We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again – at Voltage Control, we’re Liberating Structures enthusiasts. Liberating Structures have many useful applications in the innovation world; one of the most useful being utilized for Scrum. Applying Liberating Structures into a Scrum workflow is a natural fit, as various Liberating Structures can be used for strategizing, problem-solving, and promoting collaboration and shared understanding. To get the most out of the Scrum framework and maximize productivity, try utilizing the Liberating Structures format. 

In this article, we’ll review Liberating Structures and the Scrum framework, then go through some examples of how to apply the Liberating Structures format to Scrum. For more information on when to use Liberating Structures and solutions on using the best Liberating Structure for the job, download our guide here.

What are Liberating Structures?

Liberating Structures is a framework created by Henri Lipmanowicz and Keith McCandless, intended to promote powerful ways to collaborate and engage everyone within a team and boost collaborative team interactions. Liberating Structures consists of 33 microstructures, which are a collection of exercises that allow you to unleash and involve everyone in a group. They provide simple rules that make participatory decision-making easier and are a solution to the dysfunctional format of most meetings, or what Lipmanowicz and McCandless refer to as “conventional microstructures.”

Conventional meeting microstructures are either too inhibiting (i.e. status reports/updates, managed discussions, presentations), or too loose and disorganized (i.e. open discussion and brainstorming). They often limit participation and the control is isolated to one individual or a select few–often the extroverted participants in the group. As a result, these conventional microstructures can routinely stifle inclusion and/or engagement. The Liberating Structures framework is built to encourage participation by including all team members–whether teams are in person, work in a virtual environment, or a hybrid one. 

“Liberating Structures start with something so simple and essential as not to seem worth doing and end with something so powerful and profound that it hardly seems possible.” –Henri Lipmanowicz and Keith McCandless

What is Scrum?

Before diving into the application of how to use Liberating Structures for Scrum, let’s quickly review what Scrum is. 

Jeff Sutherland and Ken Schwaber co-developed the Scrum process in the early 1990s. Here’s how they define it:

“Scrum is a framework within which people can address complex adaptive problems, while productively and creatively delivering products of the highest possible value. Scrum is a lightweight framework that helps people, teams, and organizations generate value through adaptive solutions for complex problems. In a nutshell, Scrum requires a Scrum Master to foster an environment where: 

1. A Product Owner orders the work for a complex problem into a Product Backlog.
2. The Scrum Team turns a selection of the work into an Increment of value during a Sprint.
3. The Scrum Team and its stakeholders inspect the results and adjust for the next Sprint.
4. Repeat.” 

In simpler terms, Scrum is a better way of building products and solving problems. The Scrum Guide, written by Sutherland and Schwaber, goes into more detail around Scrum Theory, Values, Team, Events, and Artifacts.

Tangible Ways to Use Liberating Structures in Scrum

There are several ways Liberating Structures can help improve and streamline the Scrum framework. Below, we’ve outlined various scenarios and paired them with a specific Liberating Structure to utilize in them–including example ideas of when and how to apply it. Of course, there will be more than one Liberating Structure that can be utilized to help improve Scrum within your team – these are just a few ideas to get you started!

Clarifying the Scrum’s Purpose

Liberating Structures can help teams define a common strategy. A Liberating Structure example that can be utilized for this is Nine Whys, which helps groups discover and identify their purpose. This Liberating Structure begins by having participants create a list of activities and tasks they are working on for the project, and then encourages the participants to interview each other about ‘why’ the activities are necessary and important.

“Keep asking, ‘Why? Why? Why?’ up to nine times or until participants can go no deeper because they have reached the fundamental purpose for this work.” –Liberating Structures

Examples of how to use it for Scrum include:

• As part of a Sprint retrospective to recap the key findings during the past Sprint, feedback and discussion, and deciding on the best next steps and path forward. Pro tip: Learn about other ways to use Liberating Structures for a Retrospective here  
• During Sprint planning or project kickoff. Doing the work upfront to identify and define the purpose will save time later

Improving Engagement during Scrum Events

As mentioned earlier, conventional meetings are often either too inhibiting (such as during status reports/updates, managed discussions, presentations), or too loose and unstructured (i.e. open discussion and brainstorming). Liberating Structures can be applied during Scrum events to optimize, improve and mitigate these drawbacks while promoting engagement and collaboration amongst a team. A Liberating Structure example that can be utilized here is Conversation Cafe, which helps “engage everyone in making sense of profound challenges.” 

Conversation Cafe has four rounds of discussion: the first is where each person shares their thoughts, feelings, and/or actions about the topic or project, the second is where each shares thoughts and feelings after having listened to everyone’s else’s, the third is for open conversation, and the final round is for each participant to share their takeaways. This Liberating Structure encourages engagement and ideation from everyone and promotes positive collaboration across the full team.

Some example ideas for Scrum application:

• At Sprint planning or kickoff, try Conversation Cafe to discuss and level set on project goals and objectives
• During a Sprint retrospective, utilize this Liberating Structure to create a positive environment where every single team member has the opportunity to share thoughts, feelings, worries and ideas before moving forward

Supporting a Scrum Team’s Self-Organizational Capabilities

Scrums and Liberating Structures both support self-organization: “As with the Scrum framework, Liberating Structures offer clear boundaries and constraints. It’s up to the participant to self-organize within these constraints. When using Liberating Structures, the Scrum Team is encouraged to explore local solutions that fit their context.” –Scrum.org

A Liberating Structure that can be applied to encourage self-organization is Troika Consulting, which is meant for giving and receiving quick feedback and advice from teammates. It can help participants get insight, wisdom, and ideas on challenges they are facing. Through fast-paced “consultations,” participants ask for advice from others: “Peer-to-peer coaching helps with discovering everyday solutions, revealing patterns, and refining prototypes. This is a simple and effective way to extend coaching support for individuals beyond formal reporting relationships.” Everyone has an equal opportunity to both receive and give advice, which helps build mutual trust in the group, promotes innovation and new solutions, and encourages self-organization. 

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Through Round-Robin consultations, individuals ask for help and advice from two peers. This is an effective way for employees to support each other without a formal management structure.

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A few ways to apply this to Scrum:

• During a Daily Scrum, to discuss and help resolve any current problems or challenges through quick feedback and decision making
• During a Sprint Review, as a chance for the team to gain insight on any issues faced and decide on the best path forward 

Consider utilizing these Liberating Structures to get the most out of your team. Remember, there are many other Liberating Structures (33 to be exact) out there too that can be combined to best fit your team’s needs and help you reach your goals. To help you implement them in your next meeting, we created free interactive MURAL and Miro templates for you to use.

Additional Resources

For additional information and ways to use Liberating Structures, check out our Liberating Structures course where you will:

• Learn key Liberating Structures principles
• Practice 5 key design methods
• Chart a plan for further application of Liberating Structures.
• Connect with a Liberating Structures community

We’ll lead you through our favorite Liberating Structures for opening, exploring, and closing in your facilitation. We’ll teach you about these methods and why and how they work. You’ll learn tips and tricks for using Liberating Structures across your work to facilitate lasting change.

You can also learn hands-on in real-time at one of our Liberating Structures workshops: a deep-dive of Liberating Structures, when, and how to use them to unleash creativity in your meetings through maximum participation. 

FAQ Section

What is the optimal team structure for agile frameworks?
The ideal team structure in agile frameworks typically consists of cross-functional teams that include a mix of roles, such as developers, product managers, and scrum masters. Each member contributes unique skill sets, creating a balanced environment for collaboration. The agile team structure ensures that all necessary expertise is represented to handle complex projects effectively.

How does an agile team manage the sprint backlog and upcoming sprints?
An agile team manages the sprint backlog by holding a sprint planning meeting, where they break down the healthy product backlog into sprints. Each upcoming sprint has clearly defined sprint goals that align with the team’s objectives. The sprint duration is set in advance, allowing the team to maintain focus and deliver a product increment by the end of the sprint.

What is the role of product managers in agile scrum?
In agile scrum, product managers play a crucial role in defining the vision and priorities of the product backlog. They ensure that the scrum team understands the project goals and that the development process aligns with business objectives. Product managers work closely with the team to make sure that the product increment meets user feedback and stakeholder requirements.

How can agile principles improve remote teams’ collaboration?
Agile principles emphasize frequent feedback loops, continuous communication, and an empirical process to adapt to changes. For remote teams, agile scrum provides a structured framework that supports effective collaboration through daily scrum meetings, retrospective meetings, and sprint reviews. These events create a safe environment for team members to share feedback and improve workflows, even when working from different locations.

How does an agile team size impact the effectiveness of complex solutions?
Agile teams are typically small, with an optimal team size ranging from 5 to 9 members. This smaller structure allows for better communication paths between teams and faster decision-making, which is especially important when working on complex solutions. Entire teams working in this structure can remain agile and adaptable to changes throughout the project.

What is the role of retrospective meetings in maintaining a flexible project management approach?
Retrospective meetings are held at the end of each sprint to reflect on the completed work, analyze challenges, and improve processes for future sprints. This feedback loop is a core principle in flexible project management and helps ensure continuous improvement within the agile team. These meetings create a safe environment for all members to share insights and discuss paths to optimize the development process.

How does the network of relationships within an agile team impact project success?
A strong network of relationships within an agile team fosters effective collaboration and trust. Building these connections is essential for promoting a mindset for software development that prioritizes collective problem-solving and cross-functional teamwork. A well-connected business team can address complex products more efficiently by leveraging the diverse skill sets present within the team.

How does Agile Scrum adapt to innovative software and user feedback during the development process?
Agile scrum is designed to be adaptive to change, making it highly effective for innovative software development. By incorporating user feedback during sprint reviews, scrum teams can adjust the sprint backlog and plan for future sprints. This iterative approach ensures that the product development scenario evolves in response to real-world user needs and compliant solutions.

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Have you ever asked for input in a meeting and only gotten the sound of crickets as a response? We’ve all been there, and 1-2-4-All can quickly turn this silence into rapid insights.

Engage everyone without putting anyone on the spot

1-2-4-All is one of 34 Liberating Structures developed to add structure and meaning to everyday conversations. It’s a great way to sift and sort ideas to allow the best — and most novel  — concept to bubble up to the surface. It triggers spontaneous conversations at a time when many meeting attendees typically zip their lips and avoid eye contact. 

The activity is great for groups that are “stuck” having endless conversations without making discernible headway or decisions. It’s also really handy to combat the phenomenon of “follow the leader,” where everyone just nods and goes along with what the leader is saying and writing down. 1-2-4-All prevents a vocal minority from dictating how an organization operates. It seeks to solicit input from everyone involved, no matter how contrary or left-field their ideas are because it’s those ideas that contribute to the diversity of thought so many companies lack.

So how does 1-2-4-All work? It’s pretty simple, actually. Ask each participant to quietly reflect on the opportunity or challenge the group is seeking to explore. For example, “What ideas or actions would you recommend to move forward?” Give them one minute to think about the ideas or actions they’d recommend.

Next, pair two individuals together and allocate a couple of minutes to review their individual ideas. Where are they aligned? Are there a few ideas that both people feel strongly about? 

After the groups of two have had enough time to discuss and align on ideas or solutions, typically about two or so minutes, merge the pairs of two into foursomes and task them to spend four minutes noticing the similarities and differences in their respective ideas. Instruct them to identify the best of the best.

Finally, over a five-minute period, invite everyone into the dialog or simply ask each foursome to present the one idea they feel stood out most in their discussions. In roughly 12 minutes, you’ll get a variety of thinking and lots of lively conversations instead of a bunch of blank stares.

Shifting to virtual

Prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, conducting a 1-2-4-All exercise was as easy as asking participants to push chairs together and talk. In this new era of video conferencing, facilitating 1-2-4-All is a little trickier, but it’s not impossible.

The idea for the Concentric Consensus templates stemmed from a need we identified when we designed and facilitated an annual kick-off for the Global Partner Solutions group in Australia. 

One of the first activities of the day was called “Empowering You,” an event-wide conversation around the principles by which they wanted to all hold each other accountable. The objective was to define a “team code” that was co-created with all 105 attendees, giving everyone a voice regardless of hierarchy. 

The 1-2-4-All model was an excellent method for arriving at consensus, but with such a large (virtual) group we needed to tweak the interaction model. We designed the 48-node Concentric Conversations template to host a 1-2-4-8-All conversation which utilized MURAL’s voting feature to facilitate our “all” step of the process and select the five top principles. It was a huge success, so we decided to release it to the world for all facilitators to use! 

Because the number of participants ranges per meeting, we also developed templates for smaller groups so you can use them no matter the group size:

8-node Concentric Consensus template

12-node Concentric Consensus template

16-node Concentric Consensus template

24-node Concentric Consensus template

48-node Concentric Consensus template

96-node Concentric Consensus template

5 Tips to ensure you see success using these templates in virtual meetings

1. Utilize breakout rooms

Using Zoom or some other service, create smaller workgroups vs. having everyone in the same chat room throughout the entire exercise. Once everybody has had the chance to think independently, create rooms for pairs, then foursomes and finally the group at large. Randomly assign participants to respected groups.  

2. Mute/unmute participants

To provide emphasis — and reduce distracting background noise — we recommend muting everyone but the person sharing his or her ideas.

3. Turn video on/off

Similarly, we suggest you only allow the individuals/teams who are speaking to appear on camera. This will keep the focus where it needs to be.

4. Set up a chat channel

This can be a good way to facilitate conversation and avoid people from talking over each other when others are presenting. 

5. Capture feedback in a shared workspace

We’re partial to MURAL, so much so we created the Concentric Consensus templates exclusively for the platform. 

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Use this template when a large group needs to create key points for a topic or question and write down those key points to a consensus. This is an adaptation of the Liberating Structures 1-2-4-All for 48 people.

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From too quiet to total consensus

You’ll find using these templates will get everyone generating ideas without it devolving into a free-for-all. The shy in your group will also appreciate an opportunity to express their thoughts without having to do so in the spotlight. In short, our Concentric Consensus templates can create unified virtual teams by allowing them to get a sense of what the collective group thinks. Another advantage of the templates is anyone can go back later and trace through the steps to see how the ideas evolved (just zoom in on the Microsoft graphic to see what we’re talking about). 

The next time you need your team to quickly arrive at a shared understanding, try the Concentric Consensus template to make your meetings more effective. But why stop there? If you’re looking for additional ways to boost productivity in your meetings, you can browse our resource library for advice on how to improve remote collaboration and even download additional MURAL templates.

Want to learn how to ask meeting attendees better questions?

Thoughtful questions are the secret to an engaged audience. For a pocket guide to the questions you should always ask, download the free Facilitator’s Guide To Questions from our resource library.

The post Don’t just ask anyone for ideas. Ask everyone for them. appeared first on Voltage Control.

In the world of innovation, retrospective meetings are an essential component of a project lifecycle. They’re the crucial debrief or “look back” at the work that took place during an agile project to evaluate effectiveness and gather feedback on how to improve and mitigate risk moving forward. We’ve been a part of many retrospectives with our internal team at Voltage Control as well as with clients after Design Sprints and innovation workshops, and after each iteration of an agile project. To get the most out of attendees at retrospective meetings, and to ultimately optimize the retrospective process, we utilize the power of the Liberating Structures format. 

In this article, we’ll review Liberating Structures and the retrospective concept, then go through some examples of how to apply the Liberating Structures format to a retrospective meeting. You can also find additional options, strategies, relationships, and solutions using the best Liberating Structures in meetings here.

The Impact of Liberating Structures on Retrospectives

Liberating Structures is a framework created by Henri Lipmanowicz and Keith McCandless, intended to promote powerful ways to collaborate and engage everyone within a team and boost collaborative team interactions. Liberating Structures consists of 33 microstructures, which are a collection of exercises that allow you to unleash and involve everyone in a group. They provide simple rules that make participatory decision-making easier and are a solution to the dysfunctional format of most meetings, or what Lipmanowicz and McCandless refer to as “conventional microstructures.” Conventional meeting microstructures are either too inhibiting (i.e. status reports/updates, managed discussions, presentations), or too loose and disorganized (i.e. open discussion and brainstorming). They often limit participation and the control is isolated to one individual or a select few–often the extroverted participants in the group. As a result, these conventional microstructures can routinely stifle inclusion and/or engagement. The Liberating Structures framework is built to encourage participation by including all team members, including those in today’s increasingly virtual environment. 

“Liberating Structures introduce tiny shifts in the way we meet, plan, decide and relate to one another. They put the innovative power once reserved for experts only in the hands of everyone.” -Henri Lipmanowicz and Keith McCandless

Before diving into the examples of how to use Liberating Structures in a retrospective meeting, let’s quickly review what a retrospective is. At a high level, a retrospective is an opportunity to reflect on a project and learn and improve. It may be a single long meeting after a large project is finished, depending on the environment. In agile environments, a retrospective is most commonly shorter and held often (i.e. 90 minutes at the end of a Design Sprint). Questions are asked and discussed such as:

• What did we do well?
• What did we do wrong? 
• What can we do better in the future? How can we best move forward?
• Pro tip: Share the questions ahead of time with team members so they can review and provide answers before the retrospective, resulting in time better spent during the meeting.

Retrospectives are an essential tool to help teams thrive in innovation. However, they can also get complicated and complex, leaving little room to extract team members’ ideas and input. Liberating Structures are an efficient and effective way to facilitate these meetings and help get the most out of them.

Find tips and tricks on facilitating Design Sprint retrospectives like a pro here.

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3 Ways to Use Liberating Structures in a Retrospective

Now, let’s dive into 3 Liberating Structures examples that can be utilized for a retrospective.

1. What, So What, Now What?

This is a Liberating Structures technique that helps groups reflect on a shared experience to build understanding while avoiding unproductive conflict during a retrospective. You collect information about “What Happened,” make sense of the information with “So What” and, finally, uncover what actions logically follow with “Now What.” It is a very helpful exercise to help the team identify the pain points of a project and how to solve them.

What, So What, Now What? Steps

1. Individuals write down observations that stood out (1 min.)
2. Discuss observations in a small group for (2–7 min.)
3. Share with the whole group (2–3 min.)
4. Capture the important WHATs on a whiteboard.
5. Individuals write down patterns, hypotheses, and conclusions. (1 min.)
6. In a small group, discuss patterns, hypotheses, and conclusions (2–7 min.)
7. Small groups share with the whole group. (2–5 min.)
8. Capture the important SO WHATs on a whiteboard.
9. Individuals write down next steps (1 min.)
10. In a small group discuss the next steps (2–7 min.)
11. Small groups share with the whole group. (2–10 min.)
12. Capture the important NOW WHATs on a whiteboard

2. 15% Solutions

This simple (but extremely powerful) Liberating Structure is great when a retrospective’s time is limited but you want to get a group or team focused on what they are going to do next. The activity helps individuals think about small tweaks they can make to move toward and improve upon the larger goal.  The 15% Solution is the first step or solution that an individual can do without approval or resources from others. It is something that anyone can start right now if they want to. “15% Solutions show that there is no reason to wait around, feel powerless, or fearful. They help people pick it up a level. They get individuals and the group to focus on what is within their discretion instead of what they cannot change.” –Henri Lipmanowicz and Keith McCandless

15% Solutions Steps

1. Introduce the 15% Solutions concept to the team.
2. Each person generates his or her own list of 15% Solutions. (5 min.)
3. Individuals share their ideas with a small group. (3 min./person)
4. Group members ask clarifying questions and offer advice. (5-7 min./person)

3. TRIZ

This Liberating Structure is all about creative destruction and encouraging anti-patterns to unlock value and question the status quo. It forces teams to look at what didn’t work, targeting the “What did we do wrong?” question, or the worst-case scenario that could happen when bringing an idea to fruition. Do not identify net-new behaviors. Instead, focus on the worst-case scenario associated with the way your team functions, your product, project, or service offering. 

Pro-tip: Use our Triz templates for MURAL and Miro with your team during the retrospective to capture ideas, ideate, and reflect on the findings. 

TRIZ Steps

1. Introduce the concept of TRIZ to the team.
2. Identify an unwanted result that the group will focus on. If needed, have the groups brainstorm and pick the most unwanted result. (5 min.)
3. Each group uses 1–2–4-All to make a list of all it can do to make sure that it achieves this most unwanted result. 1–2–4-All refers to working alone, then in pairs, then foursomes, and finally as a whole group. (10 min.)
4. Each group uses 1–2–4-All to make a list of all that it is currently doing that resembles items on their first list. (10 min.)
5. Each group uses 1–2–4-All to determine for each item on its second list what first steps will help it stop this unwanted activity/program/procedure. (10 min.)

Utilize Liberating Structures for Project Improvement

Next time you are planning a retrospective, consider incorporating Liberating Structures to get the most out of your team and capitalize on improving your project. These three Liberating Structure exercises can be pieced together or combined with other Liberating Structures to best fit your team and needs. To help you implement them in your next meeting, we created free interactive MURAL and Miro templates for you to use.

Additional Resources

For additional information and ways to use Liberating Structures, check out our Liberating Structures course where you will:

• Learn key Liberating Structures principles
• Practice 5 key design methods
• Chart a plan for further application of Liberating Structures.
• Connect with a Liberating Structures community

We’ll lead you through our favorite Liberating Structures for opening, exploring, and closing in your facilitation. We’ll teach you about these methods and why and how they work. You’ll learn tips and tricks for using Liberating Structures across your work to facilitate lasting change. You can also learn hands-on in real-time at one of our Liberating Structures workshops: a deep-dive of Liberating Structures, when, and how to use them to unleash creativity in your meetings through maximum participation.

The post How to Use Liberating Structures for a Retrospective appeared first on Voltage Control.

At Voltage Control, we are Liberating Structures enthusiasts. Liberating Structures is a framework for facilitation created by Henri Lipmanowicz and Keith McCandless, intended to provide simple rules that make it easy to promote inclusion and participatory decision making. At a high level, Liberating Structures consists of 33 microstructures designed to build trust and enhance cooperation and communication between teammates. In today’s increasingly hybrid environment, Virtual Liberating Structures will also become more prominent as more of the workforce elects to work remotely. Applying Liberating Structures virtually will also come with its own set of nuances. Learn how to utilize Virtual Liberating Structures to unleash engagement, provide space for good ideas, and address challenges your team or organization may be facing. 

What is the Liberating Structures Framework?

The Liberating Structures framework is built around improving coordination and promoting participation by including and unleashing all team members. The framework consists of a collection of structures or methods that are meant to introduce small shifts in the way teams meet, plan, decide, and learn. They put the innovation once reserved for experts into the hands of everyone within a team or organization. Each of the 33 microstructures is easy to learn. Regardless if you’re an experienced leader at the executive level or new hire at the entry-level, this framework can work for you and your team (with a little practice, of course). 

Most organizations in today’s business environment rely on what Lipmanowicz and McCandless refer to as “conventional microstructures.” These microstructures are structures that teams default to when meeting and organizing into groups. These conventional microstructures are either too inhibiting (i.e. status reports/updates, managed discussions, presentations), or too loose and disorganized (i.e. open discussion and brainstorming) according to Lipmanowicz and McCandless. They often are limited in the number of participants and the control is isolated to one individual or a select few–often the extroverted participants in the group. As a result, these conventional microstructures can routinely stifle inclusion and/or engagement. Liberating Structures, and Virtual Liberating Structures, provide more constructive alternatives than the conventional structures by including everybody regardless of group size, seniority or comfort level, and distributing control among all participants.

For more information on when to use Liberating Structures and solutions on using the best Liberating Structure for the job, download our guide here.

Why Virtual Liberating Structures Are Important

Liberating Structures offer an alternative way to approach and design how people work together. In today’s distributed workforce, Virtual Liberating Structures will become more necessary as teams and organizations won’t always be all together in the same office anymore. Even when in person, conventional facilitation and microstructures can be creativity’s worst enemy. They often end up in the exclusion of the more introverted team members in the room, lack organization, and discourage out-of-the-box thinking. It’s difficult to feel encouraged and engaged after a 30 minute PowerPoint over Zoom presentation followed by an unfacilitated brainstorm (in which a couple of the highest-positioned extroverts do most of the talking). 

When applied to virtual meetings, these drawbacks of conventional facilitation and microstructures only get worse. Little regard to the unique challenges of virtual facilitation and participation will result in frustration for both you and your team. Remote participants face more distractions, more technical difficulties, and less engagement than in-person participants in virtual meetings and/or workshops. You will want, and need, to put extra thought into inclusion, participation, and engagement to make the most of remote, virtual and hybrid communication. This is why Virtual Liberating Structures is such a great framework for remote teams. 

The framework’s advantages–participation promotion, creative empowerment, and cooperation improvement–precisely counteract the challenges of meeting and working together remotely. When everyone in the virtual room feels enabled to participate, virtual meetings will naturally produce more and higher quality work. Team members and participants are invited because they have something of value to offer, regardless of title or level. Consequently, it’s critical to empower them to contribute. Collaboration between participants will promote individual creativity by enabling everyone to build off each others’ ideas and inspire one another. The group is smarter than any individual.

The Liberating Structures frameworks’ focus on participation will make attention management significantly easier, especially in a remote and virtual environment. Liberating Structures, whether in person or remote, operate under the philosophy that every participant has a lot to contribute, which means that every participant is being asked to take an active role. Participants who are actively engaged and engaging are much less likely to become distracted and/or disengaged.

Virtual Liberating Structures Examples

We understand that adapting all 33 Liberating Structures in a virtual setting can seem daunting. That’s why we detail Liberating Structure activities to strengthen virtual collaboration in another post here. In summary, here are a couple of Liberating Structures that are applicable to the virtual work environment and can strengthen virtual teams:

Troika Consulting

This activity allows an opportunity for two participants to become consultants for a third group member (the “client.”) The first client shares a question or challenge, then the consultant has 1-2 minutes to ask clarifying questions. When time is up or the consultants are finished asking questions, the client will mute their audio and allow the consultants to spend 4-5 minutes generating suggestions and advice. The consultants will then have 1-2 minutes to share their most valuable feedback to the client. This activity builds trust between teammates and helps participants better understand each other’s strengths and areas of expertise.

Conversation Café

This is a longer activity that will make group discussion more structured and train participants to strike a balance between speaking and listening. Participants will break into small groups or breakout rooms in Zoom; one participant from each group will act as The Host, whose responsibility (in addition to participating in the activity) is to step in when another participant isn’t following a simple set of agreements. Within these groups, team members will move through four rounds of conversation:

• First round: Each group member will have one minute to share their thoughts or feelings regarding the given conversation topic.
• Second round: Each group member will get another minute to share their thoughts and feelings after having listened to what others had to say. Traditionally a “talking object” is passed around in person to signify whose turn it is to speak, but in a virtual setting, you will have an appropriate replacement.  For example, everyone mutes their microphones and participants use the “raise hand” feature in Zoom to signal that they’d like to talk next, or each participant is asked to bring a common household item to the meeting, such as a mug or a spatula, to hold up in place of one singular talking object.
• Third round: This is an open conversation in which participants can speak when they wish rather than taking turns. You may choose to continue using your talking object method (or “raise hand” feature) or to leave them in round two. This is likely where The Host will need to step in the most; ask them to encourage quieter members to talk and over-sharers to leave space for them to do so.
• Fourth (and final) round: Give each member a moment to share their biggest takeaways from the previous three rounds of conversation, round-robin style.

This exercise helps the quieter or more introverted participants build confidence contributing during virtual conversation, and the small groups make it harder for a participant to fade into the background (which is a bigger issue on Zoom vs. in-person meetings).

Additional Resources

We feel strongly that Liberating Structures has an approach to address almost any challenge you may have to overcome. Therefore, we developed a variety of resources to help support you as you navigate Virtual Liberating Structures for your team. 

We created interactive MURAL templates for the activities we use most often and hope you enjoy using them as much as we do. Note: find the template overview here.

We will be hosting a workshop on Virtual Liberating Structures later this year. Let our expert facilitators guide you to better understand and integrate Liberating Structures with your teams, both in-person and virtual. You will learn the principles behind why Liberating Structures work and experience specific structures that will allow you to tap into the room intelligence no matter how large the team. 

Finally, Voltage Control offers an online Liberating Structures course that provides you and your team with the key foundations in Liberating Structures to unleash creativity in your meetings through maximum participation.

Want more assistance helping your virtual team thrive?

Here at Voltage Control, we are exercising and sharing the best tools and techniques needed for teams to thrive in the virtual workplace, through productive meetings, remote work team collaboration, considerations for return to work, facilitation skills, virtual events, meeting culture, Magical Meetings, and design sprints.

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