The Design Elements page might be an interesting read to look specifically at the invitation section. Make an invitation is the first design element.
It says the structuring invitation is "A question asking for ideas or proposals about an issue (e.g., What
opportunities do YOU see for making progress on this challenge? How
would you handle this situation? What ideas or actions do you
recommend?)"
So the invitation for Impromptu Networking, for example, could be (as written on the LS website):
- Ask, “What big challenge do you bring to this gathering? What do you hope to get from and give this group or community?”
In some LS structures the invitation is pretty clear cut, and you can use what they have there. The IN one above is like this, it can be used in many circumstances.
In other LS structures the invitation needs to be more clearly sharpened or honed according to your purpose. For example, in TRIZ, the LS website gives us a three step process for the invitation but the first step's invitation is very general:
- “Make a list of all you can do to make sure that you achieve the
worst result imaginable with respect to your top strategy or objective.”
In that case you'd have to sharpen the invitation...what situation are we talking about here? Often the invitation we use in our immersion workshops for TRIZ is:
- "How can we ensure that bodies are present and minds are absent in our meetings and/or classes?"
Crafting an invitation is one of the great mysteries/complexities of working with Liberating Structures! One of the things I've found helpful working with my colleague Tracy Roberts is that Tracy often says, about a draft invitation, "OK let's play that through a little. If we used that as the invitation, what might participants say/talk about..." And then we begin to see if the invitation is too broad, too narrow etc. And we can sharpen it further.
I'm sure others have thoughts here...what say you?
