Design Sprint & Liberating Structures: the story of a mash-up.
Reflections from an exploratory facilitation experiment
At times, being a facilitator is a bit like playing with the Lego, really.
One of the crucial tasks in our hands is to put together spot-on agendas for the team and client, to achieve meaningful outcomes in the most effective and time-saving way possible. This process is all about assembling, deconstructing, switching, shortening, adjusting the selection and sequence of exercises instead of colourful Lego bricks.
While playing, the more bricks you have, the more versatile and adaptable your creations can become. A dragon, a school bus, a family home or a spaceship: you’ve got room to pick and select the exact bricks that fit what you aim for. Same goes for facilitation: the more tools and methods you are comfortable mastering, the easier and faster you’ll be able to shape solid agendas well-fitting your purpose.
So how can you pragmatically broaden and enrich your facilitation Lego set? Be curious. Research and observe the ever-changing needs within your team, test out new activities to respond to those needs and critically evaluate outcomes. And that’s exactly what I tried to do in the following experiment about the story of two different methodologies - Design Sprint & Liberating Structures - encountering one another.
The protagonists: why these two methodologies?
A few months ago, a great colleague of mine happened to mention Liberating Structures as a methodology I could be interested to check out. In a nutshell, Liberating Structures are 33 exercises (structures) that aim to ease and improve the way groups of any size interact and work together. I have to admit: the official website made my excitement drop substantially. I was very close to letting go: it’s not the most user-friendly. However, luckily, I’ve became hooked soon enough while exploring, particularly by the following statement:
I personally found this definition by Keith McCandless & Henri Lipmanowicz - main authors of Liberating Structures - quite ambitious. Lots of question marks started to pop up in my head: what do these ‘microstructures’ look like? How much time do they require? How do they make sure everyone is equally involved?
I let this cloudiness marinate in my mind for few days and thought: why not trying to integrate Liberating Structures in my most frequent facilitation context, such as Design Sprints? After all, the Design Sprint format by Jake Knapp can sound pretty ambitious too and look at the amazing results we keep delivering at Accenture Interactive Amsterdam thanks to that!
Both methodologies look at the future and aim to empower people to envision a better one: there are some fundamental drivers in common. So, can this be an actual match? Can I identify powerful, additional tools that are a good fit and effectively enrich the Design Sprint format?
After reading and documenting as much as possible, I downloaded the Liberating Structures App to have additional support on the fly and I was ready to start!
9 powerful tools to boost your Design Sprint agenda
The Design Sprint format is known to be fast-paced and time saving, so exercises are strictly time-boxed and outcome driven. This approach ensures that results are delivered on time, thanks to the magic that only time pressure can unleash, and it generally avoids those annoying, never-ending discussions that are often not beneficial to the scope at hand. However, during Day 1 and 2 - crucial days to build the direction & foundation of the chosen concept to prototype - I must admit that the process sometimes ended up feeling rushed when using the standard methods. Having room for more strategic valuable discussions, in depth reflection and alignment within the team often lacks. The integration of Liberating Structures into Day 1 and 2 allowed me to reduce this lack and resulted in a team that felt more confident, united and aligned towards the challenge to solve, while still ensuring efficient time management.
I specifically identified 9 additional tools that fit positively within the Design Sprint facilitation context: here are the benefits that I personally noticed and some tips. Try them out in your next Design Sprint agenda variation!
Day 1 — Understand
1, 2, 4, all: this exercise allows a step-by-step build up in conversation by gradually extending the group size, in different rounds. In my experience, it’s a nice warm-up to start deep diving into the subject in scope while letting participants familiarise with the “building on top of each other’s input” technique. Very easy to explain and to put into practice, I see it as a flexible framework that can be used to ease the team in, scratching the surface of problem solving and envisioning initial high level directions. Tip: While the groups are presenting the conclusions, as a facilitator, make sure to capture the key points on post-its and indicate potential emerging overlaps. By consolidating those common principles and thoughts in one place, the team can refer back to them at a later stage and the exercise will feel much more rewarding, a concrete step ahead for everyone.
Nine Whys: pushing participants to go deeper - 9 times to be exact - into the meaning of the challenge at hand: why does this matter to our users? Why is this important to our persona? It questions the core purpose of the problem and prevents the team from floating on the surface and avoid tackling what’s actually key to address. It is an easy exercise to explain, but a little bit harder to put into practice sometimes. In my experience, a potential friction in completing the exercise might mean a red flag for a weak challenge, providing a chance for the team to look back at the direction taken. Tip: depending on the team size, the implementation format can be collaborative - by applying the sequence of the previous method - or individual, for a greater variety of views on the same topic.
Impromptu Networking: very useful at the beginning of the session. This exercise ensures that any participant doubts, concerns, expectations, hopes or thoughts have the chance to be shared before deep-diving into the hot stuff. It gives the team a quick overview of each individual’s starting point and allows others to spot any potential clarification that may be needed before moving forward. Tip: before testing out this specific Liberating Structure, I used to include the same kind of exercise in my agendas by calling it “Hopes and Concerns”. However you prefer to name it, my advice is to indeed include such a ‘check-in’ with the team at the beginning of the session, in order to get started with a solid alignment and realistic expectations. In my experience, it makes it easier for the team to start looking towards the same direction from the very start.
Appreciative Interviews (AI): I used this as a conversation starter to inspire, find analogies and trigger empathy by leveraging storytelling and success. The exercise worked well to enhance participants’ personal connection with the challenge at hand while unlocking new perspectives. Tip: it’s always easier to start with personal stories and experiences before trying to jump into the shoes of our personas and end users. Give it a try, a themed energiser to kick start the session: it will generate a great confidence boost while letting participants get to know each other better!
What, So What, Now What? W³: a very powerful tool in case of a relevant common experience: a previous Design Sprint, workshop, product release etc… Since I found myself multiple times running several Design Sprints with the same client, (check my previous article about Design Sprints and iteration here), this exercise was great to consolidate previous knowledge, distill key insights and transition towards logical and actionable next steps. Tip: the gradual build up of the exercise in three phases can be perceived as repetitive, however, stressing reflection in cycles helps to filter what really matters about the challenge at hand. As a facilitator, be sure to clarify this purpose with participants beforehand, they’ll embrace it with more enthusiasm and an open mind.
Critical Uncertainties: helps uncover all of the elements that are not in the team’s control while aiming to succeed. It encourages participants to face the uncomfortable frictions that assumptions and doubts generate, and helps consolidate awareness and realistic expectations towards the challenge and process. In addition to triggering extremely valuable discussions, this exercise can be used as a bridge for Role Play or as a starting point that enables the team to prioritise any assumptions to be tested on the final day. Tip: keep a a copy of the inspiring questions always visible to participants. It’ll be handy for them to refer back to it while conducting the exercise.
Day 2— Diverge
Min Specs: an effective way to encourage the team - prior to deep diving into ideation rounds, not to forget the challenge statement while thinking out of the box and expressing their sparkling creativity. Any ideation outcome should meet the agreed drivers (must dos, must not dos), so that the team is guided to stress framework and generate a variety of wild, crazy, but relevant ideas. Tip: as a facilitator it is important to state the difference between the criteria leading the voting phase on Day 3, and this ideation guidance exercise. The two might end up overlapping, so it becomes necessary for the facilitator to clearly state the difference and purpose of each set to avoid any confusion from participants.
Wicked questions: by leveraging the paradox concept, this exercise powerfully pushes the team’s way of thinking out of common lines of thought. Further, by enhancing connections beyond participants’ comfort zone, it allows the uncovering of new, hidden angles and directions. Tip: this is the one Liberating Structure that, in my experience, was the most difficult to grasp initially. I suggest trying it out with an advanced, experienced group, as it might be too much for new, fresh Design Sprint joiners.
TRIZ: nice warm up to set the mood for an ideation session, this exercise encourages the team to identify and be open about internal limitations and mistakes in order to let go of the known and embrace the unknown mystery called innovation. By inviting creative destruction, it inspires self-awareness, critical thinking and clears space for new input and directions. Tip: another exercise I like to use to achieve a similar purpose is known as “The Worst Idea”. After testing both, I would say that the only difference is the tone of voice and level of depth they trigger: TRIZ pushes for open and direct uncovering of common mistakes embedded in the operational context at hand, “The Worst Idea” aims to touch upon those on the surface, with humour and a positive boost of energy for the team.
Some limitations to consider
First (overwhelming) impression: while familiarizing with Liberating Structures, I found the content available through the website (the app is a bit better) as unnecessarily complex and overwhelming, therefore discouraging. At times, I personally struggled to understand the specificities of each tool and therefore how to get a pragmatic grip on their purpose at a glance. The language used in the descriptions is complex and the theoretical approach can feel a bit too much to digest while juggling a tight schedule. But don’t give up too soon: what came across as difficult to implement at first, actually resulted in generally easy and powerful tools to apply! Take into account that a bit of reading and understanding before jumping into practice may be needed to ease in, though resources like videos and Meetups could get you up to speed quicker.
Need for critical thinking & customisation: while picking the Liberating Structures that could fit my facilitation context, I sometimes found all the steps mentioned in the standard process as unnecessary or creating frictions with my specific case. Let yourself be inspired, but be critical and don’t be afraid to fit them within your context. Skip steps if you don’t need them, add some if you do need them. Use them at your advantage, see them as a flexible framework that can support your process rather than a fixed, limiting set of constraints.
Group size: A weak point I noticed in my case, is that several Liberating Structures require a wider group of participants than the standard 5–10 Design Sprint team. This is the primary reason why, out of the 33 Structures, I saw only 9 that suited the Design Sprint context. Several Liberating Structures address a bigger crowd and events with several parties involved (i.e. Shift & Share) and this crowd-driven approach doesn’t fully match with the compact, smaller dynamics of Design Sprints. Nevertheless, I encourage you to check out the complete list, as you might be inspired and establish new tools that fit the needs of your team well.
Conclusion
A good facilitator is one who is able to select the most relevant tools for the challenge in question and to anticipate process outcomes.
The only way to solve such Lego challenges, in my opinion, is by learning different methodologies and being open to adjusting them to your team with critical thinking and analysis. In my experience, this results in bespoke and compatible formats that will maximise your results and enhance your team’s performance.
There’s more to explore, test and learn about Liberating Structures, especially when applied to other facilitation contexts, audiences and group sizes. My intention is to increase my experience and hopefully manage to put into practice the full package, to complete the broader picture.
This article is meant to be a snapshot of my current explorations with Liberating Structures after 5 iterations in 5 Design Sprints. So far I identified 9 tools that bring powerful added value to the standard Design Sprint process, by positively impacting the quality of discussions, alignment and collaboration within the team in Day 1 & 2. Try them out in your next Design Sprint agenda variation and let me know your feedback!
But most importantly, Liberating Structures are just one of the methodologies out there. This experiment is a single way to try out new things that could improve the standard processes in a way that benefits YOUR team and client’s outcome.
Take advantage of the set of tools at your disposal and create your own, unique hybrid. Hybrids can be powerful!
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