Tiny Demons

Liberating Structures are a collection of interaction patterns that allow you to unleash and involve everyone in a group — from extroverted to introverted and from leaders to followers.

Tiny Demons is an unofficial Liberating Structure of which there are dozens. I remember that Christiaan Verwijs always thoroughly enjoyed it. But somehow, something was holding me back from facilitating it myself. The longer I waited, the bigger the issue in my mind got. 😟

Recently, I facilitated my first Liberating Structures “Advanced” workshop. I challenged myself to include all the more advanced AND surprising structures. Ignoring “Tiny Demons” was no longer an option. 😎

Despite only taking 20 minutes, I loved it ❤️, and luckily, many participants shared this opinion! It proved powerful because it helped participants make fun of their fears and see worries as less serious and lighter. It allowed people to loosen up and share their tiny demons with others.

Here’s the exercise in more detail.

Why Tiny Demons?

In our work, we continuously have fears, doubts, and worries. In the blog post “What Is Holding You Back,” I already shared what has kept me stuck for years.

As an Agile Coach and Scrum Master, some of my worries were:

• What if the Product Owner doesn’t see me as an equal counterpart with whom to collaborate?
• What if the Developers fully resist my ideas?
• What if I’m not taken seriously by management?

As a facilitator & trainer, some worries were:

• What if I get questions I can’t answer?
• What if the group doesn’t like the content?
• What if the group doesn’t want to use Liberating Structures or any other facilitation techniques I use?

As a content creator, some worries were:

• What if readers strongly disagree with my blog posts?
• What if people make fun of my ideas?
• What if the community finds typos or mistakes in my articles?

The exercise Tiny Demons helps you face your fears playfully and triggers powerful reflections and follow-up conversations. It only takes about 20 minutes and is a great quick exercise as part of a more extensive workshop.

Potential invitations

“When you think about the future of your work, what are some of the worries, doubts, or anxieties? List at least four examples.”

“What are your worries, doubts, or anxieties about using Liberating Structures within your organization? List at least four examples.”

Steps

📌 (2 min) List your fears, doubts, or anxieties about <insert a topic>.

📌 (2 min) Create four quadrants on an empty paper.

Invite participants to create drawings in each quadrant:

• Top-left corner: a squiggly line
• Top-right corner: a closed shape
• Bottom-left corner: a line
• Bottom-right corner: Go wild!

📌 (3 min) Ask everyone to turn each of their shapes into monsters by adding eyes, tails, fins, teeth, ears, horns, wings, blood, etc. Encourage people to have fun with this;

📌 (3 min) Invite participants to pick four fears and associate each of them with one of the monsters. Encourage participants to give the monsters a name. Again, motivate people to have fun with this.

📌 (4 min) Ask participants to pick the one monster they want to befriend or see differently. Have them re-draw that demon dancing 💃. Add a party hat, a fake nose, music, drinks, hot dance moves, etc;

📌 (4 min) Invite participants to briefly share their demons with their neighbors. Have a quick conversation about why they’ve chosen this demon, what fear it represents, and what a more helpful perspective could be to face it.

Good combinations

Although possible, I rarely use Tiny Demons as a stand-alone exercise. It’s always part of a more extensive workshop format. Combinations that worked for me are:

• Clarify the purpose with Nine Whys and connect Tiny Demons to the fears, worries, and doubts someone might have about achieving the objective.
• Start with Tiny Demons and share the results structuredly with Conversation Cafe. Finish the session with 15% Solutions to ensure tangible and actionable next steps.
• Use Tiny Demons for a kickoff workshop. What are your fears or worries about making a successful contribution to the team?

Closing

The unofficial Liberating Structure “Tiny Demons” helps you surface and work with your fears, doubts, and worries through playful drawings and conversations. Why don’t you try it during your next workshop, Retrospective, or team activity?

PS: Are you interested in running your organization's Liberating Structures advanced workshop? Send me a message to explore possibilities.