Slides and harvest from a webinar I facilitated for the Mid Atlantic Facilitators Network on February 7, 2104. This is a cleaned up version of the slides with the chat notes processed into the slides as a "harvest" of people's inputs and participation

1. Infecting Knowledge
Sharing with
Liberating
Structures
WITH MAFN, February 7, 2014
Nancy White
@NancyWhite
http://www.fullcirc.com channeling
Keith McCandless and Henri
Lipmanowicz from
http://www.liberatingstructures.com

2. With a deep bow of
appreciation to Keith
McCandless and Henri
Lipmanowicz …

3. The Design Storyboard of our time
together today…

4. Knowledge sharing is a well understood and vital practice…
Put a mark along the spectrum to indicate your perspective!
(Variation on Agreement/Uncertainty Matrix)
What ARE you
talking about?
Agree strongly

5. What are we talking
about when we say
“knowledge
sharing?”

6. 1-2-4-All (variation)
Let’s Experiment with 1-2All
Adey
PM’s
Althea
1.First, think quietly on your
own about the question
‘What are we talking about
when we talk about
“knowledge sharing?”’
2.Next we are going to
break up into pairs. Look at
the Participant list in the
upper left hand corner of
your screen. I will pair you
off two by two.
3.Now, lets go to the next
slide…

7. Let’s Experiment with 1-2-All
Adey
PM’s
Althea
1.First, think quietly on your own
about the question ‘What are we
talking about when we talk about
“knowledge sharing?”’
2.Next we are going to break up into
pairs. Look at the Participant list in the
upper left hand corner of your screen.
I will pair you off two by two.
3.Now, the first person in the pair will
private message (PM) the second
person. This is now a two person
chat. Hover your mouse over the
person you want to private message
chat with and click on “Start Private
Chat.” Voila!
4.When you hear us call you back,
you want to return to group chat.
Let’s figure that out…

8. Harvest from Paired Conversation: What do we mean
by Knowledge Sharing?
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This is knowledge sharing/connecting!
• I agree
Headset attachments for milkshakes - new 'must-have"' tool for virtual meetings :)
Two-way dialogue
sharing what works, what doesn't work (and why), and sharing of tips and guidance to help my colleagues and
clients be successful in whatever they are doing
sharing is about listening and asking powerful questions
contrast between business and government perspective on knowledge sharing
Learning from each other - best practices
Sharing between "sectors" - for e.g, research results to clinicians in practice, and vice versa
Its about creating an environment for thinking
Unfortunately people sometimes think it's about top-down "knowledge dumping"
In the moment sharing with one or more individuals.
We had a most interesting conversation that ranged from communicating visually to our shared hesitancy
related to working collaboratively w/ clients via drawing tools such as Prezi.
Must have an environment that rewards/incentivizes sharing, as opposed to "knowledge is power" disincentive for sharing
I really like Dorothy's reference to internalizing special understanding from experiences.
Creating a *deliberate* process for sharing learning among people on a team/org
I think of knowledge sharing as including the increased awareness that occurs between people that occurs in
the interactions
difference twixt KS in personal context vs work org context.
There's a fear of the unknown, This fear keeps us from sharing all that we really can share
Formal and informal, based on specific needs versus for a future need

9. Harvest from Paired Conversation: What do we mean
by Knowledge Sharing?
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Knowledge exchange occurs between those who distribute the knowledge (producers) and those who
use and/or receive the knowledge (adopters). It closes the research-practice gap and supports the use
of recommended practices. It implies a two-way dialogue for information exchange (Garcia, 2006;
Gravois Lee & Garvin, 2003). It emphasizes interactive, mutually respectful, collaborative approaches
driven jointly by researchers and practitioners (including policy makers).
Anything from showing my husband how to use TuneWiki (last night's after dinner conversation) to
hundreds of people sharing knowledge in a conference -- online or otherwise and everything in
between?
whether it is good enuf is up to the receiver more than the sender
The down-side of sharing an embarrassing lesson can be offset by reducing the ire of those affected.
seeing if our "reality" is the same as others "reality"
sharing perspectives, creating connections and insights from shared perspectives
Group collaborative tools -- a little more powerful that this one ... Allows for everyone to see
everything that's been shared. See for example ThinkTank or GroupSystems to HARVEST group work.
I explore something called 'Clean Language' to promote what Izzy is advocating. Fascinating stuff.
Rather than centering the learning dialog on failures or errors, it can be constructive to focus on what
worked and what can be done better next time -- I can’t remember who developed that LB/NT model
Sharing knowledge differs from sharing information in that it results in some change in the person(s) on
the receiving end.
knowledge sharing is having a conversation about a topic with others that deepens my understanding
as well as creating spaces where everyone feels valued up front

10. Reciprocal
Apprenticeship
See http://bgblogging.com/2010/02/23/so-this-is-what-its-like-sort-of/
Image: http://www.flickr.com/photos/zachstern/87431231/
(Levy)

11. The KS Gap

12. How we shape our mental maps (from Senge, 1994, adapted by Ian Metcalf)
http://dev.change-management-toolbook.com/mod/book/print.php?id=74&chapterid=32

13. Moral
“The moral of this tale is simple. Most knowledge
workers (not just software or IT) suffer under
mountains of work in process. This largely happens
because knowledge work is invisible. Although no
change is easy, immediate improvements to team
throughput and effectiveness can be seen by simply
visualizing the work and limiting the work in process.
Visualize the work to understand it. Limit the work in
process to complete it.” Jim Benson
http://www.qualitydigest.com/inside/quality-insider-column/you-can-better-manage-what-y
Gerry Weinberg context switching image

14. One avenue is
LIBERATING
STRUCTURES…

15. Liberating Structures
…including and unleashing everyone
http://www.liberatingstructures.com
Keith and Henri…

16. A repertoire to help us…
1. BE together
2. Engage WITH each other to
share/make meaning of knowledge
3. Unleash everyone to
create/share/use knowledge

17. McCandless and Lipmanowicz

18. McCandless and Lipmanowicz

19. McCandless and Lipmanowicz

20. McCandless and Lipmanowicz

21. Inspired by McCandless and Lipmanowicz

22. Principles
McCandless and Lipmanowicz

23. TRIZ
http://www.liberatingstructures.com/6-making-space-with-triz/

24. Let’s TRIZ Together:
"If our approach to knowledge sharing
was totally obliterated last night, what
parts would you re-establish?"
Type your answer in the chat …

25. Let’s TRIZ Together:
"If our approach to knowledge sharing
was totally obliterated last night…
What new functions or attributes
would you add?
Type your answer in the chat …

26. TRIZ Harvest Slide
What would we keep doing?
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People
feelings
Framework for dialogue
start records mgmt from scratch
A way to collaborate asynchronously so people
can participate anytime, anywhere
a tool to support the dialogue
conversation as an essential
one-on-one dialogue
connecting people to talk to each other
goodwill
lots of attractive work and relax space
Reach out to all in the group personally
Coffee
just-in-time
Curiosity
Discussion of implications of research for practice
Consistent Structure
Do all you can to maintain informal mentorprotégé or coach-coachee or sensei-student
relationships.
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more human interaction
we have regular group chats where we talk about
common themes
serious play
not so much paper
hope
survival needs/fill them
lean coffee lunches
techniques and approaches for power sharing
Create a large OPEN SPACE to recreate the
knowledge base
small group discussions
a board of what people want to know
visual note taking
visualizing what folks need, and letting others fill
in
Intuitive, easy way for people connect when they
want/need to
open space comes to mind
@Izzy ... Not so serious play (might) work too.

27. TRIZ Harvest Slide – What patterns did we
notice?
Pattern = keep "liberating" structures and processes :)
Belinda Spohn: the people element is common to many
Fran Lowe: collaborative
Nancy: Conversation, dialogue essential
Althea Middleton-Detzner: side by side rather than top-down
Izzy Gesell: staus levelers
Ruth Britt: things that encourage connection
Adey Makonnen: the need for a space
Iantha : an environment that truly creates possibility for all
Bill Hurlbut: conversation
Larry: some useful tools
Karen Buehler: Is coffee & conversation a survival skill?
John Lesko, CPF: We might need to re-create the language of
"shared space" around knowledge and sharing.

28. The longer form of
TRIZ…
http://www.liberatingstructures.com/6making-space-with-triz/

29. McCandless and Lipmanowicz
http://www.liberatingstructures.com/31-ecocycle-planning/

30. This is called
“stringing
structures…”

31. Examples from
the First Seattle
LS Workshop
Seattle Workshop 1
AGENDA
1. Impromptu Networking
A G E N D A
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< lunch >
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2. TBD
3. 1-2-4 All
4. 15% Solutions
5. Troika Consulting
6. Nine Whys
7. Generative Relationships
8. Users Fishbowl
Lunch
9. TRIZ
10. What³ Debrief
11. StoryBoards
12. Celebrity Interview
13. Panarchy
14. Webbing or Mad Tea
McCandless and Lipmanowicz

32. Stringing Patterns… a few ideas
• Divergent  Convergent  Select/Decision making
• Focus  Prototype  Evaluate
• Relate/Relationship  Discover  Apply

33. A community heartbeat is…
At t
en
tio
n
…a sequence of
activities and
events that occur
with some
regularity!
Get
Stuff
Done
Toget
he
r
ntion
Inte
Libe
Stru rating
ct u
res
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34. Let’s harvest…

35. What, so what,
now what?
http://www.liberatingstructures.com/9-what-so-what-now-what-w/

36. What, So What….
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(W)3 = AAR ==> CPI ... Love it! (Continuous Process Improvement)
You teased us with oh-so-many cool techniques and tools.
Exciting to have a name for what I have been doing with groups and to have more techniques, too!
Sparked my interest in learning more!
The sheer number of structures facilitators can use.
Learned new models, approaches and tips for sharing knowledge in both FTF settings and virtual . So what? Lots of
great stuff I can share with my clients who have dispersed global teams.
new lenses/labels for solutions that support my work
Important for me to see how the techniques can be used in the online environment
Getting to experience the small to large group work in online environment; significant because I can see it can work
and now am inspired to try it
What? This was the first time I recall a MAFN webinar using paired chats. This was "liberating" in itself.
It was very useful to have some experience doing these facilitation techniques on line, since many times I'm working
with virtual teams
MAFN might consider launching (again) our FBoK project; including a section on Liberating Structures (of course)
Experienced actual knowledge sharing, learning that we do this some, and can do a lot more (as a facilitator).
Outside of the box, techniques for facilitating.
We practiced what we were learning about.
Outstanding tools for actionCreating a shared naming convention for structures that i have been using and sharing
with other new facilitators for years... AND learning a few new ones in the process!
I have a new client (contract came in while we've been on the webinar) and I can use these with that client! WOO
HOO!
Now What….

37. What, So What….
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I like the visuals for the various structures.
So what: also in doing this sharing with each other, I made at least 2 meaning connections with others.
saw that the overriding principle for a practical approach for engagement and action movement
so what -- realization there are ways of knowledge sharing with limited resources.
meaningful...
We played with a few techniques & applied them to the online world (with some difficulty)
liked the idea of destructive thinking. Reminds me of an Improv game called "World's Worst "
I like the visual construct for a very structured agenda
Many techniques immediately applicable - as in, my next client call!
YEs, destructive thinking was thought provoking
Re: Now What ... Imagine if MAFN were to host a series of workshops on-line or F2F when we might dive deeply into each of these
tools.
@ Linda - real Just in Time learning!
I see that too
YES John - more sessions on this - deeper dive
methods and processes matter. empowerment-based and liberating structures can create an empowering and liberating experience
for those participating
SO What? self awareness
Yes, visual construct for agenda was one of the first ideas I decided to use from today's session!
There are so many amazing gems to work with as a facilitator. I feel as though I have added tools to my tool box. I really appreciated
the eco cycle and the concept of the liberating structures
Jon, John - agree! more and deeper session on this would be fascinating
there is hope - may be able to help clients determine what to stop doing.
I think Jon said it -- A lens for understanding the tools we use
Oh, and a way to get out of my methodological rut
Now What….

38. The 15% solution
Noticing and using the influence,
discretion and power individuals
have right now.
– Keith McCandless
http://www.liberatingstructures.com/7-15-solutions/
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39. 25/10 Crowd Sourcing
“If you were 10 times bolder, what big idea
would you recommend? What first step
would you take to get started?”
http://www.liberatingstructures.com/12-2510-crowd-sourcing/

40. URLs/References Mentioned During
Presentation
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Liberating Structures http://www.liberatingstructures.com
Knowledge Management for Development CoP http://www.km4dev.org
Knowledge Sharing Toolkit http://www.kstoolkit.org
LS LinkedIn Group http://www.linkedin.com/groups?
home=&gid=4810141&trk=anet_ug_hm
The F2F Horrors of Bad Telecons http://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=DYu_bGbZiiQ
Books:
– The Illustrated Book of Bad Arguments https://bookofbadarguments.com/?
view=allpages
– NO MORE TEAMS by Michael Schrage http://amzn.to/1eaeZKX
– Training from The Back of the Room http://amzn.to/1g3kn6Z
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People
– Gerry Weinberg / Kanban http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerald_Weinberg

41. Thank
You!
@NancyWhite
http://www.liberatingstructures.com
http://www.fullcirc.com
nancyw@fullcirc.com