Category: Liberating Structures

Moving Online in Pandemic: Ecocycle to Attend to What is Shifting

This is the second of a series of posts to support anyone working to move their offline/face to face group interactions online. The preamble is here. If you are an online facilitator or finding yourself in that role, join our group g here. If you are looking for resources, check here.

In the preamble, I shared my thinking that  we need to avoid starting with technology, or even the redesigned agenda as we move online. To make progress, we need to pause and pay attention to what is shifting in the systems around us. Use something like the Ecocycle to get a sense of what is happening at a systems level.

Here is a description of Ecocyle Planning from the Liberating Structures website:

Ecocycle Planning – Analyze the Full Portfolio of Activities and Relationships to Identify Obstacles and Opportunities for Progress What is made possible?

You can eliminate or mitigate common bottlenecks that stifle performance by sifting your group’s portfolio of activities, identifying which elements are starving for resources and which ones are rigid and hampering progress. The Ecocycle makes it possible to sift, prioritize, and plan actions with everyone involved in the activities at the same time, as opposed to the conventional way of doing it behind closed doors with a small group of people. Additionally, the Ecocycle helps everyone see the forest AND the trees—they see where their activities fit in the larger context with others. Ecocycle Planning invites leaders to focus also on creative destruction and renewal in addition to typical themes regarding growth or efficiency. The Ecocycle makes it possible to spur agility, resilience, and sustained performance by including all four phases of development in the planning process.

http://www.liberatingstructures.com/31-ecocycle-planning/

By seeing the whole, diving into the details, and then zooming back to the whole helps us discern a direction forward and useful first steps for moving your meetings online and especially when we are in complex contexts.

I find Ecocyle helps me focus and prioritize rather than get stuck in all the possibilities and challenges. Because it is built upon a flow, we can observe  what is moving forward, what is stuck and where we may be over or under-investing our time and resources. If we spend all our time perpetuating our ok-but-not-wonderful F2F meetings with an unthinking transition to online, we may be making a total mess of things. If we pick just ONE way of going forward, we may lose sight of new, emerging possibilities. If we rush to a single solution, we may miss the possibilities of those who think differently, the positive deviants and ideas that need space to emerge. Ecocycle situates our work in flow and flux, rather than a linear to do list or rigid plan.

Just one more note before we dig in to how to do this. Sometimes we need to clear the field a bit. In this case, fear can cripple. Liberating Structures co-founder Keith McCandless’s work on LS started with superbug infection reduction in hospitals. Keith has been reflecting these past few days about the importance of getting past fear. He has created a playful process you might want to consider, a Pandemic Mad Tea. It can be a well spent 10-15 minutes and really get folks deep into their work, right from the start. (If you want to gain more insights from Keith and his infection reduction work applied to the emerging shut down of the SXSW in Austin this month. Check out this sketch.  It was designed for a F2F conversation, but it gives some very specific Covid-19 context.)   

How to Ecocycle Your Move to Online Meetings

  • Don’t work alone. Engage your colleagues.
  • Turn on the camera. Presumably you can’t meet face to face (F2F) with your team, so fire up your video conference software and turn on the cameras. YES REALLY, TURN ON THE CAMERAS!
  • Read about the basics of Ecocycle on the Liberating Structures website. Then briefly discuss your understanding with each other. Don’t worry if it feels confusing, and don’t spend too much time on this step. We are going to DO it together and then things will clarify!
  • Get a piece of paper, pens, post its. Draw the basic Ecocycle structures on the paper and get ready to start writing on it, putting post it notes – whatever. This is for your own personal doodling/note taking. Next you can do it digitally together.
  • Make a copy of this Ecocycle Online template and share with your team.
  • Follow the steps of doing Ecocycle Planning in the template. I’m including the steps here below in case you want to print them out as well.
    • First alone, make a list of all the things swirling in your mind about moving your meetings online. What are your activities? What are your most important stakeholder and collaborator relationships?
    • Place each activity and/or relationships on your list on your paper Ecocycle in one four developmental phases: birth, maturity, creative destruction, and renewal.What are you doing but you feel it really isn’t working. Position those around the “rigidity trap.” If you have already resolved to stop doing those things, put them in “creative destruction.” Things that have been suggested to you or which you are thinking about, but haven’t yet taken any action on, put in the “gestation area.” Note any really terrific ideas that you really think should move forward, but which are stuck (for whatever reasons) and put them near the “poverty trap” box. Finally, locate all the experiments or pilots in process (both before and in response to the pandemic) in the “birth” area.
    • Build your collective Ecocycle. In your web meeting room, share your items with each other. Discuss the placement of each of your items. You can use a shared whiteboard, Google slides (the template) using self made “post its” with the drawing tool, or share your paper artifacts on camera. Notice what you share that is similar and what is different (there is always useful information in noting both!) NOTE: If your team is more than 4 people, you may want to use your online breakout room and start in pairs, then build up to the whole. Yes, it is worth the time. In pairs you can hear and be heard and discern details that might start to get lost as you think together in a larger group. 1-2-4-All can help you tap your collective intelligence faster than a whole group conversation, even as it feels like it slows things down. Don’t worry!
    • Look at the details. Spend time discussing items that you feel belong in different areas. Tip: if something feels like it fits into multiple areas, break it down into its component elements. Things can get clearer.
    • Look at the big picture. Together discuss what you see. What patterns do you see? Where are there many elements? Few? Look on the middle right, in the “rigidity trap.” Your most liberating first step may be to decide what to STOP doing in order to make space for new and more useful meeting practices (online or off!) Too many things in gestation? Start with the great ideas that are getting stuck in the poverty trap. See promising initiatives in birth? What one step could you take to support and amplify those efforts. See MANY things in gestation? Consider gathering those folks and learn how and why they are succeeding taking their meetings online and build on current energy and success. (Consider “Discovery and Action Dialog” as a process.)
  • Decide what the next step will be moving your meetings online. You might want to consider Purpose to Practice which starts with getting clear on the PURPOSE of going online. Dig deep until you hit the hard-rock purpose!

In the longer term Ecocycle offers us approaches and mechanisms to adapt as conditions continue to change. In other words, there is no magic technology, group process approach or perfect online meeting template, so give that up. Right now is time for evolving!

P.S. Really pay attention to Creative Destruction. Don’t take poor meeting practices from offline into the online space. They only deteriorate! In a future post in this series I’ll share some fabulous alternatives!

P.S.S. The use of Ecocycle can help make sense at many levels. This article explores Covid-19 at the global level. https://medium.com/insurge-intelligence/coronavirus-synchronous-failure-and-the-global-phase-shift-3f00d4552940

Finding the Roots of Confusiasm

Over the years, the concept of “confusiasm” has become not only near and dear to my heart, but useful in so many ways that I never expected. It became a rallying cry for emergent, collaborative learning at a professional development project for professors at the University of Guadalajara (UdG Agora Project – confusiasmo! Translated!). It is a term that has been lovingly adopted by the Liberating Structures global network of practitioners. It has had its moments as a meme on Twitter.

Confusiasm is the happy coupling of confusion and enthusiasm. You know, that moment when something interesting is happening but you can’t quite understand it, but it feels really right. The verge of discovery. The hunch that in a messy, complex situation you are starting to see patterns that give you just enough confidence to keep moving forward and not give up.

Carl Jackson

Carl Jackson: the father of Confusiasm?

Because of the value it has accrued, I wanted to go back to my understanding of the roots of the word – when and where it was coined. My memory of it came from a game that emerged at one of the face-to-face gatherings of the KM4Dev (Knowledge management for development) community of practice, instigated by Carl Jackson, now of Westhill Knowledge in the UK. I think it was the 2006 Brighton gathering, but I’m not sure. It could have been Almada, Portugal in 2008. It starts showing up in websearches in 2008 so I suspect our play with the word was in 2006.

Carl has this uncanny ability to create portmanteaus, words. From Wikipedia: “a linguistic blend of words, in which parts of multiple words or their phonemes (sounds) are combined into a new word, as in smog, coined by blending smoke and fog,[or motel, from motor and hotel.” All during the gathering he could coin them faster, and with a great deal more humor, than the rest of us. It was amazing!

So is that where confusiasm was born? I don’t really know. In the true spirit of Confusiasm, Carl wonders if it may have been our KM4Dev peer Ewen Le Borgne who coined the word at Almada. Ewen is that kind of human being too! So it is all possible. Ewen, what do you remember?

The earliest web reference to confusiasm I could find was actually a typo in a reference in a research paper, mispelling Confusianism with Confusiasm. (The paper was cited as Lim, C. and Lay, C.S. (2003) ”Confusiasm and the protestant work ethic”. Asia Europe Journal, Vol. 1, pp. 321-322. In the journal, the title is Confucianism and the Protestant Work Ethic)

Nowadays I see it in many places.

In today’s world, so much is messy and uncertain. Our ability to predict things is, well, paltry. But we have to keep going. So let’s marshal our confusiasm! Onward! And THANKS CARL!

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!