The Surprising Power of Liberating Structures: Simple Rules to Unleash A Culture of Innovation (42 page)

• Learn how to articulate functional and/or personal needs clearly
  
• Practice asking for what functions and/or individuals need
  
• Learn how to give clear answers to requests
  
• Reestablish and/or improve communication inside functional clusters
  
• Make progress across functional silos
  
• Mend connections that have been broken
  
• Get all the issues out on the table at the same time for everyone to see
  
• Reduce frustration by eliminating preconceptions and rumors
  
• Build
  trust so that group members can share accountability with integrity
  

• Remind participants that a
  whatever
  response means their request was too vague to provide a specific answer
  
• Strictly enforce the “no immediate response” rule
  
• Strictly enforce the rule that the only responses are
  yes, no, I will try
  , or
  whatever
  (no further elaboration is allowed)
  
• Encourage everyone to ask for what they truly need to be successful
  
• Have fun and encourage a safe amount of drama
  
• Don’t include more than 7 roles/functions (the waters get too muddy)
  
• In debriefing, try to draw out that people are good at complaining and not so good at asking for what they need.
  WINFY
  helps you move from complaints to valid requests.
  
• Use question-and-response cards to help groups sharpen how they express their requests
  

• Consider a second round if too much appears to be unresolved or unclear: making concrete and clear requests is an essential skill!
  
• In the debrief, give participants a chance to articulate what was not asked of them: something neglected that would help achieve the groups’ purpose but was not requested
  
• Instead of functional clusters, use the same
  WINFY
  sequence with a group or a team of individuals who are interdependent
  
• String together with
  Helping Heuristics, Integrated~Autonomy, Appreciative Interviews, Ecocycle
  

• For a global technical group (with members in multiple countries) facing the need to make decisions in a fast-changing market (see “
  Getting Commitment, Ownership, and Follow-Through
  ” in
  Part Three:
  Stories from the Field).
  
• For
  three top executives who are struggling to give consistent direction to the next level of leaders in the organization
  
• For hospital executives and managers launching a patient-centered care initiative that requires multi-specialty collaboration
  
• For helping one-on-one relationships become more generative
  

Below: presentation material we use to introduce
WINFY

Below: a hearty and cathartic laugh while working out cross-functional knots in health care

One day a student asked, “What is the most difficult part of painting?” The master answered, “The part of paper where nothing is painted is the most difficult.” Painting Zen

• Invite people to come and address a complex problem
  
• Invite participants to co-construct the agenda by posting sessions that they will convene on topics they are passionate about
  
• Invite participants to join any session that they care about
  

• Chairs in concentric circles for 10–1,000 people in a large room or open space
  
• Microphones needed for groups larger than 40
  
• Large blank agenda posted on easels and flip charts, long tapestry paper, or whiteboard
  
• Agenda to include slots for enough concurrent sessions to accommodate what is likely to emerge given the challenge and the number of participants. (One rule of thumb is that 3 out of 10 participants will post a session, e.g., there will be 15 sessions posted from 50 participants.)
  

• Everyone who cares about the challenge at hand and accepts the organizers’ invitation is included
  
• Everyone has an equal opportunity to contribute
  
• The
  “Law of Two Feet” governs the participation of all attendees in the various sessions. It says: “Go and attend whichever session you want, but if you find yourself in a session where you are not learning or contributing, use your two feet!”
  

• Start together in one large circle (or as many concentric circles as needed)
  
• Continue with groups of various sizes self-organized around agenda topics
  

• Generate action and build energy, commitment, and shared leadership
  
• Address intractable problems or conflicts by unleashing self-organization
  
• Make
  sure that ALL of the issues that are most important to the participants are raised, included in the agenda, and addressed
  
• Make it possible for participants to take responsibility for tackling the issues that they care about and for what does or doesn’t happen
  

• To get started, we recommend reading
  Open Space Technology: A User’s Guide
  by the founder of Open Space, Harrison Owen. All the elements to try
  Open Space
  for the first time are included and described very clearly.
  
• A compelling challenge and attractive invitation are key requirements.
  
• Write up the entire proceedings in a single document, completed and distributed/shared immediately during the meeting.
  
• The facilitator should introduce the Law of Two Feet, Four Principles, and the mechanics of
  Open Space
  in a seriously entertaining fashion.
  
• As the facilitator, notice when you form a judgment (about what is right or wrong) or an idea about how you can help, then “let it go”: do one less thing!
  
• A meeting without the Law of Two Feet—namely, one where the agenda is created by the participants but people are not free to attend the session of their choice—is NOT
  Open Space
  !
  

• Reopen the Marketplace a second time each morning (bigger collaborations may emerge)
  
• String together with
  Celebrity Interview, Appreciative Interviews
  , and/or
  TRIZ
  before you start
  Open Space
  and with
  25/10 Crowd Sourcing
  after closing.
  
• Other forms of
  Open Space
  are called unconferences and BarCamps.
  

• For management meetings of all stripes
  
• Read “
  Turning a Business Around
  ” in
  Part Three: Stories from the Field
  . Alison Joslyn launched a business transformation by inviting all employees to a three-day
  Open Space
  meeting.
  
• Read “
  Inventing Future Health-Care Practice
  ” in
  Part Three
  . Chris McCarthy uses Open Space to set direction for collaboration among the creative members of the Innovation Learning Network.
  
• Immediately after a merger, for bringing together all the employees of both companies to shape next steps and take action together.
  
• To share IT innovation prototypes and unleash collaborative action among widely distributed grantees.
  

Below: an Open Space circle in Madrid

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Invite participants to assess their working group or team in terms of four attributes: