The Surprising Power of Liberating Structures: Simple Rules to Unleash A Culture of Innovation (19 page)

Including everyone in clarifying purpose with
Nine Whys
underscores the importance of having diverse individuals and all regions contribute to the larger national movement. More importantly, the purpose must be powerful to attract broad participation—the lifeblood of a successful movement. With relationships affirmed and a more focused purpose established at each level, the stage is set for bold action.
TRIZ
unleashes “stop-doing” actions. Seeing that big obstacles will be removed inspires ideas for transforming the future.

Throughout the summit, as shown in the Notes column in the storyboards, facilitators, sponsors, graphic recorders, and participants themselves work on harvesting, synthesizing, and publishing all the wisdom unleashed from this large group of four hundred. As the summit progresses, insights and action ideas are collected for a proceedings document to be published by the end of the meeting.

The purpose of
Part 2
(
Figure 7.6
) is to engage each person in generating action as well as regional strategies. Again, this series of structures is a shift since participants have not been fully included in the past and have waited for direction from the center or top. In order to move deeper into solutions for individual and regional group challenges,
Appreciative Interviews
start the work by focusing on the root causes of success, shared through storytelling. Every person is invited to share a success story with a person from another state. Paired interviews will build internal confidence and spark practical action within and across coalitions.

With peer learning unleashed and action ideas in mind, Graphic Gameplans are used to begin harvesting the top ideas for moving forward in each regional team. Visual tools like the Graphic Gameplan (
Figure 7.7
) make the work on strategy through the rest of the day explicit, inviting, and transparent to all. Individually and together, participants are able to make sense of the mix of actions and ideas unleashed throughout the morning. Again, every voice is included in figuring out all the possibilities for advancing his or her region and the national transformation strategy.

After lunch, the group moves more deeply into action and tactics via
Open Space
. With insights from the
Celebrity Interview
,
Nine Whys
,
TRIZ
, and
Appreciative Interviews
in the morning,
Open Space
focuses attention on what each region can stop or start to advance the transformation. Conveners facilitate the group during the session, take notes about follow-up, and possibly lead the group after the summit if needed. Concrete action plans are generated.

Mad Tea + Strategy Safari are then used to add serious fun and strategic context to the tactics emerging. The Mad Tea open sentences provoke a lively, wide-ranging, and cathartic conversation, with novel ideas and deeper insight popping out as the Mad Tea unfolds. The big five Strategy Safari questions focus attention and produce shared understanding of strategy and next steps. (The Mad Tea + Strategy Safari trigger items are listed in
Table 7.1
.)

To bring the day to a close,
What, So What, Now What?
continues the harvest of best ideas for moving forward. This debrief happens well before the end of the summit. More deliberate thinkers in each regional group have time to contemplate the mix of actions and strategies unleashed throughout the day. Again, every voice is included in making sense of all the possibilities for advancing his or her region and the national transformation strategy.

Throughout the summit, visual methods like the Strategy Gameplan (
Figure 7.7
) make it possible to quickly synthesize, harvest, and publish wisdom from this large group of four hundred. As the summit progresses, insights and action ideas are gathered by staff for a proceedings document to be published by the end of the meeting. Large wall charts record the work in progress. Everyone can see how his or her contributions are informing the others and the national transformation. This is hard work and a little weariness is to be expected. An evening full of fun is needed to relax and unwind.

Open Space
continues through the morning of the second day of the summit (
Figure 7.8
). With even more action and momentum unleashed,
25/10 Crowd Sourcing
generates and ranks bold strategies in each region and the nation as a whole. Participants sense that much more is possible—and that it is within their grasp—locally and nationally. To help participants from each region hit the ground running on their return home, Graphic Gameplans again capture the top strategies and the actions that will attract diverse participation in their state.

Stepping back to see the forest and the trees, all the new and existing strategies are put into context with the
Ecocycle
. Each regional group completes its local portfolio map and contributes to a national map of key strategic relationships. Synergies and gaps between regional and national activities come into view. Forging new relationships and attracting diverse participation are some clear challenges that emerge. National and state leaders gain fresh perspectives on their accomplishments and the path ahead.

In closing this summit of the people, by the people, for the people,
What, So What, Now What?
brought out feelings of new camaraderie, confidence, accomplishment, and momentum. There was a standing ovation and copies of the proceedings were distributed for everyone to take home.

Composing for Large-Scale Projects

However powerful the sample strings and detailed storyboards described above may be, we do not want you to copy them. They are not recipes or best practices. Each of these compositions was matched to a local context and unique user needs. Composing with Liberating Structures begins and ends with understanding the needs of users.

Composing for ambitious goals and large-scale events—similar to the example above about advancing a movement—may look complicated, but it’s not. The process is actually a simple one: you draw out the deepest needs of users via a clear purpose and match it with congruent microstructures. A simple agenda, as in the community-wide meeting example above, might specify only the structures to be used, the questions designed to spark idea generation, and the time allotted to each plus notes on key issues to pay attention to in the transition from one structure to the next.

The more detailed storyboard approach has you carefully define all the micro-organizing elements needed to achieve your purpose: a structuring invitation, space, materials, participation, configurations, facilitation, and time allocations.

Composing Overview

In brief, composing an agenda or a design storyboard for an activity, meeting, or initiative involves a preparation phase and then a four-step composition process.

Preparation

Clarify purpose by asking why, why, why: why is this meeting or project or initiative important? Ask, “What will be different after this experience? What should we start doing and what should we stop doing?” Keep going until you can go no deeper.

Composition

Choose appropriate Liberating Structures that will help you achieve your purpose or goals step by step, preferably working with a partner or a diverse design group (see
Chapter 5
). For bigger projects that unfold over long periods of time, working with design groups is highly recommended. For each goal or challenge standing between where you are now and the desired end result, you puzzle out answers to the following questions:

1. What Liberating Structure fits this challenge?

Sift and sort through options. Use the Liberating Structures Menu in
Chapter 5
and the
What Is Made Possible
descriptions in the Field Guide. Many Liberating Structures are suited perfectly to mash-ups. Post-it notes can help you arrange and rearrange with creative abandon.

2. What insights or outcomes may emerge from this activity?

If needed, reread the Liberating Structures Menu and the
What Is Made Possible
descriptions, anticipating positive and rapid movement among group members. What has slowed progress in the past may evaporate very quickly. Break up your outline into steps or chunks that can be designed and can function independently (don’t try to put together a comprehensive design from the start).

3. What is made possible now?

Try to anticipate leaps in understanding and readiness to take action. Believe before you see. Liberating Structures will build “group genius” and velocity. If possible, pretest elements of your design. Try out your questions or invitations with a design partner or a sample of people
who will be in the group meeting or event. Consider testing and vetting in waves and in different configurations. Tap your design team members to do the work.

Bring your experience into your next steps.

4. What next step or activity can follow to build momentum, breadth, and depth among group members?

Repeat the steps above.

You will make discoveries and create adaptations as you go. Puzzling out the order and timing may flow quickly or it may require multiple sessions. Composing is not an exact science; the abbreviated descriptions here simply show the kind of things to consider for producing a workable design.

It will not matter if one of the activities in your design ends up looking like it was not the right choice. A Liberating Structures composition is intentionally modular: when an activity doesn’t work, doesn’t produce the intended results, improvise; pick another structure and move on. Repeating the design cycle, whether in advance or in the moment, starting with preparation and moving through follow-up, will improve your skills very quickly.

PART THREE

Stories From the Field

We have found people all over the world using Liberating Structures for anything and everything. There are seemingly no limits to the ways Liberating Structures can be put to work to achieve dramatic results—from outcomes as simple as transforming the way a task force conducts its meetings to turning an entire enterprise around. In our experience, there is no place or situation where Liberating Structures cannot be useful. The only limits are your imagination and your willingness to experiment with new and different structures for your interactions with others.