Monthly Community of Practice for Facilitators

About Liberating Structures

We're the Liberating Structures community of practice in the Washington, DC area, which also includes Virginia and Maryland. However, in an online world, we're open to anyone in the world. Liberating Structures are easy-to-learn facilitation microstructures that enhance coordination and trust in groups and quickly foster lively participation. We meet monthly to learn new techniques, try them out, and experiment with new ideas around group facilitation.

• Most events are free to attend. You don't need to have experience in facilitation or using Liberating Structures. And you don't need to be in the Washington, DC area.
• This practice group is hands on, uses active learning, and is designed to be appropriate for beginners and veterans.
• Don't worry if you're new or don't know anyone in the group yet -- you will :-) Friends and colleagues are welcome.

Monthly Meet-ups

We generally meet on the second Wednesday evening of the month.

Upcoming dates:

December 10, 2025 | 6:00-7:30 PM ET

Super Speedy Strategic Planning

What if we could create a meaningful strategic plan in just 90 minutes? In this last workshop of 2025, we’ll experiment with a sequence of Liberating Structures to tackle strategic planning in a way that embraces emergence rather than analysis, uncertainty rather than clarity, and participation of all rather than a select few. For an imaginary Santa Arctic Company, we’ll co-create a strategic direction that uncovers deeper purpose, highlights productive tension, and prepares for uncertainty ahead. Let’s experiment together and experience how this approach might lead to a very different kind of strategic plan than conventional methods, and how you might apply the process to your organization.

Guest Facilitator:

Nami Ishihara s a IAF (International Association of Facilitators) Certified™ Professional Facilitator with over twelve years of experience in working with teams and organizations to improve teamwork and effectiveness. Based in Jakarta, Indonesia since 2021, she founded a consulting company and works with other Indonesian facilitators to offer team building and leadership development workshops grounded in participatory practices, including Liberating Structures. She is especially interested in helping cross-cultural and diverse teams navigate differences, make decisions and work better together. Her recent clients include an airplane repair & maintenance company, a UN agency, a nature-based finance company, and a non-profit management board. Before moving to Jakarta, she lived in the DC area for four years, where she met Lee and the facilitation community. She is looking forward to reconnecting with the LS community and facilitating this workshop!

In 2026, we expect to follow the same schedule on the evening of the 2nd Wednesday of each month.

February 4, 2026

Liberating Structures Half-Day Online Training

Join us for a valuable, hands-on, half-day introduction to Liberating Structures. LS is a fresh, practical approach to designing and leading more engaging, inclusive, and productive meetings. We’ll explore what makes LS different from other methods, learn how to use some of the most popular and powerful structures, and practice them together so you leave ready to apply them in your own work. You’ll meet and learn with a great group of peers, whether you’re brand new to facilitation and group convening or already have years of experience and want to expand your toolkit. This session is lighter and less in-depth than our 2-day course, but still packed with active learning and real-world applications. We’ll likely cover 7–10 structures, with examples for in-person and online use. If you’ve dabbled in LS before, it’s also a great way to see and experience the methodology in action in a virtual environment. We'll post more info soon, including pricing and a more formal registration link. For now, you can fill out the interest form here to be alerted when registration opens.

March 23-24, 2026 (tentative)

Liberating Structures 2-Day Group Facilitation Skills Training in Washington, DC

This is a fun, hands-on 2-day training to quickly develop group facilitation and meeting design skills using the powerful techniques from the Liberating Structures methodology. You'll be able to put these facilitation skills and techniques to work immediately in a wide variety of contexts, be it team meetings, community convenings, or large-scale events. Liberating Structures is an easy-to-use set of modern facilitation techniques designed around collaboration, equity, and engagement. Its inclusive nature lets groups actually hear from all voices and breaks down typical organizational constraints to spur true innovation. In addition, the techniques are easy to adapt to your own needs, so you can apply them to almost any situation where people work together. This method is used by professional facilitators, as well as in big tech companies (often in concert with Agile), grassroots organizations, and institutions like the World Bank. This training is experiential and interactive, not lecture-based. We'll post more info soon, including pricing and a more formal registration link. For now, you can fill out the interest form here to be alerted when registration opens.

April 20-21, 2026 (tentative)

Liberating Structures 2-Day Group Facilitation Skills Training in New York City

We'll post more info soon, including pricing and a more formal registration link. For now, you can fill out the interest form here to be alerted when registration opens.

Etiquette and Preparation

• Join us on a laptop or desktop, not devices with small screens, i.e., phones or tablets. It makes the experience better for you and everyone else.
• Arrive before 6:00pm (US Eastern). We'll open the room at 5:55pm. (Check your time zone.)
• Most of our online sessions are run on Zoom. Download and use the Zoom (desktop) app.
• Plan to use your mic and camera. You'll be part of an interactive event, not a passive presentation. Use your computer's audio.
• Have a few pieces of paper and a pen handy.
• Having earphones/buds can reduce ambient sound and improve the experience.

Contact

We're a volunteer community of practice in the Washington, DC area. We send out a newsletter once or twice per month with updates on our future meetings. You can find more information via:

• Our Washington DC Liberating Structures CoP page
• Our LinkedIn group
• Sign up for the newsletter (to be updated for future workshops and trainings)
• Find other groups in other cities
• Find other LS events on the global calendar

The Washington, DC facilitation community is managed by Lee Gimpel, founder of Better Meetings.