapid Cycles [80] Improv theme: difficult conversation
with key client or peer
[] Design Party Debrief Sessions
Reflecting on Your Design-In-Progress and Making
Adjustments-As-You-Go [20]
[] Social Time and Dinner Together
Optional “improv” activities & simulations:
 Flocking CAS
 Webbing or CoPs
 Leader / Follower F L O W
 Blocking / Accepting Offers
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Day IV and V
 One-to-One Coaching Sessions as requested
 Post Workshop design debrief
Workshop Objectives
~ Experience how Liberating Structures transform
interactions with your peers, students, patients
~ Begin preparing next steps for ongoing use in
everyday practice with customers, peers, and
suppliers
~ Discover how Liberating Structures are congruent
with the emerging sciences of complex and/or
biological systems
Attributes of LS Methods
What Other Methods Come To Mind?
• Simple & fast to learn
• Requires very little
explanation or theory
• Draws out insight from
interaction
• Works with groups, units,
or the whole organization
• Focuses attention on
relationship patterns
• Minimally structured for
maximum liberation
• Generates surprises &
novelty without central
control (light coordination
only)
• Invites seriously-playful
participation
• Appeals to people in
diverse roles
• Generates very shortand long-term results
• Illuminates an edge or
paradoxical territory
• Identifies and builds on
assets that exist now
• Invites inclusion & more
diverse voices
• Works with internal and
external customers
What Else?
What other methods fit with Liberating
Structures? What comes to your mind?
• Use the Chat function to add your ideas.
• You can control who you send to…
Go wild!
FAQ #1
Why So Many, So Fast?
– Every person is likely to find two or three LS they like and
want to start using. (A few people will find many)
– LS are modular. They can be mashed-up and spur new
inventions very quickly.
– Participants see patterns across the LS and gain
confidence with experience.
– Quickly using them demonstrates LS are forgiving. You
can get great results without tight fidelity.
– Rapid cycles show that ideas/answers come from many
sources and levels, not all from the top.
FAQ # 2
Why Top & Front Line Together?
– Complex issues involve multiple functions, levels, &
disciplines
– The front line knows more about the customers’
problems & opportunities
– Serious progress on tough issues can be made with all
parties present
– Learning together helps launch LS use quickly
– Confidence builds when everyone starts on an equal
footing
– No waiting for permission
– Everyone can simultaneously-and-mutually shape
innovations as they emerge
Outcomes
Wow!
Easy to
Implement,
Spreads Itself
Immediate
Early
Adopters
Practicing
Our Way Into
New Thinking
Energy
Unleashed
Early
Successes
Forgiving
Concrete
Changes
Creative
Relationship
with Clients
Liberating Structures
in Practice
Inspired by pioneering work with
Plexus in the US. Launched in 2004
and developed in Latin America.
Now, migrating to Europe and Asia.
What Is Unique or Special
About Liberating Structures?
You have heard enough from us.
What do you think?
– Chat with your neighbor
– Share ideas in small groups
– Share the most interesting or unusual with the
whole group
Question 5
•
Sponsoring a workshop is a big
commitment. How likely is it that your
organization or an organization you
work with will want to host a
workshop?
A.
B.
C.
D.
E.
•
very likely
likely
not sure
unlikely
never
Your suggestions for how to position
this offering will be most appreciated.
Question 6
•
Designing a LS workshop is fun,
relatively simple, and rewarding. How
likely is it that you will want to design
something similar to this offering for
your organization or your clients?
A.
B.
C.
D.
E.
very likely
likely
not sure
unlikely
very unlikely
Bonus Material
• Based on what
emerges, we will dig
deeper into the most
interesting questions
that pop up.
– More on methods
– What is different
– Shifting behavior &
culture
– Sources of knowledge
for innovation
– Learning more
Methods that shift interactions
•
•
•
•
•
Stories versus PPT
Listening, silence
Big questions
Improvising
Diversity of formats: pairs,
small groups, large groups
• Focus on purpose
• Inviting participation,
minimizing status
differences
• Rapid learning &
prototyping cycles
• Feedback loops
• Network weaving
• Posting information with
colorful graphics
• Natural environment
• Movement, fun
• Social elements, mixing
participants
What Is Different?
Self-sustaining attributes include…
• more participatory, engaging diverse stakeholders in substantive
co-design rather than the select few formal leaders;
• more unit-based and local, with solutions worked out by frontline groups instead of imported “best practices;”
•
more informal, building on social networks and decentralized
communities-of-practice rather than the organizational chart via “buy
in” initiatives; and,
•
more practical, ready to be adapted in everyday settings without
additional education, training or certification.
These attributes help make Liberating Structures selfsustaining and self-spreading. We find people learn best
when they discover solutions themselves, among peers
in their local context.
Attributes of LS Methods
What Other Methods Come To Mind?
• Simple & fast to learn
• Requires very little
explanation or theory
• Draws out insight from
interaction
• Works with groups, units,
or the whole organization
• Focuses attention on
relationship patterns
• Minimally structured for
maximum liberation
• Generates surprises &
novelty without central
control (light coordination
only)
• Invites seriously-playful
participation
• Appeals to people in
diverse roles
• Generates very shortand long-term results
• Illuminates an edge or
paradoxical territory
• Identifies and builds on
assets that exist now
• Invites inclusion & more
diverse voices
• Works with internal and
external customers
Shifting Behaviors & Culture
Self-Reinforcing Patterns
Letting Go
Control
Focus on
Focus on
Engaging People
& Purpose
Tasks & Alignment
Liberating
Structures
A Personal and
Organizational
Journey
Dependency
Adapted in part from Bob Anderson,
“From Patriarchy to Partnership”
SelfOrganization
Behaviors Linked To Methods
Removing Barriers to Innovation
Listening & Asking for Help
Relying on “Local” Discovery
Taking on More Responsibility
Seeking Expertise, Not Rank
Sharing Information Freely
Seeking Multiple Interpretations;
Risking Multiple Actions
1-2-4-Whole Group Wise Crowds
Purpose-To-Practice Design
Agreement/Certainty Matrix
Conversation Café Dialogue
Generative Relationships
Appreciative Interviews
Graphic StoryBoarding
Smart Networks + CoP
Group Consultation
Min Specs
TRIZ
15% Solutions
Ecocycle Planning
Positive Deviance
Scenario Planning
Wicked Questions
Design Party Debriefs
Open Space Technology
Chunking – Rapid Prototyping
Fishbowls & Celebrity Interviews
Sources of Knowledge & Innovation
Explicit
Tacit
Latent / Emergent
ASK
What your clients or
peers tell you they
need when you ask
(e.g., focus groups)
OBSERVE
What behaviors you see
LS ++
in their local context
(e.g., ethnographic
observation)
LS tap tacit and
latent-emergent
knowledge
LS +++
CO-CREATE EXPERIENCE
What you jointly discover &
develop with peers & clients
(e.g., rapid prototyping)
Adapted from Alan Duncan, MD (Mayo Clinic)
Liberating Structures
Help People and Organizations…






Attract people with diverse skills to solve problems
Invite, build and amplify a community-of-practice
Expand scarce resources
Work with the imagination & resources at hand
Adapt quickly, creatively to emerging problems
Create new markets, products, and services in
partnership with unusual suspects
 Work across silos, redrawing boundaries
 Bounce back from disruptions
 …
More about Liberating Structures @
www.socialinvention.net & www.plexusinstitute.org
Keith McCandless, Co-Founder
Social Invention Group
P: +1 206.324.9332
keithmccandless@earthlink.net
www.socialinvention.net
Henri Lipmanowicz, Chair
Plexus Institute
www.henrilip@mac.com
www.plexusinstitute.org
Lisa Kimball, President, Plexus Institute
1025 Connecticut Ave. NW, Suite 1000
Washington, DC 20036
P: +1 202.857.9797
lisa@plexusinstitute.org
http://www.plexusinstitute.org