The Surprising Power of Liberating Structures: Simple Rules to Unleash A Culture of Innovation (31 page)

Above: Developing
Wicked Questions
in Madrid

•
  
Ask, “Please tell a story about a time when you worked on a challenge with others and you are proud of what you accomplished. What is the story and what made the success possible? Pair up preferably with someone you don’t know well.”

• Unlimited number of groups
  
• Chairs for people to sit in pairs face-to-face; no tables needed.
  
• Paper for participants to take notes
  
• Flip chart to record the stories and assets/conditions
  

• Everyone is included
  
• Everyone has equal time and opportunity to contribute
  

• First pairs, then groups of 4.
  
• Encourage groups to be diverse
  

• Describe the sequence of steps and specify a theme or what kind of story participants are expected to tell. 3 min.
  
• In pairs, participants take turns conducting an interview and telling a success story, paying attention to what made the success possible. 7–10 min. each; 15–20 min. total.
  
• In groups of 4, each person retells the story of his or her pair partner. Ask participants to listen for patterns in conditions/assets supporting success and to make note of them. 15 min. for groups of 4.
  
• Collect insights and patterns for the whole group to see on a flip chart. Summarize if needed. 10-15 min.
  
• Ask, “How are we investing in the assets and conditions that foster success?” and “What opportunities do you see to do more?” Use
  1-2-4-All
  to discuss the questions. 10 min.
  

• Generate constructive energy by starting on a positive note.
  
• Capture and spread tacit knowledge about successful field experience.
  
• Reveal the path for achieving success for an entire group simultaneously
  
• By expecting positive behaviors, you can bring them forth (Pygmalion effect)
  
• Spark peer-to-peer learning, mutual respect, and community building.
  
• Give permission to explore complex or messy challenges
  
• Create a new exciting group narrative, e.g., “how we are making order out of chaos!”
  
• Repeating interviews in rapid cycles may point to
  positively deviant
  local innovations
  

• Flip malaise and negative themes to “When is it that we have succeeded, even in a modest way?”
  
• Start with, “Tell me a story about a time when….”
  
• Ask people to give a title to their partner’s story
  
• Invite additional paired interviews before building up to patterns
  
• Invite
  participants to notice when they form a judgment (about what is right or wrong) or an idea about how they can help, then to “let it go”
  
• Make the stories and patterns visible to everyone
  
• Learn more from Appreciative Inquiry practitioners at
  http://appreciativeinquiry.case.edu/
  

• Graphically record story titles and conditions/assets on a large wall tapestry
  
• Write up and publicize a few of the most inspiring stories
  
• Draw out stories that help participants make a leap of understanding from a small example of behavior change to a broad change in values or a shift in resource allocation (or both!). Give participants an example.
  
• Track how the stories start to fill in and bring life to the group’s vision
  
• Groups of eight instead of four are an option
  
• Follow with
  Min Specs
  , exploring the must dos and must not dos required for future success
  

Below: an
Appreciative Interview
under way in Peru

• For bringing customer focus to life with “stories when you had a creative and positive interaction with a customer”
  
• For
  revising college courses with “stories when a course or learning experience had a profound influence on your life”
  
• For repairing a relationship between a patient and a doctor with “stories when you were able to accept openly responsibility for making a medical error”
  
• For building trust and morale in an NGO with “stories when you experienced here in the office the esprit de corps of work in the field. What made that possible?”
  
• For looking beyond the launch of a transformation initiative with “stories of first successes in the field that can guide our strategy for the next two years”
  

Above:
Appreciative Interview
wall tapestry illustrating the assets and conditions that support success in the stories

“Every act of creation is first an act of destruction.” Pablo Picasso

• In this three-step process, ask: 1. “Make a list of all you can do to make sure that you achieve the worst result imaginable with respect to your top strategy or objective.”

• Unlimited number of small groups of 4 to 7 chairs, with or without small tables
  
• Paper for participants to record
  

• Everybody involved in the work is included
  
• Everyone has an equal opportunity to contribute
  

• Groups with 4 to 7 participants
  
• Established teams or mixed groups
  

• After introduction, three segments, 10 minutes for each segment
  
• Introduce the idea of
  TRIZ
  and identify an unwanted result. If needed, have the groups brainstorm and pick the most unwanted result. 5 min.
  
• Each group uses
  1-2-4-All
  to make a first list of all it can do to make sure that it achieves this most unwanted result. 10 min.
  
• Each group uses
  1-2-4-All
  to make a second list of all that it is currently doing that resembles items on their first list. 10 min.
  
• Each group uses
  1-2-4-All
  to determine for each item on its second list what first steps will help it stop this unwanted activity/program/procedure. 10 min.
  

• Make it possible to speak the unspeakable and get skeletons out of the closet
  
• Make space for innovation
  
• Lay the ground for creative destruction by doing the hard work in a fun way
  
• TRIZ
  may be used before or in place of visioning sessions
  
• Build trust by acting all together to remove barriers
  

• Enter into
  TRIZ
  with a spirit of serious fun
  
• Don’t accept ideas for doing something new or additional: be sure suggestions are about stopping activities or behaviors, not about starting new things. It is worth the wait.
  
• Begin with a VERY unwanted result, quickly confirm your suggestion with the group
  
• Check in with groups that are laughing hard or look confused
  
• Take time for groups to identify similarities to what they are doing now and explore how this is harmful
  
• Include the people that will be involved in stopping the activities that come out and ask, “Who else needs to be included?”
  
• Make real decisions about what will be stopped (number your decisions 1,2,3…) in the form of “I will stop” and “we will stop.”