During the Dgroups Partners Dialogue on Adding Value Online (January 2021), Ewen LeBorgne presented how Liberating Structures (LS) can be used to unleash participation and collaboration in online meetings and events.

LS can be very effective in addressing serious issues and conversations in a creative, playful, and inclusive manner. In Ewen’s words:

At its simplest, Liberating Structures could be presented as a set of 33 participation formats and facilitation methods. But really it’s a lot more than that. It’s a language unto itself – a language of collaboration.

Ewen briefly presented some well used and known Liberating Structures such as 15% Solutions, Troika Consulting, 1-2-4-all, 20/15 Crowdsourcing, TRIZ.

LS are modular so you can nest one inside the other, combine them together, scale them, in a set of infinite possibilities.

Ewen also reflected on what advantages Liberating Structures bring to our practice, regardless of the type of meeting and events. LS bring a conscious and explicit effort to involve everyone from the outset, making space for each individual reflection and contribution.

Ewen concluded by sharing the 10 principles of Liberating Structures and invited everyone to explore LS and ‘borrow’ from it for ideas and examples in our online or offline work.