Strategy Knotworking For Education

Last June, Joanne Wolfert — Drost, Denise Fleck, Matthieu Tournemire, and I facilitated a public 3-hour Strategy Knotworking (SK) workshop in Amsterdam. During the workshop, we explored the 6 core questions of SK, to identify creative solutions for the tough challenges the world of education faces. We used SK, to turn ideas and ambitions into reality, by creating our own unique strategic narrative. A narrative focused on how education should evolve, as the world is evolving.

This topic was merely used as an example to show SK’s potential. Because SK can quickly become an abstract topic, I’ll share the string we used including the invitations. The whole point of SK is that you can use all 33 Liberating Structures to explore the questions and that you don’t do it once, but revisit & refine it continuously.

For a detailed description of Strategy Knotworking, check the article “Develop And Evolve Sustainable Strategies With Strategy Knotworking”.

I won’t describe the outcome of the session. Even if I wanted to, it’s not possible, because we didn’t capture it anywhere. The primary focus was the usage of Strategy Knotworking, education was merely a topic to make things tangible. However, I did listen to many conversations, and I was astonished by the number of generated ideas & insights. So my takeaway is that I’ll definitely do this session again, this time capturing the outcome will be the purpose!

1️. Purpose

What is the fundamental purpose of education?

👉 Liberating Structure: Nine Whys
A purpose is the main reason for working together, it’s the inexhaustible reason for a group to exist. As such it is absolutely fundamental for collaboration, yet usually opaque or forgotten. A clear purpose helps teams align toward a shared goal and as a result, gives meaning to all the other steps of Strategy Knotworking.

🗣️ Invitation:

“Make a list of everything you consider the purpose of education for children or the things you hope education makes possible.”

2. Baseline

Where are we starting, honestly?

👉 Liberating Structure: Appreciative Interviews
Appreciative Interviews help to identify enablers for success in less than one hour. By starting from what goes well — instead of what doesn’t — AI liberates spontaneous momentum and insights for positive change as “hidden” success stories are uncovered. It sparks true peer-to-peer learning, generates constructive energy, and offers the participants valuable insights.

🗣️ Invitation for round 1:

“In pairs, share a story of a time when you’ve experienced a highly successful learning environment, in your work. What happened? What did it look like? What made the success possible?”

🗣️ Invitation for round 2:

“What are success factors that proved to be important in your past work environment, that could also be useful for the world of education today?”

3. Context

What is happening around us that demands change?

👉 Liberating Structure: Conversation Cafe
This structure encourages people to listen and understand each other’s perspectives on a profound, shared topic or challenge instead of trying to convince or persuade others to see it your way. Sitting in a circle with a simple set of agreements and a talking object, small groups engage in consecutive rounds of dialogue. Conversation Cafe invites people to listen to one another’s thoughts and reflect together on a shared challenge.

🗣️ Invitation:

“How should the world of education evolve, as the world itself is evolving? What challenges, opportunities, and possibilities do you see?”

4️. Challenges

What are the critical uncertainties and paradoxical challenges we must face to make progress?

👉 Liberating Structure: 1–2–4-ALL
1–2–4-All is one of the most applied facilitation techniques from the Liberating Structure collection. Within 12 minutes you can engage everyone simultaneously in generating questions, ideas, and suggestions. Regardless of how large the group is, you’ll engage every individual in searching for answers. It unfolds open conversations and sifts ideas and solutions in a rapid fashion. Most importantly, participants own the ideas, so follow-up and implementation are simplified.

🗣️ Invitation:

“So what are the challenges the world of education must face to make progress?”

5️. Ambitions

Based on what we discovered, what is now made possible?

👉 Liberating Structure: 25/10 Crowd Sourcing
This structure allows you to rapidly generate and sift through a group’s boldest actionable ideas in less than 30 minutes. Not only is it an innovative way to identify bold, ‘out of the box’-solutions, but it is also appreciated by participants for its highly active nature. Use it to quickly make visible what possibilities the participants see to face the challenges they discussed in the previous step.

🗣️ Invitation:

“What do you see as a great possibility to help the world of education move forward?”

6️. Action & Evaluation

What are our next steps and how will we know we are making progress?

👉 Liberating Structure: 15% Solutions
A 15% Solution is any first step or solution that you can do without approval or resources from others and that is entirely within your discretion to act. It is something that you can start right now if you want to.

🗣️ Invitation:

“What is a small improvement you personally can make to improve education in your environment?”

Closing

In total, this string of Liberating Structures took 3 hours. It proved to be too ambitious. We could easily have added one more hour. It was also tough to facilitate the workshop AND to understand what everyone was talking about. However, the various shout-outs from the entire group showed the many valuable insights the invitations triggered. Personally, it felt like worth repeating, this time however in a 1-day or even 2-day setting. So, stay tuned for more opportunities to experience Strategy Knotworking AND make a positive impact on the world of education!