Liberating Structures

It was my turn to teach children's church Sunday and I was bored with the same old routine of telling children what they should think. So I thought I would try TRIZ for kids. I asked the question, "what things can happen to make you have a really bad day?" I was concerned they wouldn't understand the concept of 'bad day' but they did. Even 4 year olds. After we had our list I asked them to help me identify which of those things we do to make our day or others days less than fun. Then we did 15% for the rest. I asked "of these things you have no control of, what is the one or two things you can do to change them."

They had no trouble following along... Better than some of my adult exercises... Interesting takeaways, they have very short term memories, most things were very recent events. They talked about bad events more than entire days. They were thematic and bounced off of each other. They interpreted things they were told were painful as painful, when it doesn't necessarily seem that way. For example: one girl said holding her brothers hand gave her a bad day. When I asked more I understood that her parents use that as a punishment... Therefore she saw it as a negative event.

They could understand that in order to enrich their existence they should reduce behaviors that create pain. The most interesting thing to me was the results of the 15% exercise. They are very aware of how to manipulate their parents in order to positively affect their environment.

Did any of it make a difference? Not that I could see. They were their normal, fighting with one another, I want my way selves during play time. But it was very fun and interesting!

Congrats Teri for expanding the boundaries by using LS with 4 year old children and showing us how they make it possible to engage them in new ways. That in itself is a big deal, a great lesson for all of us to keep exploring in all directions. It is a reminder to try and avoid setting arbitrary boundaries a priori without testing them first. I believe that what you did made a difference at the minimum for you. The response of the children is an invitation to continue experimenting and to discover what difference it will make for them over a period of time. That differences are not easy to see doesn't mean nothing happened. You are learning to adapt LS to different situations by adjusting the design and the questions to your audience. This will serve you and others who will read your blog to be more fluent with making changes.
Your story makes a difference for me. It encourages me to push the envelope of applications and creativity. I makes me want to tell your story and learn from other people's reactions.
I am guessing that your story will surprise some other readers and make a difference for them as well by encouraging them to push their own envelope.
Thank you Teri for trying and for sharing.

Thanks for the response Henri. I hope I didn't come off as disappointed, you are correct in saying I got plenty out of this exercise. Mostly I identified patterns that help me better understand Complexity Science which I am currently researching in order to support my use of LS.

The most interesting thing to me was how we teach our children to assign 'value' or 'meaning' to events, such as the punishment related to holding her brother's hand. Also how children, with just a small prompt, are very capable of critical thinking and problem solving. My short lived experience to date has been that some adults need a lot of prompting to get them started on LS exercises. Maybe it is my approach?

I am a Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) and advocate for children who have been removed from their home by the State. This work requires a lot of team problem solving activities with social workers, lawyers, parents and children. As you can imagine it is very complex and dynamics ebb and flow. I have recently started using LS in facilitating meetings. If you send me an email - teribrooks@hotmail.com I will send you the storyboard for one of the meetings. Again, in these meetings I noticed that the group needs very little prompting and are willing/eager to participate. We have realized great benefits from using the LS techniques. The biggest challenge with these types of groups is we are not together as a norm, so there is constant storming and forming before we can perform. That makes it difficult to maintain a constant improvement trend, but given the constraint, we are improving.

The odd thing is when I use LS as part of my training courses or within my Agile coaching role with IT professionals I notice confusion and resistance. I am not sure if I am more uncomfortable or if it is some other factor(s).

This is a fun and interesting journey. My church asked me to conduct a one day workshop in the fall and the CASA Training Supervisor has asked for some short classes and has invited me to work with some court improvement groups.

Thanks for all the work you guys are doing!

Teri

Wow Teri! You made a mind blowing, myth destroying observation! Quoting from your email "The most interesting thing for me was how children, with just a small prompt, are very capable of critical thinking and problem solving". That is precisely the opposite of what adults usually believe which is why they feel compelled to tell kids what to do. This looks to me like a very rich domain for you to explore further.

Is it because you chose to use a Liberating Structure that the children were able to express their thoughts in a way that revealed what they were capable of?

If one starts with the assumption that young children are capable of critical thinking and problem solving what does that suggest about how interactions with them need to be structured in order to create conditions that will be favorable for them to exercise those talents?

Re your question "is it my approach?", a conversation would be needed to try and explore. One suggestion: can you team up with a partner who would observe what you do and with whom you could debrief?

Conducting workshops will be a great learning opportunity for you. Feel free to use materials that we have posted on the website,

Yes, I was somewhat surprised myself with how capable they were of doing what we think we must do for them. The kids were compelled because they were asked a question that caused them to have to critically think. What I mostly observe while adults are trying to engage children are two things either: 1. I am older and no more so just listen to me and 2. I am going to ask you a question, whoever guesses what is in my head is correct and that is the behavior everyone should model after. (I call this 'guess what is in the teacher's head) Neither of these approaches provides a fertile learning environment.

Honestly I had no expectations for this event. My only motivation was I was sick to death of telling kids to sit still while I read them a story and told them what to think. That just leads to us all looking forward to snack time :)

Re: my approach. I am a bit far away, but am part of a users group... I am hoping after I do some workshops in my area we can form a user group too, but that is a ways off. I am almost inclined to think that people in certain 'positions' are more resistant to new ideas... possibly pride related? I am not sure, will keep collecting data.

Thanks again!