The Surprising Power of Liberating Structures: Simple Rules to Unleash A Culture of Innovation (29 page)

• Ask a question in response to the presentation of an issue, or about a problem to resolve or a proposal put forward (e.g., What opportunities do YOU see for making progress on this challenge? How would you handle this situation? What ideas or actions do you recommend?)
  

• Unlimited number of groups
  
• Space for participants to work face-to-face in pairs and foursomes
  
• Chairs and tables optional
  
• Paper for participants to record observations and insights
  

• Everyone in the group is included (often not the facilitator)
  
• Everyone has an equal opportunity to contribute
  

• Start alone, then in pairs, then foursomes, and finally as a whole group
  

• Silent self-reflection by individuals on a shared challenge, framed as a question (e.g., What opportunities do YOU see for making progress on this challenge? How would you handle this situation? What ideas or actions do you recommend?) 1 min.
  
• Generate
  ideas in pairs, building on ideas from self-reflection. 2 min.
  
• Share and develop ideas from your pair in foursomes (notice similarities and differences). 4 min.
  
• Ask, “What is one idea that stood out in your conversation?” Each group shares one important idea with all (repeat cycle as needed). 5 min.
  

• Engage every individual in searching for answers
  
• Avoid overhelping and the overcontrol-dependency vicious cycle
  
• Create safe spaces for expression, diminish power differentials
  
• Express “silent” conversations and expand diversity of inputs
  
• Enrich quality of observations and insights before expression
  
• Build naturally toward consensus or shared understanding
  

• Firmly facilitate quiet self-reflection before paired conversations
  
• Ask everyone to jot down their ideas during the silent reflection
  
• Use bells for announcing transitions
  
• Stick to precise timing, do another round if needed
  
• In a large group during “All,” limit the number of shared ideas to three or four
  
• In a large group, use a facilitator or harvester to record output not shared
  
• Invite
  each group to share one insight but not to repeat insights already shared
  
• Separate and protect generation of ideas from the whole group discussion
  
• Defer judgment; make ideas visual; go wild!
  
• When you hit a plateau, jump to another form of expression (e.g., Improv, sketching, stories)
  
• Maintain the rule of one conversation at a time in the whole group
  
• Do a second round if you did not go deep enough!
  

• Graphically record insights as they emerge from groups
  
• Use Post-it notes in Rounds 2 and 3
  
• Link ideas that emerge to Design Storyboards, Improv Prototyping, Ecocycle Planning
  
• Go from groups of 4 to groups of 8 with consensus in mind. Colleague Liz Rykert calls this Octopus!
  

Above:
1-2-4-All
generates lively engagement in Puerto Rico

• Use after a speech or presentation, when it is important to get rich feedback (questions, comments, and ideas), instead of asking the audience, “Any questions?”
  
• A
  group of managers used two rounds of 1-2-4-All to redesign their less-than-stimulating weekly meeting.
  
• For a spontaneous conversation that starts after the topic of a meeting has been announced
  
• For a group that has been convened to address a problem or an innovation opportunity
  
• For unlocking a discussion that has become dysfunctional or stuck
  
• In place of a leader “telling” people what to think and do (often unintentionally)
  
• For a group that tends to be excessively influenced by its leader
  
• Read Craig Yeatman’s story in
  Part Three
  : Stories from the Field about using
  1-2-4-All
  to help manage a merger decision, “
  Inclusive High Stakes Decision Making Made Easy
  .”
  

Above: multiple pairs “parallel processing” a shared challenge in Seattle

• Ask, “What big challenge do you bring to this gathering? What do you hope to get from and give this group or community?”
  

• Open space without obstructions so participants can stand in pairs and mill about to find partners
  

• Everybody at once with the same amount of time (no limit on group size)
  
• Everyone has an equal opportunity to contribute
  

• Pairs
  
• Invite people to find strangers or colleagues in groups/functions different from their own
  

• In each round, 2 minutes per person to answer the questions. 4-5 min. per round
  
• Three rounds
  

• Initiate participation immediately for everyone provided the questions are engaging
  
• Attract
  deeper engagement around challenges
  
• Invite stories to deepen as they are repeated
  
• Help shy people warm up
  
• Affirm individual contributions to solutions
  
• Emphasize the power of loose and new connections
  
• Suggest that little things can make a big difference
  

• Use one challenge question and one give-and-take question
  
• Ask questions that invite participants to shape the direction of their work together
  
• Use Impromptu Networking before you begin meetings and conferences
  
• Use bells (e.g., tingsha) to help you shift participants from first, to second, to third rounds
  
• Ask questions that are open-ended but not too broad
  
• Invite serious play
  
• Have three rounds, not one or two
  
• If you choose to share output, do it carefully and preserve confidentiality
  

• Play with different questions: What problem are you trying to solve? What challenge lingers from our last meeting? What hunch are you trying to confirm?
  
• Taking a group outside a meeting room increases the fun factor
  
• Link to
  Social Network Webbing
  
• Invite participants to make a simple plan to follow up via
  15% Solutions
  
• Make it slower or faster depending on your schedule
  

Above: Al fresco
Impromptu Networking
in Colorado