Courtesy: Cipson Thomas Agile Coach This slide was used by Cipson Thomas for his session on Liberating structures at 75th FAYA:80 Trivandrum. Although meetings are an inevitable part of getting the best ideas and your teams together, they can also be toxic killing productive hours if not properly structured. What if there were methods for you to optimize your meetings into idea-machines with total engagement and shorter durations? That’s something that all of us who attend meetings should know in the first place - that’s exactly what Liberating Structures does. Liberating Structures is an innovative concept that could disrupt the way companies hold meetings today. These are simple structures designed to facilitate meetings based on the participants focussed on results. View the discussion if you strongly believe that meetings could be made better. The session will be immensely beneficial for all enthusiasts, programmers, managers and all others who have attended meetings before and would like to get introduced to transform their meetings into better-engaged discussions. https://youtu.be/aXjTxdaTA1k?t=235 Topics Covered • Introduction to Liberating Structures • Different approaches in LS • Choosing the right method • How to apply LS in meetings • Live Demo

1. Liberating Structures Workshop:
Re-design
how people work together
Cipson Thomas, Agile Coach
07-Aug-2019
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2. Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in the presentation are those of authors and do not reflect any official
policies or standards followed in any organization.
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3. 3

4. Elephant in the room
Elephant in the room ?
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5. Elephant in the room
Elephant in the room:
you mean that there is an obvious
problem or difficult situation that
people do not want to talk about.
(Ignore obvious problem)
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6. Tingsha Bell
What is Tingsha Bell ?
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7. Tingsha Bell
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tingsha
Tibetan tingsha (or Ting-Sha) (Tibetan: ཏིང་ཤགས་, Wylie: ting-
shags) are small cymbals used in prayer and rituals by
Tibetan Buddhist practitioners. Two cymbals are joined
together by a leather strap or chain. The cymbals are
struck together producing a clear and high pitched tone.
Typical sizes range from 2.5–4 inches in diameter. Tingsha
are very thick and produce a unique long ringing tone.
Antique tingsha were made from special bronze alloys that
produce harmonic overtones.
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8. Tingsha Bell
I will explain more on Tingsha Bell
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9. Tingsha Bell
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10. Let us first experience the power of a
Liberating Structure
Liberating Structures
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11. Impromptu Networking
What big challenge do you bring to this gathering?
What do you hope to get from and give this group
or community?”
More details at www.liberatingstructures.com 11

12. Impromptu Networking
Rapidly Share Challenges and Expectations,
Build New Connections
More details at www.liberatingstructures.com 12

13. Meetings
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14. Simple, Subtle, Powerful
Engagement Tool for
Meeting Facilitation
Liberating Structures
More details at www.liberatingstructures.com 14

15. A facilitation story using Liberating Structure
24-Jul-2019
Invitation to all: What Agile topics are you looking for
‘’Agile, Kanban, Liberating Structures Kerala’’ community
for the up coming meetups ? 15

16. Outcome of the story ?
How many
Agile / Kanban
topics
identified in
14 minutes
from 100
participants ?
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17. Outcome: 144 Agile topics identified
Simple: 14 minutes spend for a question
Subtle for 100 participants
Power of Liberating Structure
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18. Simple, Subtle, Powerful
Engagement Tool for
Meeting Facilitation
Liberating Structures
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19. 33+ Liberating Structures
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20. Liberating Structures: Resources
Book from Henri
Mobile App
www.liberatingstructures.com
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21. Liberating Structures: co-creators
Keith McCandless
www.liberatingstructures.com
Henri Lipmanowicz
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22. Keynote from Henri, co – developer of Liberating Structures
“Welcome to the world of Liberating Structures! I could make many
promises to you about what will happen when you start using LS, both for
you and for the people you will include, but I will instead invite you to find
out by yourself. I can do this because many LS are so simple that you can
jump right in, try them out and experiment without lengthy preparations or
training. Yes it helps to be exposed to them first like you will be today
but remember that exposure is not learning: there is only one way to learn:
PRACTICE! Just like swimming: can’t learn without getting wet! You will not
take too much of a risk experimenting since your outcomes while using LS
will be better than you would have achieved with the “usual routine”.
And your participants will be pleased and grateful. So go ahead
immediately after this first experience and JUST DO IT!
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23. Keynote from Henri, co – developer of Liberating Structures
If at all possible do all you can to find a partner (or more than one)
with whom to practice using LS: it is effective, much more fun and
it will greatly accelerate learning as you debrief and prepare
together.
Share and show LS to as many people around you as you can. Not
just Agile but anybody. This will develop your practice and create
many more opportunities for you to learn as others will share their
experiences with you. Your influence will grow while you help
build a community that will nourish you and support you.
Use the LS selection matrix and its list of objectives to look around
you for daily opportunities to use LS with some of the people
around you. You can be sure opportunities are there. 23

24. Keynote from Henri, co – developer of Liberating Structures
Work with people who are curious, interested in doing
something different and attracted to what LS can offer. In
other words go where the positive energy is and don’t waste
your time trying to convince people who are resisting, arguing,
etc.. Offer the use of LS, explain why, the likely outcomes and the
benefits and if people accept it great, do it with them. Remind
people that it is an invitation and if they give you a hard time, let
it go, quickly!
OK that is enough, probably already too much.
Except for one last thing: make sure you have fun. Hard work is
OK but no joy, no satisfaction is a sure sign that something is
wrong. Time out and debrief: What? So what? Now what?
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25. Keynote from Henri, co – developer of Liberating Structures
One more last thing: remember that, whenever you are
thinking or trying to deal with a challenge, you and your
brain make a group, a group of two: you are in conversation
with your brain. Many of the questions that are embedded in
LS can help/guide your dialogue (What’s my 15%? If I were
10 times bolder what would I do? What’s my deeper purpose
here? Why? Why? Why is this important? etc..). Also many of
the structural sequences of questions can help you organize
and progress your thoughts (What, so what, now what? TRIZ;
Ecocycle; DAD; etc..). Using bits and pieces of LS for yourself
is a great way to practice, learn and benefit personally from
LS.
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26. Keynote from Henri, co – developer of Liberating Structures
OK that is enough last things!
I wish you all a wonderful time with Cipson and a happy
Liberating Structures journey"
Henri
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27. Meetings
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28. With Liberating Structures
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29. Attributes Liberating Structures
1. Expert-less
2. Results-focused
3. Rapid cycling
4. Seriously fun
5. Inclusive
6. Multi-scale
7. Self-spreading
8. Modular
More details at www.liberatingstructures.com
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30. Principles of Liberating Structures
1. Include and Unleash Everyone
2. Practice Deep Respect for People and Local Solutions
3. Build Trust As You Go
4. Learn by Failing Forward
5. Practice Self-Discovery Within a Group
6. Amplify Freedom AND Responsibility
7. Emphasize Possibilities: Believe Before You See
8. Invite Creative Destruction To Enable Innovation
9. Engage In Seriously-Playful Curiosity
10.Never Start Without a Clear Purpose
More details at www.liberatingstructures.com
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31. Micro-organizing Design Elements
1. Make an invitation
2. Distribute participation
3. Configure groups
4. Arrange Space
5. Sequence and Allocate Time
More details at www.liberatingstructures.com 31

32. Impromptu Networking
What big challenge do you bring to this gathering?
What do you hope to get from and give this group
or community?”
More details at www.liberatingstructures.com 32

33. Impromptu Networking
Rapidly Share Challenges and Expectations,
Build New Connections
More details at www.liberatingstructures.com 33

34. TRIZ
1. Make a list of all that
your Scrum Team could do to make sure
that your Scrum Team fails to deliver
at the end of the Sprint ?
More details at www.liberatingstructures.com 34

35. TRIZ
2. Go down this list item by item and ask yourselves,
‘Is there anything that we are currently doing that in
any way, shape, or form resembles from your list ?’
Be brutally honest to make a second list of all your
counterproductive activities/programs/procedures.
More details at www.liberatingstructures.com 35

36. TRIZ
3. Go through the items on your second
list and decide the steps that will help you
stop what you know to create undesirable
results
More details at www.liberatingstructures.com 36

37. TRIZ
Stop Counterproductive Activities and
Behavior to Make Space for Innovation
More details at www.liberatingstructures.com 37

38. 1-2-4-ALL
We experienced along with TRIZ
More details at www.liberatingstructures.com 38

39. TROKIA COUNSULTING
More details at www.liberatingstructures.com 39

40. UX Fishbowl
Share Know-How Gained from Experience
with a Larger Community
More details at www.liberatingstructures.com 40

41. TROKIA COUNSULTING
Get Practical and Imaginative Help from Others Immedi
More details at www.liberatingstructures.com 41

42. Thank you
Deepu
KeithHenri
Johanees
Viswa
Lopa
Anja
Binny
Agilist Tribe – My friend’s
community of Agile Coaches
Kerala Agile, Kanban, LS Kerala
Meetup Group
Rajeev
FAYA:80
To all present here online and offline
Many more
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43. Join in Agile Kanban LS WhatsApp Group
Thank you
Cipson Thomas CSM, CSP, PSM I, KMP, (AKT)
Agile Coach and Consultant
Agile and Kanban Expert
www.linkedin.com/in/cipson
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