The Surprising Power of Liberating Structures: Simple Rules to Unleash A Culture of Innovation (38 page)

• Invite participants to view all human interactions as offers that are either accepted or blocked (e.g., Improv artists are trained to accept all offers)
  
• Ask them to act, react, or observe four patterns of interaction
  
• Invite them to reflect on their patterns as well as to consider shifting how they ask, offer, and receive help
  

• Any number of participants, standing
  
• No tables in the way of people standing face-to-face!
  

• Everyone has an equal opportunity to learn and to contribute
  
• Participants switch into one of three possible roles as the activity progresses
  

• Groups of 3: two participants interacting face-to-face in the roles of client and coach plus one observer
  
• Whole group for the debrief
  

• Explain that there will be four rounds of 1–2-minute improvised interactions. Groups choose one member to be a “client,” another a “coach,” with the third acting as “observer.” Roles can stay the same or change from round to round. The fourth round will be followed by 5 minutes of debrief. 2 min.
  
• During every round the person in the role of client shares a challenge he or she is passionate about. While the observer pays close attention, the coach responds in a sequence of patterns that is different for each round as follows.
  
• During the first round, the response pattern is “Quiet Presence”: the coach accepts all offers with compassionate listening (see the Liberating Structure
  Heard, Seen, Respected (HSR)
  ). 2 min.
  
• During the second round, the response pattern is “Guided Discovery”: the coach accepts all offers, guiding inquiry for mutual discoveries (see the Liberating Structure
  Appreciative Interview
  ). 2 min.
  
• During the third round, the response pattern is “Loving Provocation”: the coach interjects advice, accepting and blocking as needed when the coach sees something that the client does not see (see the Liberating Structure
  Troika Consulting
  ). 2 min.
  
• During the fourth round, the response pattern is “Process Mindfulness”: the coach and client accept all offers from each other, working at the top of their intelligence while noticing how novel possibilities are amplified. 2 min.
  
• Debrief the impact of all four helping patterns as experienced by clients, coaches, and observers. 5 min.
  
• Based on the debrief, repeat all rounds or only some for all participants to practice various response patterns.
  

• Reduce/eliminate common errors and traps when people are giving or asking for help
  
• Change unwanted
  giving help
  patterns that include: premature solutions; unneeded advice; adding pressure to force use of advice; moving to next steps too quickly; trying too hard not to overhelp
  
• Change
  unwanted
  asking for help
  patterns that include: mistrusting; not sharing real problem; accepting help without ownership; looking for validation, not help; resenting not getting enough
  

• Encourage people to change roles in each round
  
• Develop trust, inquire humbly, create climate of mutual discovery
  
• Focus on patterns that will help
  the client
  finding his or her own solutions (self-discovery in a group)
  
• Do not ignore status differences, the setting, body language, demeanor, subtle signals
  
• The first cycle of four rounds can be used as preparation for deeper work on any single pattern
  
• After initial cycle, let trios choose the patterns they want to focus on in their group
  

• Invite participants to create their own profile, self-identifying their default patterns and opportunities for growth
  
• Incorporate the helping progression into other Liberating Structures that focus on give-and-take:
  Troika Consulting, Wise Crowds, What I Need From You, Improv Prototyping, Simple Ethnography
  
• Start with “fun” patterns: neutral (zero response) and blocking by ignoring or interrupting
  

• Used when
  Wise Crowds
  or
  What I Need From You
  does not achieve a group’s intended purpose—for example, when participants have fallen into one of the unwanted
  asking for
  or
  giving help
  patterns
  
• For nurses, coaches, teachers, or anyone else in the helping professions to renew and learn new relational skills
  
• For any group working to improve interprofessional coordination
  
• For
  Liberating Structures facilitators to dig deeper into underlying patterns that cut across many Liberating Structures
  
• For expanding options when frustrated with trying to help another person
  

Below: presentation materials we use to introduce
Helping Heuristics

• Ask those in the fishbowl to describe their experience—the good, the bad, and the ugly—informally, concretely, and openly. Invite them to do it in conversation with each other as if the audience wasn’t there and they were sharing stories around a watering hole or stuck in a van on the way to the airport. Firmly, ask them to avoid presenting to the audience.
  
• Invite the people outside the fishbowl to listen, observe nonverbal exchanges, and formulate questions within their small groups.
  

• Three to 7 chairs in a circle in the middle of a room
  
• Microphones for inner circle if whole group is larger than 30 to 40
  
• If possible, a low stage or bar stools make it possible for people in the outer circle to better see the interactions
  
• As many chairs as needed in an outer circle around the inner circle, in clumps of 3 to 4 chairs
  
• In
  large groups, have additional microphones ready for outside circle questions
  

• Everyone in the inner circle has an equal opportunity to contribute
  
• Everyone in the outer circle has an equal opportunity to ask questions
  

• One inner circle group of 3–7 people
  
• One outer circle in multiple small satellite groups of 3–4 people
  
• 1-2-4-All
  configuration for the debrief
  

• Explain the fishbowl configuration and steps. 2 min.
  
• Inner circle conversation goes on until it ends on its own. 10 to 25 min.
  
• Satellite groups in outer circle formulate observations and questions. 4 min.
  
• Questions submitted to the inner circle are answered, and back-and-forth interaction between inner and outer circles goes on as needed until all the questions are answered. 10 to 25 min.
  
• Debrief using
  W
  ³
  (What? So What? Now What?)
  and ask, “What seems possible now?” 10 to 15 min.
  

• Get down-to-earth field experience and all the questions and answers about new endeavors out on the table for everyone to understand at the same time
  
• Create conditions for new ideas to emerge
  
• Make space for every participant’s imagination and experience to show up
  
• Build skills in listening, storytelling, pattern-finding, questioning, and observing
  
• Celebrate early adopters and innovators who have gained field experience (often failing forward and vetting the prototype)
  

• For inner circle, pick only people with direct personal experience (without regard to rank)
  
• Pick
  people for the fishbowl (inner circle) who are representative of the distinct roles and functions that require coordination for success
  
• Encourage inner-circle people to share concrete, very descriptive examples rather than opinions
  
• Advise inner-circle people to imagine being in a car or a bar sharing stories and having a conversation
  
• Encourage everyone to share both successes and failures, “the good, the bad, the ugly”
  
• Enforce the “no speeches” and “talk to each other, not to the outer circle” rules!
  
• Have fun and encourage animated storytelling
  

• Leave an open chair or two in the inner circle for someone unexpected to jump in
  
• With virtual groups, people in the outside circle use the chat function to share questions “to all” or in “pairs” as the conversation unfolds among “the fishes of the inner circle.”
  
• Mash-up or string together
  User Experience Fishbowl
  with
  Improv Prototyping, 25/10 Crowd Sourcing, Ecocycle Planning, Simple Ethnography, Shift & Share
  

• For transferring on-the-ground knowledge from officers returning from Afghanistan to those replacing them (see “
  Transforming After-Action Reviews in the Army
  ” in
  Part Three:
  Stories from the Field).
  
• During a Liberating Structures workshop, a few experienced practitioners share stories to deepen the understanding of new users about how to get started and how to get practical results
  
• During a doctors’ meeting, an inner circle of specialists discussed a challenging case in the middle of a group of primary-care physicians, sparking a discussion of the case from specialist and primary-care perspectives
  
• A pilot group of salespeople shared with the rest of the sales force their experience with a new handheld reporting device. The
  User
  Experience Fishbowl
  helped everybody become comfortable that they knew all they needed to know to adopt the innovation.
  
• For a public-sector organization trying to expand beyond “hidden” pockets of uplifting service
  
• Members of an executive management team conducted their meeting in a fishbowl surrounded by all their managers.
  

Below: presentation materials we use to introduce
Users Experience Fishbowl