I wrote this short article for our Liberating Structures extended network of practice. I thought it might be useful here too!
The last few months have been rich with lessons for our amazing global network of LS practitioners, and all the sub-communities it holds. Here are my lessons that have been surfacing:
- Creative destruction RULES. DEConstruct before trying to REConstruct offline events into the online space. TRIZ is our friend!
- The six knotworking questions are SUPER useful at this moment in time for developing flexible, emergent plans.
- Critical Uncertainties was MADE for this time!
- This is an oldy, but a goody: slow down to go fast. While we can dance with abandon at the novelty as we move and reframe different Liberating Structures online, we must also hold space for people to move forward together when the moment calls. This translates to fewer structures piled into an online meeting, holding generosity to extend our practiced F2F timings and keeping technical options at the min specs, vs max specs. (Purpose to Practice is helpful here!)
- Ask for help. Ask specifically and offer your first ideas. This way people are more likely to respond and respond generously. As our Slack community grows and grows, we want each person to find and offer value. So ask as specifically as you can. Show you have done a little thinking already…
- Offer help! The connections we create through these asks and offers weaves our network.
There is a LOT more… right now I’m processing what I’ve learned through three series of rather intense online events, thinking about time, space, embodiment, humane-ness and all sorts of good stuff. So more to come. But if I wait to “finish” this, I will never finish this!!
What have you been learning?