Liberating Structures field notes
Liberating Structures are a set of scalable facilitation patterns that orchestrate inclusive, real-time group interactions.
Field notes are stories, insights and musings from my facilitation practice as a:
- Design consultant facilitating multi-stakeholder workshops for complex enterprise challenges
- Workshop facilitator for design and research communities of practice
- Convener of internal gatherings at my design consultancy
- Teacher and participant in workshop-style training on various topics
I wrote them per-Structure, between 2019-2020, as a contribution to the LS community's body of knowledge, with a shout out of appreciation to my hosts and cohort at Liberating Structures Studio and LS Playground, our alumni practice group.
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Helping Heuristics
Nine Whys
Appreciative interviews
Ecocycle planning
Celebrity interview
25/10 Crowdsourcing
Open space technology
Wise crowdsTiny monsters
Wicked questionsHeard, seen, respectedNarrative reauthoring
15% Solution
Triz
Min specs
User experience fishbowlSpiral journal
Conversation cafe
Troika Consulting
Impromptu networking
1-2-4-AllMad Tea PartyDrawing some boundaries…
- Much of the commercial application of my facilitation practice dwells in the subtle nuances of orchestrating momentum among all kinds of power dynamics in the client organization. A lot of these notes will be about how to navigate unknowable environments as a hired gun, and increasing alignment and confidence towards a broader project goal.
- I am not of the school that believes facilitation to be a neutral act. As a designer, whatever intent I hold for the challenge at stake will be tightly woven in how I host and facilitate conversations.
- It's rare that I host workshops that are a pure string of LS. I draw on other schools of facilitation to design for activities like synthesis, modeling, decision making, assessing risks, mapping scenarios, project planning, etc.
- This is not: an introduction to Liberating Structures, comprehensive instructions on how to run them, or particularly actionable for non-facilitation practitioners.
If you aren't familiar with Liberating Structures yet, you're in for a treat. Visit the official website and join the Slack group. The Liberators publication is also an amazing place to learn the nitty gritty. To jump in with facilitation, start accumulating lived experiences as a participant.
