I have long been a fan of Liberating Structures – a menu of thirty-three simple, but highly effective techniques designed to create new ways for people to think and work together. Each liberating structure offers another way to think about how to shift people out of their traditional ways of interacting and disrupt the status quo to unleash creativity and innovation.
Earlier this month I had the opportunity to attend a learning event to deepen my own knowledge and appreciation of these methods, which I believe, have a place in every community change-makers’ tool-kit. As a whole, what I find most useful about Liberating Structures is that they provide a minimal amount of structure to how people interact with each other – thereby liberating the shared topic or subject matter that is being explored to new ways of collective seeing and thinking.
The power of Liberating Structures is that they strike an optimum balance between agendas that offer either too much or too little control to the participants whose wisdom and ideas are needed to generate new solutions. Each Liberating Structure has been designed to ensure that all participants have an opportunity to contribute ideas, discuss and evaluate options and shape next steps. Used well, Liberating Structures demonstrate that big change can happen through small shifts and changes in how with think and interact.
The 10 Principles That Underpin Liberating Structures
Regular use of the Liberating Structures offers the opportunity to begin to shift the culture for how people experience – and are encouraged to contribute to – efforts to think and work together differently. Putting Liberating Structures into use in a thoughtful and intentional way, offers a simple yet effective way to translate a number of powerful principles of engagement and inclusion into action. The ten principles embodied by Liberating Structures are:
Tips for Getting Started with Liberating Structures
One of the most beautiful things about Liberating Structures is their simplicity. Each is described in a way that makes it easy to implement even if you have little to no previous experience leading groups. This is a set of tools that you get more skilled at as you use them. You are meant to learn them by doing. So, I encourage you to try Liberating Structures on! Look for ways to incorporate a Liberating Structure into work you are already committed to doing. Can you incorporate a Liberating Structure into the next meeting you are part of? Here are some tips for using Liberating Structures well:
Not every Liberating Structure you use will be loved by everyone, but if people are able to think and work together more effectively and see that what they co-produce is richer and more nuanced that what they could have generated alone , then you will have succeeded in using these simple methods as they are intended.
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