Keira's LS- Purpose to Practice

Keira's LS- Purpose to Practice

by Keira McPhee -
Number of replies: 8
I'm considering a training for Population and Public Health staff who are intrigued by LS and considering how they might build their facilitation skills collectively to  transform how they work together.

As a kick-off in person activity, we'll do a Purpose to Practice

Welcome to our kick-off to learning some Liberating Structures. We know there's been some conversation already amongst you about what Liberating Structures are  and can do for your team. We've heard from Melanie what she's hoping for.

One of the basic principles of LS is "never start without a clear purpose" and another is "include and unleash everyone". And so this LS promises to do just that- to invite us all to discover and create together our purpose and all the essentials we need to achieve that.  Let's begin!

(I'd probably start this with a fun and easy LS, a Mad Tea riff to give people to 'get their jabber out' (my colleague's take on what Mad Tea is good for) and maybe TRIZ for purpose stage.  If I was doing this mixed- mode, I'd kick-start this with 1, 2, 4, all via Zoom break-out rooms for the purpose stage...and then build on that in the first in-person gathering.)

In reply to Keira McPhee

Re: Keira's LS- Purpose to Practice

by Leva Lee -

Hi Beth....(While Keira has her back turned on us - virtually- Let's talk about her LS Activity plan.)

P2P is one of my favorite LS.  I wonder if there is a specific project or initiative which they are organizing themselves to undertake or if it is generally to improve their facilitation skills and how the work together.

I'd probably want add a word or two to sharpen the invitation "...invite us all to discover and create together our purpose as a work team/group/facilitators and to outline all the essential elements we need to achieve this purpose"

If she is doing it as a Zoom session 1,2,4 All is great to use for discussing each of the five elements of P2P but for a face-to-face session 9 Whys can be particularly effective to drill down to what is important to the group and perhaps uncover something important/meaningful they can do together.

Her ideas on using Mad Tea for an energetic and fun start is a good idea as is using TRIZ for purpose.

One structure I'v never tried but thought might be interesting for Keira's scenario is Generative Relationships (STAR) for revealing relationships patterns.

What do you think?

In reply to Leva Lee

Re: Keira's LS- Purpose to Practice

by Beth Cougler Blom -

Hi Leva,

I'm really interested in Keira's approach here. I love that she is thinking about baking in structures within structures. This is something we tend to do with Purpose to Practice, and she is challenging me to think about using structures that I haven't thought of before - so great! (We do tend to use 9 Whys for Purpose, Min Specs for Principles, etc...)

I'm really intrigued by her Mad Tea idea to kick things off in the Purpose part of P2P. Mad Tea usually has about five questions so I was wondering if each of the MT questions could be about each of the five parts of P2P. What might it look like to get people talking about ALL parts of P2P in succession in just 1-2 minutes each (she could riff a bit on the regular instructions and give each person 1 min each...the actual structures says 30 seconds which is awfully fast but can be fun!). And then the rest of the structures in the P2P could allow people to explore the elements more fully.

I'm curious about the length of the session that she is planning. P2P can take quite a bit of time when you start baking in other structures so that's something that I think she just has to be aware of for planning purposes.

I've never facilitated Generative Relationships but I think that's an interesting idea, particularly if her colleagues are going to co-facilitate LS together later.

I'm wondering as time goes on in the session if she could somehow involve participants in co-facilitating with her in small ways...what do you think? Go for a win-win somehow in this regard to help immerse them in the facilitation part, even just a little bit?

In reply to Beth Cougler Blom

Re: Keira's LS- Purpose to Practice

by Leva Lee -

Hi Beth,

Now that I think about it some more what is rather ingenious in Keira's design how she's exposing her colleagues to a number of structures using the the P2P as a frame so as an introduction to LS and gives them a tasting of the key ones like 9 whys for purpose, Min Specs for Principles...nice way of doing this that is not working one's way through the menu.

YES to the co-facilitation piece especially if one can work with the group over a period of time. This past year Barish (co-facilitator of the LS Vancouver Users Group with me) and I have gone to a number of campuses and organizations to do mini-workshops and meet ups and we invite the local facilitators to co-facilitate a structure or two with us as coaches and helpers. This works well.

I look forward to hearing more from Keira as her design evolves.

In reply to Leva Lee

Re: Keira's LS- Purpose to Practice

by Beth Cougler Blom -

I'm so glad you're doing that in your user group! We've done that too in ours, Tracy and I. We have asked that person to pull out their phone and get the app and then just follow it along. 

You're making me think - with the whole "baked in" piece of structures within structures, that Keira might find it helpful to get some large graphic facilitation chart paper into the action here. And show a visual of what she's trying to do. 

I've included a photo here of the P2P graphic chart that Tracy Roberts and I set up and used when we facilitated the Purpose to Practice for the Victoria LS User Group. So we tend to stick the LS structures on a sticky note that we're using for each section, and then as we went we harvested the group-generated ideas onto the chart...

Photo of a Purpose to Practice graphic chart

Now this was in person...but if she were online I think she could set this up in a Google Doc - landscape view - and then add text boxes in to capture the harvest as she went along...

In reply to Beth Cougler Blom

Re: Keira's LS- Purpose to Practice

by Leva Lee -

Here's one we generated from our VLSUG.Poster of P2P

In reply to Leva Lee

Re: Keira's LS- Purpose to Practice

by Beth Cougler Blom -

Nice! OK Keira I think that might be all we have for you in this process. It's been fun generating some ideas and discussion around your prompt. I hope you've found some of it valuable!

In reply to Beth Cougler Blom

Re: Keira's LS- Purpose to Practice

by Keira McPhee -

Leva and Beth,


Wow! Thanks for the wonderful, helpful feedback. I love the idea of baking in other structures through PtoP as an introduction to LS, of inviting participants to co-facilitate, the graphics, the google doc on landscape tip!

I've got some time today to take a wander through the forums and contribute a bit I hope. But feeling very lucky to be in this group:)



In reply to Keira McPhee

Re: Keira's LS- Purpose to Practice

by Beth Cougler Blom -

I'm glad! Reach out if you think of anything else that you want to ask about.