Nancy White

Scenario: A group of LS practitioners are working on ways to better "string" and use LS for strategic planning in complex situations. Aka "knotworking." We want to meet once a month online synchronously on Zoom to advance this practice. Everyone will be familiar with both LS I'm proposing, so I won't need to do a lot of explaining of the steps. 

Purpose:

Instead of just talking about using LS, use LS for our own learning community on a regular basis. Use at least 2 LS per meeting, one focused on the relational aspects of our learning group, and one to make progress on our work. This design is for the June meeting. 

Selected Liberating Structures:

1. Appreciative Interviews to identify where we are having success even TALKING about this strategic planning approach and in the process, get to know each other better by actively listening.

2. Ecocycle: Identify where our current knotworking practices are.

3. What, So What, Now What to debrief the meeting.

Invitation:

1. Appreciative Interviews:  Where are we having success in introducing knotworking? Why? 

2. Ecocycle: Where are our individual and current knotworking practices? 

3. WWW: to surface the lessons from Ecocycle (and maybe AI too?)

For AI:

• Slide with instructions
• Zoom breakout room prepared for pairs
• Google doc for note taking

For Ecocycle: 

• Google slides w/ ecocycle diagram, one slide for each person with prepped "electronic" post its
• Zoom breakout rooms for trios or pairs (depends on group size)

For WWW:

• use chat to capture

Participation distribution:

1. AI: Everyone is included

2.  Ecocycle: Everyone is included

3. WWW: Everyone is included

Group configuration:

1. AI: Pairs then fours if big group, otherwise all

2. Ecocycle: 1-2 All or 1-3 - all

3. 1:All

Sequencing & Time: (I'm running out of time to finish...)

• AI: 20 minutes
• Ecocycle: 45 mins . 1. First, alone, think of  your knotworking practice. What is in maturity? What needs creative destruction? What is emerging and what is in the process of being born. List your current KW activities/practices, then place them on your Ecocycle slide. Put your name in the title box. You have 4 minutes. 2. In a moment, you will be put into pairs/Trios in zoom breakout rooms. Share your Ecocycles and use this time to get clearer on your own practice AND see it through the eyes and practices of another practitioner. Note areas of similarities and differences. You have 10 minutes - then we'll use WWW to debrief.
• WWW: 10 mins 1. First alone, then all:  What happened when you created and shared your knotworking ecocycles? Harvest into chat. Probe for data, feelings, observations. 2. So What? How do you/we interpret this data in terms of our knotworking practices? Now What?  Identify our next steps as a CoP based on what we learned. 

Interestingly, the LS Principles emerged after the repertoire and microstructures were developed. My take on this is that by using LS, the original practitioners noticed patterns that became principles. 

For me, the principles are not rules that must be enforced with every structure, but tools to help me from falling back into patterns of unnecessary control. To help me stay in the zone between over and under-controlled processes. In practice, I have also observed that people notice and use different principles... and that there are too many of them to hold in my head at one time. (I craved just 3-4!)

So funny to watch this after 7 years. :-)

Ah, I'm glad you asked. I was looking for the Tuesday evening opening and thought I had missed something!

Correct, they both were inspired by Lynda Barry and are LS in development or little linking things we call "punctuation" and not yet documented on the site or in the book. A punctuation, to me, is a linking or pause device between LS. A space to breath. Reflect. Move the body. Rest.