Liberate. Learn. Replicate.
To liberate means to release (someone) from a state or situation that limits freedom of thought or behavior. Liberation at work means freedom from traditional controlling, boring, and limiting methods that keep ideas boxed in instead of unleashed.
Your goal as a leader is to set the team free from imposed, controlling structures and spaces to promote emergence.
Emergence
Emergence is a property that happens when you combine multiple parts or elements, meaning the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. Something new and different emerges because of the behavior of the whole system. As a leader, you need the skills to facilitate emergence of ideas and creativity when you bring a team of people together.
You need emergence to create the extraordinary, rather than the ordinary. You need methods that help you create the space for the best ideas to come forth, and always ask, "what has the potential to emerge today?"
I help you develop the skills to create and use liberating structures to create the space for that emergence.
What are liberating structures?
Structures are a set of rules that specify how people are included and participate. You use them all the time with agendas, meeting minutes, daily huddle meetings, etc. Liberating structures are a set of simple rules that make it easy to include and unleash everyone in shaping the future. Their design, by default gives a voice to more people, and invokes emergent creativity.
The good news? They are easy to design and produce amazing results with minimum effort on your part. All you need is the facilitation skills to let go of traditional meeting structures that hinder emergence, adding in the simple structures that unleash creativity and ideas.
What do they do?
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Distribute control so the highest potential can be released
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Generate real solutions quickly, in as short a time frame as 10 or 20 minutes
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Help teams experience ownership (vs being told they have it or don't have it), make decisions and embed the process into their everyday teaming behaviors
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Create a new language and conversation for working together
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Scale perfectly for large or small projects, and large or small teams
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Let something new emerge that otherwise would not for the sake of something important
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Create a new team standard for interaction, engagement and participation
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Unleash team talents that are hidden because jobs don't necessarily invoke them
How do they work?
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Frame the topic and goal.
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Create the invitation to engage.
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Use liberating spaces and materials.
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Configure groups for maximum participation.
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Guide the sequence and timeframes to get to results.
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Capture the learning and plan for the next application.
Keys to Success:
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The words you choose
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The focus you suggest
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The physical spaces and tools that you offer
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The emotional space that you cultivate
What will emerge for you?