Category: facilitation

Criticisms and Cures around Liberating Structures

Last year I was inspired to mimic a cool format, criticisms and cures, on the topic of facilitating in complex contexts. I have found myself recently in conversations with people who can’t see the value of using Liberating Structures (LS), of engaging in immersions or communities of LS practitioners for people in NGOs, international development organizations and other cause related groups. There seem to be some unique barriers – and I’m not sure I have them right, so school me in the comments. But there seems to be some unique challenges in the NGO sector that I think are related to the diversity and complexity of the sector, and that creepy crawly sense of scarcity that comes into play. There are other sectors, like the Agile Programming world, who have adopted LS quickly – perhaps because LS gives with Agile philosophy and practices where are pretty specific. There is little such shared philosophy or practice in the NGO world. So I thought I’d try a C&C around this topic. (P.S. if you don’t know what Liberating Structures are, watch this little video!)

P.S. If you are interested in joining me in a Liberating Structures immersion in Atlanta, Georgia, USA September 18-19 check out
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/liberating-structures-immersion-workshop-atlanta-tickets-62928099640

PS. If you are interested in LS in Europe, join the Liberating Structures Learning Festival in The Hague, Netherlands, October 7-9, go to
https://liberatingstructures.eu/the-hague-ls-festival/

Impromptu Networking

Criticism: Why should I go to a Liberating Structures Immersion workshop. I already know how to facilitate?

Cure:  LS is not simply about facilitating. It is about essentially stripping down our group interaction practices to the bare bones to better understand how to unleash and engage everyone. It is about finding that space between over and under-control. It is about getting real work done, not just using clever techniques to keep people amused. If we have a practice that can help us diagnose and design for real needs, that is worth the time invested. Besides, once you get the hang of LS, you can design meetings in half the time as traditional approaches – or less. Even better, as you role model using LS, others will adopt it, so this is about behavior change in a system, not just one person learning something new.

25/10 Crowd Sourcing

Criticism: Liberating Structures takes away all of my control.

Cure:  Yes, and that is bad because? Group process is not about our control as leaders or facilitators or whatever. It is about getting stuff done together. So instead of framing in terms of control, focus on the purpose of the gathering and create the space (using the LS) to enable people to get that work done. Is there a risk? Compare it to having an awful meeting and getting nothing done, and that risk grows very small. This may be a great moment to reflect on our need for control and how that negatively impacts groups. Think about it. Do YOU like being controlled? And by the way, it will most likely be more enjoyable and the next time you invite people to a meeting, they may be happier saying “yes.”

Additionally, in NGO work we are often stating our values to be participatory, and led by those we are working with, not leading them. I don’t know about you, but I’ve found there are some bad habits I keep having to break around what I think is right, how I think things should be done. LS help me from falling back into those old patterns by using just the right amount of STRUCTURE, as opposed to keeping CONTROL.

Criticism: Meetings are fundamentally a waste of time. I don’t need to learn how to design and run better meetings, I just need to get rid of all of them.

Cure:  Purpose. The meetings you may have been forced to attend or lead may have been worthless. If you are in a very hierarchical and/or large organization, you may be suffering from bad meetings. By all means, stop those.

Next, think about what do people need to do with each other to meet organizational goals? How much clarity can you generate around purpose? Don’t confuse purpose with an agenda. Purpose is the reason to meet. If there is no purpose, don’t meet. If purpose is unclear, then there is a reason to meet. If purpose is clear, then an LS-infused gathering can convert that purpose from idea, assessment, action and first steps. There are six questions that have emerged from the LS community that are really helping me think about meeting (or project, or strategy) purpose.

  1. What is the purpose of our work? (What are we “making,” for whom and how do we know it is of value.)
  2. What is happening around us that demands change in our work? (If nothing, well go have a coffee and congratulations!
  3. What are the challenges and wicked dualities we are facing to do our work?
  4. Where are we starting, honestly?
  5. Based on what we now know, what is made possible?
  6. What are our first steps in those possibilities and how will we know we are making progress?

When groups can seriously consider and answer these questions, tapping into each person’s perspective and knowledge, much more becomes possible. This can be framed from the perspective of a status update or retrospective, all the way to the launch of a major initiative (with tweaking of the questions, of course!)

Criticism: As an NGO or international development organization, we don’t have the luxury of going to capacity building workshops. We are too busy address others’ capacity building needs.

Cure:  Calculate how much time is wasted in boring, unproductive, inappropriate meetings and group interactions. Query what you know about good adult learning. How are you applying that to the capacity building you are doing? If you don’t cultivate your own capacity, how can you do that for others? If money is an issue, ask for a scholarship. The worse thing you can hear is no. The best thing might just be a yes. You are WORTH it!

The 2 of 1-2-4-All

Criticism: People are getting totally annoyed with me breaking them down into groups, doing 1-2-4-All and all that. Come on!

Cure: I have struggled with this and what is dawning on me and others is that there are some essential interaction patterns or microstructures in LS that need repeat practice until they become habitual. We have a lot of things we have habituated in our meeting practices – we are just not very aware of them. These basic structures, once cultivated and practiced, become automatic instead of feeling like they are imposed upon us. Read this useful post on Medium.

Ecocycle

Criticism: Complexity is a buzzword or indicates a mess so big we can’t deal with it. I’m done with complexity.

Cure:  Go back and read this blog post!

Interested in a Liberating Structures Learning Opportunities?

There is a LOT going on, both face to face and online. Check this out from the recent Liberating Structures network (And P.S, I’m co-leading the Atlanta (September 18-19) immersion!):

Come join us in Slack to share your stories of triumph, tragedy, comedy, and drama. You can catch up on the latest developments across the network by tuning into the #liberatingstructures Twitter hashtag, joining the #communitywritings channel on Slack, visiting the LS group on LinkedIn, or participating in an upcoming learning event like the European Regional Gathering this August.

Many of the innovations in LS practice get shared, transmitted, deconstructed, and assembled in the various learning spaces being created by practitioners of all stripes. Here are some upcoming places where you can renew your own practice, gently introduce others to using LS, and draw out an exploration of your questions, curiosities, and challenges:

EU Learning Gathering (Hamburg, August 8th & 9th)


Immersion Workshops:
Unless specified, workshops are led in English

Belo Horizonte – Portuguese (August 12 & 13)
Lima with Keith McCandless – Spanglish (August 16-17)
Buenos Aires with Keith McCandless – Spanglish (August 20-21)
Santiago with Keith McCandless – Spanglish (August 23-24)
Rio de Janeiro – Portuguese (August 26-27)
Sao Paulo – Portuguese (September 16-17)
Sao Paulo – Portuguese (September 19-20)
Atlanta (September 18-19)
Montreal (September 28-29)
The Hague (October 7-9)
Hamburg – German (October 14-15)
Sao Paulo – Portuguese (October 14-15)
Sao Paulo – Portuguese (October 17-18)
Munich (October 16-18)
Malmo (October 23 – 25)
Terrace, BC (October 24)
London (October 29 – 30)
Vancouver (November 7-8)
Paris with Henri Lipmanowicz – French (November 14-15)
Amsterdam (November 19-21)
El Paso with Keith, Henri, and Arvind (November 22-24)
Austin, Texas (December 3-5)
Hamburg – in German (January 13-14)

Special Topic Sessions:
Strategy Knotworking in Amsterdam (October 14)
Navigating Conflict in Teams with LS in Amsterdam (November 22)

Virtual Sessions:
Strategy Knotworkers (join the #knotworking channel on Slack)
Using LS Virtually Community of Practice (join the #virtual channel on Slack)
Portuguese Community of Practice – Portuguese (contact Fernando Loureiro for more details)


Liberating Structures Immersion in ATL September 18-19

Tired of unproductive meetings, stifling hierarchy, exclusion, mistrust and disengaged people? It’s time to jump into Liberating Structures for your life and work. To instigate more of this fun,  I’m heading South! Nadine Doyle and Robin Muretisch and I (and who knows, maybe some special practitioner guests if they can be convinced!) are hosting a two day Liberating Structures Immersion Workshop in Atlanta, September 18-19. You can find all the details here.   

What are you TALKING about?

Liberating Structures are simple shifts in the methods we use to bring people together to talk, think and solve problems together. With a click you will see I’ve been practicing and writing about them for some time now! Game changer? YES! Spreadable? YES! That means YOU can do them. 

What to Expect?

You’ll gain hands-on experience of Liberating Structures, a field-tested, results-focused collection of engagement structures which include everyone in shaping the future.  

Who is this for?

Anyone who is in or host meetings, teams, groups, even engaging and unleashing positive energy in your own family. Robin and Nadine have a special interest in Lean and Design Thinking so will connect some dots in that domain. Here is what they offer:

Are you a Lead or Design Thinking practitioner? Learn how integrating Liberating Structures (LS) into your work can take you to the next level! Lean practitioners see LS as relational coordination that complements more technical process improvement and value-stream mapping activities. Design Thinking gurus find that LS helps non-designers participate more fully in ethnographic observations and prototyping efforts.  

From me, expect the unexpected. I’m always interested in a twist! And, of course, chocolate! I’m really looking forward to hanging out in the ATL!

Moving Offline Liberating Structures Practices Online

Image by Tracy Kelly of the BC User Group

My lovely Liberating Structures (LS) community of practice has a monthly newsletter. December’s will be around LS online and as I started marking up their draft, I realized it would be a good idea to get my thinking/practices more clearly outlined rather than trying to “think out loud” and potentially make a mess of their draft! 

What I’m laying out here could be extrapolated to other group processes, not just Liberating Structures. My goal is to describe how I think, talk and practice in online facilitation. I’m going to use the LS “Purpose to Practice” as the scaffold. The beauty of a scaffold is that it holds up an ever-evolving understanding of the practice, versus a static set of “best practices” or the like. This first version will stay at a pretty high level, and then it might be interesting to do some future posts digging deeper into each area.

Purpose

Why is this work important to me and the wider community?
Purpose exists on a couple of different levels here. At the highest, the
purpose of this post is to share learnings about how we transfer facilitation of offline group processes into an online space. In this particular instance, I’m focusing on LS and primarily synchronous online interactions using group meeting tools. My ultimate purpose is to use LS online so that people are easily and delightfully engaged and liberated to achieve their own purpose(s).

Purpose from an LS perspective – the integrity of an LS used online or offline – should be consistent with the structure and theoretically is not informed by the environment. 

Purpose informs what structures people use, regardless of environment. 
In practice, people use each LS in different ways. For example, the stated
purpose on the LS site guides us, but our ability to riff and improvise may surface other, unique purposes.

When thinking about the online environment, there may be more than one LS to choose in terms of what that structure enables (its purpose), but one of those options may be more suited to the online environment.  For example, when the harvest of a process is important, an online  environment makes it easy for everyone to type in and capture their input, faster and easier than a wall of sticky notes. The harvest is done by all, not by the facilitator. The data can be quickly organized, parsed and we can bring forth the best of what was produced.

People’s individual experience and practices using LS also vary. Some of us have favorites that we go to over and over. This may bias towards or away from using LS online because of our comfort of using a particular LS and how easy it is to transfer its use online. 

Principles and Minimum Specifications

What rules must we obey to achieve our purpose? What are the minimum specifications, things we must absolutely do/not do?
Again, principles exists on different levels. There are my personal principles as a facilitator/participant which drive my practices. There are  the principles that sit beneath Liberating Structures . (Or whatever processes you use.) There are the principles of the individuals and group involved.  I am excluding my personal principles/generic facilitator principles and will mostly focus on principles that arise from the online environment and which inform minimum specifications and practices. The other levels are very rich areas for future exploration!

Here are my general principles for using LS online:

Practice with others. The online environment can be unkind to multitasking… (Min Spec: Find a co-facilitating friend)

Use the power of alternating individual, small and large group interaction. Don’t fall trap to top-down online meetings, especially since most technologies favor top-down. (Min spec: unless the group is very small, don’t stay in a large group the whole time – a.k.a “goat rodeo”)

When in doubt, keep things simple. From technology, to process – simplicity gives room for experimentation and emergence. For example, while we might rapidly restring our structures F2F, we may not always be as prepared to do that as quickly online without a deeper practice.  From a tech perspective, we might keep our technology set simple. (Min spec: never introduce more than two new tools to a group. One is ever better!)

Be prepared to be surprised (and innovate, use plan b, etc!) Technology (and the supporting infrastructure like bandwidth and even electricity) are rarely under your control. (Min spec: stay cool! Have a backup plan. Set reasonable expectations.)

Position everything as an experiment and a chance to learn, even while focused on real and urgent purposes. Let go of thinking everything can and should be perfect. (Min spec: let go of the identity of an expert.)

People/Participants

Who must be included to achieve our purpose? 
This one is much easier because there is little distinction between online and offline. The main benefit may be that online we might possibly include MORE people than we could if we were limited to a face to face interaction. In general, my overall facilitation principles drive me to include everyone who is engaged/impacted by the purpose to participate. Even if they are spread all across the globe. That is one of the driving strengths of doing things online, despite the challenges.

Structure

How will we organize to distribute control?
Traditional design and use of online meeting tools have centralized control to the person who has administrative control of the meeting software. Sometimes additional people can be given these “host” or “admin” roles, partially or fully. But the central design of these tools has prioritized control over emergence, theoretically to offer a more consistent experience. Liberating Structures, on the other hand, is designed to engage and unleash everyone. So it is super important to figure out how to hack these tools to distribute control. Here are three potential vectors for distributing control. I’m sure there are more. Ideas?

  • Control can be distributed by handing off control of the software. I start by sharing my screen, now you can share yours. Here, why don’t you work on setting up the breakout groups while I review the process?
  • Control can be explicitly shared by identifying and  distributing /switching roles. I’ll facilitate the process, you work on the technology support. Everyone can take notes in the chat. Invite people into those roles early and often. 
  • Control can be distributed by facilitators being quiet for a while. Some of us facilitators have this urge to fill every second of air time. Silence can give others a chance to breathe, think, and then participate in a way that is easier for them. Facilitators, IT IS NOT ABOUT US!! This is also a practice. 

Practices

What are we going to do? 
This is where it gets practical. It is also where it may be more useful to
describe practices through examples of how to use specific LS online. So I’ll start general, then we can dive into specifics in future posts.

For me there are two intersecting sets of practices: the process facilitation and the technology stewardship. I (along with John D. Smith and Etienne Wenger) have written extensively about technology stewardship. You can get the book (free!) on the Digital Habitats book site, and I will  focus only on LS related facilitation and tech stewardship issues. You will also note how these are related to principles stated above!

  • Don’t do this alone. Have one person focus on the technology stewardship issues while the other facilitates process. It can be devilishly hard to do both at one time. For example, individuals with tech problems need one on one private “back channel” assistance that doesn’t suck up the time and attention of the whole group. Setting up breakout rooms is best done with attention, not while multitasking with process instructions.
  • Select and use technology to facilitate the large group/small group/individual levels of participation that are found in LS. For me the profound difference of using LS online and more traditional “web meetings” or “webinars” is that they enable peer to peer, multi-directional interaction versus being the object of a stream of content from one or few people.  
  • Use multiple modalities beyond voice. We humans pay less attention to verbal interactions when we aren’t facing each other. Video can help – a bit – but not resolve our lackadaisical listening skills. So important instructions (how to do a LS, the invitation, etc.) should also appear visually on a slide, whiteboard or chat room. Don’t underestimate adult’s ability to quickly forget the instructions as well, so make sure they are visible in breakouts. Use images, drawing tools – whatever it takes to create a closer cycle of information exchange and UNDERSTANDING.
  • Keep technology choices as simple as possible. For example, if you pair the web meeting tool Zoom with Google Docs, it may seem really easy if you already have a Google Doc practice. For someone totally new to both, it may be enough to learn one tool at a time. For experts, pile it on! Just because we can use a ton of tools doesn’t mean we always SHOULD. A subset of this is “always keep an eye out for new tech” – the landscape is constantly evolving. 
  • Beware of the heaven/hell of harvesting online. Online tools make it easy for everyone to write/draw/contribute. When it comes to
    sensemaking and harvesting, be careful of creating too much useless/never used content. Ask people to ruthlessly evaluate and harvest the best of what is created. 
  • Don’t restrict yourself. Think through how you will use an LS online based on your purpose instead of slavishly following the instructions in a literal manner. Use your imagination and the strengths of the technology you are using rather than fighting the limitations. This is a great place to expand your LS repertoire.  (Again, there should be a whole post on using the LS Matchmaker with an online perspective. Some of us have been trying to capture our current state of understanding of this.)
  • Give most LS a bit more time online, especially when learning how to do them online. Don’t over-pack your sequence or “string” of structures. While I might do 3-5 in 90 minutes F2F, I’d say 3  online! To date, almost all the LS I’ve used online take more time the first time (sometimes a LOT more time). We get better over time, but if you are always working with new people, build in learning time. And in a perfect world, get the chance to do these together more than once. It gets richer and richer. Another perspective is spreading out a string over multiple, shorter online meetings. Most of us burn out after 90 minutes of full on attention online.
  • Reflect on the similarities and differences of a structure/string online and offline. Chances are this will deepen your overall understanding and facilitation practice, and expand possibilities each time you reflect, learn, apply, and repeat! Better yet, reflect with your peers. Use What, So What, Now What? to debrief at every chance. Share your learnings with the Liberating Structures community
    of practice on Slack.

Resources

Updating “Facilitips”

I received a request to grant usage rights to a VERY old piece I wrote years ago – a general set of heuristics for online facilitation called “Facilitips,” first published in 1999. Way back in the old days!

It was basically my distillation of everything I learned from people like Howard Rheingold, Sue Boettcher, and many others (see the bottom of this post). I realized it was full of typos and could use a brush up, so here it is.

Note: these are not unique to online but have been found IMPORTANT in online facilitation!

General Tips

  • Assume good intent. Approach every contribution with curiosity, expecting surprise and wonder. Remind others of this simple trick.
  • Role model the behavior you wish others to use.
  • Practice and encourage active listening/reading.
  • Be as explicit as possible in your communication.
  • Remember not everyone thinks or perceives the way you do. Seek to understand participants’ styles and needs.
  • Don’t automatically assume understanding — ask for clarification as needed.
  • Trust is slow to be granted, easily taken away. Encourage an environment that values trust.
  • Build trust by doing what you say you will do. Encourage others to do the same.
  • Use irony and humor with care as it does not always come across online as you might have intended. This is particularly relevant in intercultural contexts. You can always use emoticons to clarify! 😉
  • Think before you hit the button and a post goes up.

Process Facilitation Tips

  • Make the bare minimum of rules, expectations or norms consistent, explicit and clear. No one remembers long lists of rules!
  • Provide orientation materials and paths for new members.
  • Respond to all first-time participants. Welcome people by name.
  • Use recognizable names or pseudonyms.
  • Use small group activities to build relationships and “get acquainted.”
  • Encourage the use of personal profiles to build relationships.
  • Consider cultural differences of participants.
  • Help members take ownership of the interaction space.
  • Nurture others to help host and facilitate the group.
  • Encourage people to mentor and assist each other. Recognize mentors.
  • Acknowledge and reciprocate participation.
  • Reply to messages that get no other recognition. Even if it is a “treading water reply.”
  • Use (open-ended) questions to encourage participation. (move beyond yes/no)
  • Stimulate input with positive private emails to individuals.
  • Notice if someone is “missing” for long periods of time. Email them and invite them back.
  • Let others know when you will be offline for extended periods of time.
  • Draw out the quiet members.
  • Help focus the chatters.
  • Don’t fan the flames (or the flamers!) (see difficult situations below).
  • Ask members for feedback. What is working for them? What is not? What is missing?
  • Monitor member activity with available tools to gauge participation and alter your facilitation strategy accordingly.
  • Look for participation patterns and changes in conversations.
  • Consider participation from different time zones. The more your time zones are spread, the more time needed for a group to be in sync.
  • Consider time-delimited events or topics to foster activity.

Facilitation Tips for Task-Oriented Groups

  • Make purpose and task VERY clear/visible/explicit.
  • Post timelines and reminders.
  • Agree on process issues up front. Address as needed on an on-going basis.
  • Make roles and responsibilities clear and visible.
  • Use email as appropriate for notification.
  • When activity levels drop, evaluate to ensure you have compelling reasons for participation: real work, learning, shared tasks, personal or professional development.
  • Let divergent processes flow free. Channel convergent processes.

Tips for Dealing with Difficult Situations

  • Don’t be intimidated by challenges. They are learning opportunities for everyone when handled with grace.
  • Help bring learning out of friction or “creative abrasion.”
  • Help people understand how they come across if others are having difficulty with them. Consider doing this offline or privately.
  • Avoid “one-upmanship” and point-by-point defenses which usually only escalate problems.
  • Use back channel (private) email to resolve problems unless the issue involves a larger group.
  • Use your administration tools (i.e., deleting posts) lightly and carefully.
  • Don’t assume a lack of response means dissent or assent. Seek explicit responses.

Structural & Content Tips

  • Frame topic openers clearly and demonstrate the goal or purpose of the topic or thread.
  • Label topic/threads and conference items clearly.
  • Provide ongoing (and often repeated) guidance on “what goes where” in any interaction space.
  • Don’t pile too much into one post. Break it up into small paragraphs or multiple posts, especially if you are dealing with more than one point or topic.
  • Keep “conversations” in their most logical place — social chat in social spaces, content or action specific interaction in their own spaces or topics.
  • Open new topics to support new discussions emerge as needed.
  • Observe the rhythm of topics and close old topics as they grow dormant.
  • Summarize and/or index conversations of value to make them accessible to the group.
  • Provide great links, resources and relevant, stimulating content to foster interaction.
  • Tag materials if your platform allows.
  • Explore the use of color and images as communication and facilitation tools.
  • Respect copyright and confidentiality. Do not repost other’s postings, photos, references or emails without explicit permission.
  • Keep the online space free from “garbage” such as duplicate posts, or disallowed content (i.e.. pornography, advertising or whatever your group norms dictate.)
  • Don’t obsess about typos. Life is too short.

One for the Road…

  • Facilitation is the combination of knowledge and practice. So practice, practice, practice.
  • Read between the lines.
  • Seek to be fair.
  • Have fun.
  • Use common sense.
  • When all else fails, ask and listen. Again. Again.

Sources:

Notes from Uri Merry, Mihaela Moussou, Peter and Trudy Johnson-Lenz, Margaret McIntyre, Denham Grey, TJ Elliott and others from the Knowledge Ecology Work Group at http://www.co-i-l.com

Online Facilitation Classes from Wise Circle Training, including Kimberly A. Adler of the National Mentoring Partnership

http://www.fullcirc.com (Full Circle Associates)

http://www.rheingold.com (Howard Rheingold)

http://www.wwcoco.com (Sue Boettcher)

http://www.bigbangworkshops.com (Heather Duggan)

The members of the GroupFacilitation, OnlineFacilitation, and ComPrac listservs