
Liberating Structures with Dana Pylayeva
Liberating Structures, turning traditional meeting structure into interactive methods that encourage participation, trust and safety. Different structures meant to accomplish specific tasks of discovery, analysis, strategizing and others.
I have been to three sessions held by Dana Pylayeva on Liberating Structures. The first was at a meetup that was co-hosted by Lean Kanban. This was my first look at this set of strange ways to have meetings.
I was a skeptic but intrigued. We got an overview of the what and why of Liberating Structures. Some attendees spoke about using them and the success they have had. We then participated in a few of these to get a sense of how they work.
I do not remember how many we did but there two of them that stuck in my mind as very useful and interesting.
The first was the User Experience Fishbowl. There were 4 chairs in the middle of a circle with topic experience and an outer circle of listeners. The 4 in the middle were having a discussion on a topic and those on the outside were actively listening to the inner conversation for a set time. It was like watching a round table on TV. Once the time was up, the outer circle asked questions creating an interaction between the two circles for a set time. I can see many uses for this structure.
The second was Troika Consulting which amazed. Three people, each with a challenge. Each turn, one discussed the challenged with the other two, a few questions asked. Then, that person turned with back to other two while the other two discussed ideas and possible solutions to the problem. I was amazed at how two people that were fully removed from my challenge were able to have a discussion that led to a few ideas I could work with. It was Liberating.
I downloaded the app, read more on them and they are now part of my toolbox.
Fast forward a couple of months. Dana had created a Liberating Structures workshop with the first 5after5 session held in September. We did 5 of the liberating structures. I could see how some of these would work in a variety of situations. We did Troika which was as useful as it was months before. We had fun with Drawing Together which also revolved around a challenge. We did 1–2–4-All and 25/10 Crowd Sourcing which engage everyone on generating ideas on a set topic. What?, So What?, Now What? (W3) was used as a debrief.
The second 5after5 session was in October. Some new attendees. Another great session.
The first thing I learned was that Liberating Structures are not static and changes happen.
Two of the structures we did were still in development. Both were great. In order to make the most use of the time, Dana was able to use the first to drive the second. They work very well together.
We drew Monsters, then mapped each to issue we had on a set topic. We had discussions, then we then chose a single challenge to bring into MindMeld which was a scaled version of What?, So What?, Now What? (W3). We explored 3 other structures that evening.
These workshops were engaging. The interaction made the structures come alive which for me leads to a better understanding than just reading thru it.
Dana does a great job in facilitating, keeping it interesting and on topic.
She is considering setting up an immersion workshop on Liberating Structures which I am very much looking forward to.
There are over 30 Liberating Structures. Some build on others. Some compliment others. All with a set purpose and easy to customize to your individual need.
If you have not had a chance to check out it, I highly recommend visiting the website http://www.liberatingstructures.com/, downloading the app, reading the book by Henri Lipmanowicz and Keith McCandless, ‘The Surprising Power of Liberating Structures: Simple Rules to Unleash a Culture of Innovation’. Seek out Liberating Structures’ workshops. And if you happen to see a workshop by Dana Pylayeva, I promise you will learn and have fun in the process.
