The Surprising Power of Liberating Structures: Simple Rules to Unleash A Culture of Innovation (40 page)

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Invite a design team (a representative subset of the group) to create a detailed plan, including visual cues, for how participants will interact to achieve their purpose

• An open wall with tapestry paper or flip-chart pages
  
• 2-by-4-inch Post-its and/or Liberating Structures Playing Cards
  
• A blank storyboard (see Collateral Material)
  

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Everyone involved in the design and planning of the meeting has an equal opportunity to contribute

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1-2-All
or 1-All in rapid cycles for each step below

• Clarify the purpose of your work together (use
  Nine Whys
  if needed). 2 to 5 min.
  
• Describe the standard approach or microstructure you would normally use for this session (including who is normally present) and assess how it succeeds and fails in achieving the stated purpose. 5 to 10 min.
  
• Reexamine and strengthen the purpose statement if needed. 2 to 5 min.
  
• Reexamine and decide who needs to participate or be involved. 2 to 5 min.
  
• Brainstorm alternative microstructures (both conventional and Liberating Structures) that could achieve the purpose. Determine whether the purpose can be achieved in one step. If not, what must be the purpose of the first step? Continue with first step only. 5 to 10 min.
  
• Determine which microstructures are best suited to achieving the purpose; choose one plus a backup. 2 to 10 min.
  
• Decide who will be invited and who will facilitate the meeting. Enter all your decisions in the blank storyboard. 2 to 10 min.
  
• Determine the questions and process you will use to evaluate your design (e.g., Did the design achieve desired outcomes? Did the group
  work together in a productive way? Does something new seem possible now? Use
  What, So What, Now What?
  ) 2 to 5 min.
  
• If multiple steps are needed, confer with the design team and arrange a meeting to work on an
  Advanced Design StoryBoard
  (see description below). 5 to 10 min.
  

• Evoke a purpose that is clear for all
  
• Make the work in meetings productive and enjoyable for all
  
• Give everyone a chance to make contributions
  
• Foster synergy among participants
  
• Help everyone find his or her role by making the design process visible
  
• Reveal the weaknesses of the current practice and step up from it
  
• Tap all the sources of knowledge for innovation (explicit, tacit, latent/emergent)
  

• Encourage and seriously play with fast iterations; repeat and deepen your design
  
• At a minimum, work in pairs (a second set of eyes and ears really helps) or small groups
  
• Use icons and sketches to quickly develop shared understanding and actionable ideas
  
• Always include a design debrief (
  What, So What, Now What?
  )
  
• Don’t skimp on the time necessary to generate a good design. A good design will reduce wasted meeting time by much more than it took to create it. A bad design will generate frustration.
  

• Use the same approach to map ethnographic observations of a current practice
  
• Use a pie chart to illuminate and balance the goals and flow of your design
  

• For management meetings of all stripes
  
• Project reviews
  
• Classroom sessions
  
• Brainstorming sessions
  
• One-on-one meetings
  
• Planning a learning session for a conference. See “
  Fixing a Broken Child Welfare System
  ” in
  Part Three: Stories from the Field
  .
  

•
  
Invite an initial design team to create a detailed plan, including visual cues, for how participants will interact to achieve their purpose

• An open wall with tapestry paper or flip-chart pages
  
• 2-by-4-inch Post-its and/or Liberating Structures Playing Cards
  
• A blank storyboard template (see Collateral Materials)
  

•
  
Everyone on the design team involved in the design and planning of the project has an equal opportunity to contribute

•
  
1-2-All
or 1-All in rapid cycles for each step below

• Determine the composition of a design team that includes all relevant stakeholders and assemble the team (the composition can be adjusted ad hoc over time as the work progresses). 1 to 3 hrs.
  
• Design team clarifies the overall purpose of the initiative (use
  Nine Whys
  or a more elaborate microstructure as needed). 1 to 6 hrs.
  
• Describe in detail what happens when people use the current product, service, or approach that you wish to transform/improve. You may need to use a method like the Liberating Structure called
  Simple Ethnography
  to gather data for an accurate description of this current user experience. 6 hrs. to days or weeks.
  
• Based on the users’ experience, assess how the current product, service, or approach succeeds and fails in achieving the stated purpose. 3 hrs. to days.
  
• Reexamine and strengthen the purpose statement if needed. 1 to 6 hrs.
  
• Reexamine and decide who needs to participate in the core design group and who needs to participate on the periphery to help with vetting or field testing. 1 to 3 hrs.
  
• Brainstorm and outline alternative microstructures (both conventional and Liberating Structures) that help achieve the purpose. 3 hrs. to days.
  
• Break up your outline into steps or chunks that can be designed and function independently (don’t try to put together a comprehensive design from the start). 1 to 6 hrs.
  
• Determine a design for one step, selecting microstructures that are suited to achieving the purpose; choose one plus a backup. Repeat and continue with each step. 1 to 6 hrs.
  
• Decide whether any testing or vetting of your design is feasible or desirable. Consider testing in waves and in different configurations. 1 to 6 hrs.
  
• Implement the first step in a simulated or field setting. Continue testing in more extreme conditions.
  
• Evaluate the first and then the subsequent steps of your design. Determine the questions and process you will use to evaluate your overall design (e.g.: Did the design achieve desired outcomes? Did the group work together and coordinate tasks in a productive way? Does
  something new seem possible now? Use
  What, So What, Now What?
  ).
  
• Repeat design cycle and refine the design for the next step, and so on…
  

• Make a significant and enduring advance by breaking away from current reality
  
• Provide enough time for new behaviors to take shape and spread, expanding what others believe is possible to accomplish
  
• See additional Purposes under
  Design StoryBoards–Basic
  above.
  

• Resist the urge for action and do not skimp on time spent designing the storyboard then assessing and adjusting it
  
• Establish a core design team and keep the door open to others that want to join in
  
• Don’t forget to include users!
  
• Share the design widely
  
• Remember that a design makes it possible to improvise as you go: if one element of your design is not achieving its purpose, go to your backup (or a backup of your backup)
  
• Shoot for the moon with your feet firmly on the ground (i.e., anchored in user’s experience research)
  
• Use icons and sketches to quickly develop shared understanding
  

• In place of focus groups with users, invite the users to participate in designing a storyboard to improve their experience with a product or service
  
• Find an illustrator or cartoonist to dramatize your work
  

• For redesigning the exchange of information and responsibilities at shift change
  
• For
  transforming from a product-centric to a customer-focused market strategy
  
• For reforming how academic training prepares students for practice in the field
  
• Read “
  Turning a Business Around
  ” in
  Part Three: Stories from the Field
  . Alison Joslyn’s management team used Design StoryBoard to formulate strategy discussions and launch Liberating Structures “basic training” for product managers and sales reps.
  
• See examples in
  Chapter 7
  , “From Strings to Storyboards”
  

• Invite the celebrity to let go of his or her formal presentation or speech and answer the
  harder
  questions on everyone’s mind in a casual “talk show” format
  
• Invite group members to listen, see the person behind the celebrity, and write down questions with colleagues
  

• Interviewer and celebrity in the front of the room where everyone can see and hear the interaction (lapel microphones, bar stools, or living-room furniture recommended)
  
• Unlimited number of people in a space where they can sit to view the interview and later form small groups (theater-style seating is OK)
  
• 3-by-5-inch cards to collect questions generated via
  1-2-4
  

• Part one, interview: everyone has an equal opportunity to listen
  
• Part two, questions: everyone has an equal opportunity to engage with one another to formulate questions