Liberating Structures - 1st meeting Portugal North

1. Portugal - North

2. Impromptu Networking
Rapidly share challenges and expectations while building new connections

3. Instructions & Steps
1. Find someone you don’t know well. Each person responds to the
question. (4 mins total to share)
2. Bells *DING*
3. Switch partners & respond to the same question.
(4 mins total to share)
4. Bells *DING*
5. Switch and repeat. (4 mins total to share)

4. Attributes of Liberating Structures
1. Expert-less: requires only a few
minutes to introduce; novices can
succeed after a first experience
2. Results-focused: likely to
generate better-than-expected
purposeful results
3. Rapid cycling: fast iterative
rounds are very productive
4. Seriously fun: boosts joy,
freedom & responsibility
5. Inclusive: together, everyone is
invited to shape next steps
6. Multi-scale: works for everyday
solutions, projects, strategy,
movements
7. Self-spreading: simple to copy
without formal training
8. Modular: the parts can be
combined & recombined endlessly
Licensed via Creative Commons

6. Debrief

7. Celebrity
Interview
Connect the experience of leaders and
experts with the people closest to the
challenges at hand

8. Sequence of Steps & Timing
Connect the experience of leaders & experts with the people closest to the challenges at hand
1. Interviewer welcomes & introduces the celeb + topic (2 min)
2. Interviewer engages celebrity in a seriously playful conversation
asking familiar & unexpected questions about the work at hand
and their experience (10 mins)
3. Invite participants to generate additional questions in a 1-2-
4 conversation and then collect 3-by-5-inch cards, sifts the cards,
looking for patterns (10 minutes)
4. Interviewer asks questions generated by the participants (10)
5. Closing comments. Thanks to the celebrity (1 min)

9. Debrief

10. Coffee Break!

11. Back to Back
Conversation
Practice deeper listening and empathy with
colleagues

12. Sequence of Steps & Timing
Connect the experience of leaders & experts with the people closest to the challenges at hand
1. Invite everyone to find a partner and sit or stand back to back.
2. Invite each person to listen to the music deeply.As the music plays, pay
attention to your experience of the music. What do you notice about it?
3. Play the music at a nice high volume. (max 2-3 minutes duration).
4. When music concludes, people turn to each other and each person has
90 seconds uninterrupted to describe their experience
5. When both people finish, have everyone turn back-to-back again and
put on the same piece of music. This time listen to it based on your
partner's description of their experience. Listen to it through their ears.
6. Music concludes, debrief in pairs. What was the experience like the
second time through? What happened?
7. Finish with a full group debrief, popcorn style.

13. Drawing Together
Reveal Insights and Paths Forward Through Nonverbal Expression

14. Sequence of Steps & Timing
1. Alone: Use the 5 symbols in any way you want to draw your experience
on an index card. (6 mins)
2. Pairs: Share and interpret one another’s drawings (4 mins)

15. The 5 Symbols

16. The 5 Symbols
WHOLENESS
COMPLETION
CONTINUATION
CHANGE
CHAOS
PEOPLE
RELATIONSHIPS
CONNECTION
CHALLENGE
GOAL
STRUCTURE
FOUNDATION

17. Make a drawing of the past, the
present and the future of your
professional journey

18. Debrief

19. Final Thoughts...