Prepare to be surprised! Making waves around the world, Liberating Structures (LS) productively and playfully disrupt conventional patterns in how we work together. Come engage, reengage and dive deeper into this repertoire of 33+ simple methods that change the way results are generated without expensive investments, complicated training, or shifts in formal structure.
For the first time, we are bringing a full Liberating Structures Immersion workshop to Scandinavia. There are currently practitioners spread across the region who use LS in health care, social services, agile development, city planning, academia, education, design & innovation and many more contexts. This will be an opportunity to learn alongside these pioneers and understand how LS is being applied to challenges that are complex, messy, nonlinear, and uncertain. We will roll-up-our-sleeves and dig into the repertoire of methods in a way that helps you understand the individual structures AND the underlying logic or organizing pattern that makes them generative & dynamic. Expect to get your hands dirty along the way!
We offer a few options for how you participate
- Day 1,2 and 3. You get the full experience and training including the more in-depth learning tracks with focus on application and practise-development of day three.
- Day 1 and 2. You will experience a common immersion workshop format in full!
- Day 3 only. You have a special interest in Agile development, Tillitsbaserad styrning/Trust based (public) management or Learning and evaluation and would like to explore how LS could be used in for these purposes. You already have experience of using Liberating structures or similar methodology with groups.
The learning excursion will unfold in surprising ways, but the basic format you can expect includes:
Day 1: Learning through repetition & pattern recognition.
We will introduce the organizing DNA and anatomy of Liberating Structures in a way that helps everyone understand the logic behind them while repeating structures multiple times. By the end of this day, you may be equally enthusiastic & confused about the surprising power of Liberating Structures!
Day 2: Developing a versatile repertoire and preparing to practice.
The focus this day will shift towards more elaborate uses of LS - from those that involve a bit more nuance to combining and designing with a string of LS for longer interactions. You will be familiar enough with the fundamentals to get started back home with integrity and fidelity to the principles & purposes of the methods.
Day 3: Getting hands-on experience with Liberating Structures in different contexts.
We will be joined for this session by LS pioneers from across the region. These are people who have gotten started on their own and are making tangible progress in a range of settings, situations, and scenarios. Learn from their trials, tribulations, triumphs, and tragedies localizing LS to different complex realities. We will work hands on with real challenges brought forward by you and other participants and partners
While the specifics are still being clarified, there are likely to be tracks that resemble:
- Track 1: Agile development
Agile and LS have many similar principles and stories. We will explore how you can approach typical challenges in radical new ways - all the way from supporting self organizing teams to the landscape of scaled agile confusion. - Track 2: Small group practices for radical change
This track meets two needs often expressed by people wo work with sustainability. How do we use LS in small group interactions (7 or fewer people) where we aren't used to someone being in charge. And how could we together be radical and brave, really preparing for the challenges we are facing and the shifts that are on the way. Sustainability work, whether ecological, social or personal demands more of our teams and working groups. This session will explore and bring some concrete structures to integrate in everyday work. - Track 3: Liberated Strategy with a trust-based planning process
In many organisations strategic planning practices exclude diverse voices, over-control people, and stifle ambition. How often do you find yourself struggling to develop strategies that people are willing to own and commit to? “Strategy Knotworking” offers a liberated, inclusive approach to shaping the future while creatively adapting in the moment. It is a coherent set of Liberating Structures that aims to involve and engage everyone in developing and evolving sustainable strategies on all levels of an organisation.
The third day will start and end all together so we can integrate learnings between the tracks.
Although its three consecutive days we have designed the Immersion so its possible to just join the first two days or just the last day.
What you can expect from the 2+1 day learning excursion:
- To gain enough familiarity with 15-20 different Liberating Structures that you can start to use immediately (and imaginatively) for your own purposes
- To begin noticing the underlying structure of our interactions and how simple variations in the arrangement of those elements can deliver different results
- To gain a better understanding of how strategies and practises better can support change when challenges are complex and messy.
- To feel what can happen when Liberating Structures are used to organize interactions in a community
- To engage in seriously playful curiosity with dynamic people
- To engage in a bit of creative destruction while in the company of supportive, encouraging, and experienced peers.
- To discover something about yourself through the group of participants that assembles.
