Lightweight Facilitation of Liberating Structures

Whenever I use Liberating Structures (LS) with groups — and learning LS isn’t the goal — I try to facilitate as lightweight as possible. Often, participants don’t even know they used LS, they simply had a great experience.

In this short blog post, I’ll explain why lightweight facilitation of Liberating Structures matters, what it looks like in practice, and also what the opposite — heavyweight facilitation — looks like.

Heavyweight facilitation of Liberating Structures

Let’s start with the heavyweight facilitation of Liberating Structures. Some examples of what this might look like are:

• Each Liberating Structure is announced upfront, even though this might not be relevant for the participants at all;
• The entire flow of the structure is explained at the start. So instead of just doing a 1–2–4-ALL, all the steps are shared first;
• Each step is explained in an exhaustively detailed manner. Even if all the rounds are the same, the steps are explained again and again in each round;
• Timeboxes are strictly applied and also clearly announced with Tingsha bells;
• The group is totally relying on the facilitator to explain the next step. As a result, the facilitator is the center of attention.

Instead of focusing on the conversation, participants mostly focus on the facilitator. They’ll wait for you to explain the next step, give instructions, and announce new timeboxes. You’ll notice that the group will be totally dependent on you, self-organization doesn’t take place, and all the steps are followed mechanically.

Participants might even get nervous, anxious, and even annoyed because they worry about not being able to make the timeboxes. And instead of focusing on achieving the desired outcome of the session, the group is most keen to “use Liberating Structures correctly”, which totally misses the point of Liberating Structures itself.

Lightweight facilitation of Liberating Structures

So, instead of using a heavyweight approach to facilitate Liberating Structures, try a lightweight approach instead. Try doing so by keeping the 10 principles in mind. You’ll notice that a lightweight approach encourages the group to practice self-discovery, amplifies freedom and responsibility, and engages everyone in seriously playful curiosity. It actually touches on all the other principles as well, but I’ll leave it up to you to make the connection 😉.

Let’s make the lightweight facilitation of Liberating Structures more specific with three examples. I’ll use some of the most common structures, which are also ideally suited for lightweight facilitation. Although many use a heavyweight facilitation approach instead.

Example 1: Impromptu Networking

Rapidly share novel ideas and make personal connections

❌ Don’t strictly timebox 3 rounds of 3 minutes in different pairs;
✅ Do give participants a 10-minute timebox, and invite them to self-organize in pairs, frequently;
✅ Whenever someone needs a new pair, they simply raise their hand;
✅ Challenge participants to form new pairs at least 3 times, and maybe even 5 times!

As a facilitator, you manage the overall timebox, the participants manage the shorter ones themselves. A big advantage is that participants don’t feel rushed and pushed.

Example 2: 1–2–4-ALL

Engage everyone simultaneously in generating questions, ideas, and suggestions

❌ Don’t strictly timebox the 1-minute individual reflection, 2 minutes in pairs, and 4 minutes in a group of 4;
✅ Instead, give participants a timebox of 10 minutes and invite them to run a 1–2–4 themselves;
✅ They’ll manage, it’s not rocket science

Maybe the group needs one practice round, but after that, I’m sure they’ll manage to figure out the 1–2–4 parts themselves. Optionally, collect some big insights with the ‘ALL’ part.

Example 3: Troika Consulting

Give and get practical and imaginative help from others

❌ Don’t explain all the steps and timeboxes in each of the 3 rounds;
✅ In the first round, explain all steps in detail;
✅ In the second round, don’t explain anything and only offer support with timeboxing;
✅ In the third round, only offer the total timebox (10 minutes), and let them figure out everything

Closing

I don’t use this approach because I’m a lazy facilitator. My purpose is to strengthen the facilitation skills of the participants. Trust the group. Liberating Structures are a skill set for everyday users, it shouldn’t be limited to facilitators. So don’t make it a ‘thing’, keep it simple!

The more lightweight Liberating Structures are, the more people will be able to lift them 💪 🏋️

So, the next time your use Liberating Structures, ask yourself:

“Do I really need to explain this, or can they figure this out themselves?”

When in doubt, trust the group, they’ll probably manage. And if not: simply fail forward!

PS: if you want to learn more about Liberating Structures, join my public workshop (http://bit.ly/2PO8NI5), or reach out for in-company opportunities.