Engaging Everyone

LIBERATING STRUCTURES

Lisa Kimball

ODNetwork Baltimore

2011 1

Plexus Institute

www.plexusinstitute.org

•Experience some liberating

structures

•A bit about Liberating Structures

as pattern language

•Building capacity to use

Liberating Structures

Problems & Opportunities Awareness Iceberg

4% known to

top leaders

9% known to

middle managers

74% known to

supervisors

100% known to

the front line

Internationally acclaimed study conducted by Sidney Yoshida,

initially presented at the International Quality Symposium

Action

unleashed @

the front line

The Importance of Engagement

• Widens the circle of involvement • Involves the whole system • Increases commitment and energy • Connects people to each other and to ideas • Generates better solutions • Creates communities for action • Turns meetings into working sessions • Speeds up implementation

Structure of Speed

Networking

1. Space

– Open

– Standing face to face

2. Participation

– Everybody at once

and at the same time +

equal time for all

3. Configurations

– Pairs

– Strangers preferably

4. Time allocation

– 2 minutes per person

– 3 rounds

5. Conceptual Framework

– 1 issue question

– 1 solution question

Components of all Structures

1. Space: physical arrangements 2. Participation: who is included, how,

when and how much 3. Configurations: sizes and composition

of groups 4. Time allocation: time spent in each

configuration 5. Conceptual framework: a concept, a

question or a purpose that informs the interaction

New Option for Transformation

→ Same people

→ Same incentives

→ Same organizational structure

→ NEW CONVERSATIONS

Relationships and CONVERSATIONS

Decentralized, Small Talk

• Fully autonomous

• Unconnected

• Unstable relationships

• Diverse or Uniform

• Random growth

Polite Conversation

Centralized, Ordered Discussion

• Largely dependent

• Connected by power/permission

• Fixed relationships

• Uniform

• Growth from center out

Facilitated, Bureaucratic Talk

Distributed, Generative Talk

• Largely autonomous contributions

• Connected by simple rules that guide local relationships

• Diverse and uniform participation

• Growth from any point in any direction

• Order arises out of local interaction & conversation

Messy, Loose, Complex & Creative

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 • Innovative ways to harvest

output • Natural environment • Movement, Fun • Social elements, mixing

participants

Liberating Structures Some examples of 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 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. Smart Network Mapping

16. Generative Relationships

17. Purpose-To-Practice Design

18. Scenario Planning Critical Uncertainties

19. Impromptu Speed Networking

20. 1-2-4-Whole Group

21. Troika Consulting

22. Fishbowl Sessions – “What I Need From You”

23. Celebrity Interview

24. 5 Whys & 10 Hows

25. Storyboarding Agendas

26. Positive Deviance

We search for the minimum structure to liberate the maximum innovation

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 short- and 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

Liberating Structures Workshop

• 30 + 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

Typical Workshop Agenda DAY I – 8:30am-5:00pm DAY II – 8:30am-5:00pm DAY III – 8:30am-1:30pm

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

[] Agreement)(Certainty Matching Matrix Matching Simple, Complicated, & Complex Approaches to

Specific Challenges [30] self-reflection, then pairs, then place

challenges on BIG wall chart. Group review.

[] Ecocycle Planning 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?

[] 15% Solutions 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 interaction

[] Flocking CAS [15] How do innovations spread?

[] Work-In-Progress 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

[] Conversation Café Dialogue Making Sense of and Forming Consensual Hunches about Big

Challenges [60] Themes: using LS in your work…

[] Graphic StoryBoarding Illustrating a Design Process for Key Meetings [10]

[] Wicked Questions 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?

[] Positive Deviance: Discovery & Action

Dialogue Self-Discovering Solutions To Big Challenges

Hidden Right Before Your Eyes [60-90] Theme: effective

meetings or…

[] Min Specs/Simple Rules Unleashing Innovation & Action by Specifying only “Must-do’s”

& “Must-not-do’s” [30] Start with why, why, why… to clarify

purpose, then sift activities. Theme to be selected…

[] Smart Networks Weaving Social Connections and Informal Networks To

Develop & Advance Practice [20] draw personal maps by

hand, review SmartMaps, then Webbing: who do you go to for

expertise… inspiration… permission?...

[] Lunch

[] Work-In-Progress Group Consultation Tapping the “Wisdom of Crowds” To Solve Problems

Together [60] recruit 2nd storyteller, focus on consulting skills

[] 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

[] 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

[] Generative Relationships 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.

[] Mad Tea Party Paired Self-Reflection in Fast Cycles [20] in Spanish, English,

Swedish, and Portuguese. Use when energy gets low.

[] Lunch Together and Closing

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

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 everyone in the room

• Goal: Everyone walks out thinking, “I can do this myself!”

• We search for the minimum structure to liberate

the maximum innovation

Power in Combining Elements!

Immersion in a

large # of simple

self-organizing

methods

A mix of top,

middle & front

line participants

(+ customers) Invitation to try many

simple methods to your

challenges immediately

Focus on complex

challenges that require

diverse participation to

make progress

Rapid cycles jointly

shaping solutions &

insights in-the-moment

One on one coaching

to launch immediate

use in local context

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.

“After several other conference sessions with one or two individuals dominating the talk and focusing on their issues only

we were able to accomplish much more in a day, than in the previous two days prior.”

- Division Chief,

US Army Cadet Command

Results Liberating Structures help groups liberate energy, tap into collective intelligence, be creatively adaptable, and build on each other's ideas to get results.

Bias for Action

“I didn’t think we were going to

be able to pull together so many

different departments that had

not been at the same meeting

before without spending hours

making presentations to explain

what we were all doing. I was

amazed that we just got right to

work! By the end of the day we

were on the same page and

had a way forward on things it

would have taken us weeks of

meetings to accomplish.”

- Program Manager, DC Office of

the State Superintendant of

Education

The process designs come from theories

and principles about self-organization,

diffusion of innovation, and change.

Liberating Structures Defined

NO

• Best practices imported

• Top-down, outside-in

• Deficit based “What’s wrong here?”

• Technical, analytic “expert” training

• “Mountain-top” personal development

• Buy-in and alignment strategies to overcome resistance in sub-groups

YES

• Self-discovery in groups

• Down-up, inside-out

• Asset based “What’s right here?”

• Simple methods for mundane & sublime challenges

• Personal development within a complex social milieu

• Attracting and inviting ownership + unleashing the wisdom of diverse crowds

Liberating Structures

Engaging Everyone

www.plexusinstitute.org

Lisa Kimball lisa@plexusinstitute.org