On May 29th we had the second gathering of the Vancouver Liberating Structures group. The goal of this meeting was to try out the tri-part structure of the Seattle user group meeting: Networking, Getting and Giving Help, and Learning Together. (If you haven’t checked out this the 33 plus structures, take a look here: http://www.liberatingstructures.com/ Also helpful is this post on how “1-2-4-All” is the foundation of all structures and why: http://www.liberatingstructures.com/getting-started/.)
With a good group of 8 of us, we launched into the Impromptu Networking, then tried Appreciative Interviews where we shared stories on a time we were successful tackling a challenge. Our partners listened and we retold our stories in small groups, and then debriefed as a large group, sharing revelations on the root cause of our success. Key findings for what contributed to our success resulted in the following: having trust in the group, collaborating, communicating with clarity, building rapport, having a shared focus, being committed, acting with courage/boldness, accepting discomfort, being “on the cusp”, willingness to dive-in, planning, noticing when change has to happen, recognizing the “right person” to do the job, fostering curiosity, engaging in purposeful disruption. We will need to dig deep in future meetings on what more we can learn about this great list!
Next, we tried Ecocycle planning as a way of mapping where we are currently in our learning or practice of Liberating Structures. We finished with a discussion of ways we are thinking we might be try Liberating Structures for a project or problem.
We discussed a few housekeeping items: use of LinkedIn groups, face-to-face meetings over the summer months, and ideas for meeting online. We agreed to meet next on Monday June 26th, and rounded up a few volunteers to co-facilitate parts of the next agenda.
The location of the June meeting is to be confirmed BCIT Downtown campus Room 830. If you have questions, check our LinkedIn Group page for info, or contact co-leaders Barish Golland barish.golland@sauder.ubc.ca or Leva Lee leva.lee@bccampus.ca. We hope to see you there!
Impromptu Networking +
Appreciative Interviews +
Ecocycle
Note: LS Meeting DESIGN Template & Agenda (prepped by Barish Golland) for the 2nd Liberating Structures User Group – May 29 2017