Liberating Structures

Have participated in LS-based interactions and found them liberating, indeed! I want to create some of the same kind of containers over Webex. I can provide details on the outcomes I want (e.g. small group sharing and rollup summary to the larger group of 20 over a 2 hour period) but generally, what has been your experience?

Helpful, yes. Thank you! I'll explore my Webex features to see how much of your suggestions I can pull off. Haven't tried any of those small group communication types. Will let you know how it progresses.

jim

Keith/Henri et al,
Just wondering if anyone has any further comments on working via internet? I have a team I work with regularly but they are almost never in the same spot. Maybe 10 in one locations, 2 in another and then 5 remote. Any comments on how LS is working over Webex or any other tools?
Thanks,
Chris

Hi - we are going to be trying a WebEx LS introduction to a geographically disbursed team (across the US) in mid February 2016. Happy to report out on what we do. It's a short intro, just 60 minutes. Reviewing the adopbeconnect video Keith referenced above was quite helpful. And finding an expert in the technology we'll be using (I'm new to WebEx) will be critical. We want to do break outs and such too.

Julie O

I just did several liberating structures using the platform "Zoom" and its breakout rooms feature. I found the breakout rooms feature easy to use, and it successfully got everyone using the LS (e.g., Min Specs, 9 whys). I thought it was helpful in getting us to full participation and some great ideas, although a goat rodeo in the middle made us rush Min Specs at the end.

BUT, this was the first time using LS with this group, which has been together more or less for 10 years, and I am the newcomer (and an entry level person). It turns out that several people really disliked the structure imposed. There was one snarky comment in the chat during the session, and several emails later about "oh, that didn't work at all and won't work for this group." SO, I agreed not to facilitate anymore, but got the ring leaders to commit to at least stating a purpose for each meeting and having a plan for hearing from everyone during goat rodeos.

After all the praise I've heard for LS, I was surprised my group didn't like them at all. Maybe we tried to do too much in an hour, which made things feel militaristic and not free?

BTW, here is verbatim an example of the pushback to LS. What do I do with a group full of views like this?

"I can't determine the extent to which external factors exacerbated my frustration. In general the facilitation method(s) from the meeting are not the sort that I enjoy. During the meeting, I felt that they were leaning too much toward being heavy-handed and it felt to me like we were being managed. As for constructive advice, my personal preference would be less use of breakouts, at least for quick discussions. I personally find breakout groups to be worthwhile when each group is given a different task (as in a large task is divided up) and it will take a longer amount of time (10 minutes minimum) for a group to accomplish that task. Hence, I prefer them when used in longer meetings (2+ hours). That all, of course, is just my $0.02."