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:

November 12, 2025 | 6:00-7:30 PM ET

Beyond Drawing Together

The Liberating Structures activity called Drawing Together introduces five simple shapes and invites participants to use them symbolically. But what ELSE can you do with simple shapes that builds trust, encourages new ideas, invites feedback, and facilitates decision making? In this engaging and participatory workshop, Brian will take us through quick, easy, and impactful activities based on Drawing Together that energize, ideate, refine, plan, and foster collaboration. No drawing skills required. But you WILL be making marks on paper. So bring some paper and your favorite marker.

Guest facilitator:

Brian Tarallo is a visual facilitator. He works in the federal and state government, defense, education, engineering, and healthcare industries. He was the first person to receive a Master Certified Visual Practitioner accreditation. He is an IAF Master Certified Professional Facilitator and an INIFAC Certified Master Facilitator. Brian is the author of the #1 Amazon bestseller, Surviving the Horror of Online Meetings. In 2023, Brian was awarded an IAF Facilitation Impact Award.

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

Super Speedy Strategic Planning

What if you could facilitate a meaningful strategic planning session in just 90 minutes? In this hands-on workshop, we’ll test-drive a rapid-fire sequence of Liberating Structures to tackle key elements of organizational strategy: visioning, goal-setting, identifying gaps, and charting a path forward. We'll treat ourselves as an organization to experience the process firsthand—then debrief on how to adapt it for real teams with limited time or budget. Ideal for facilitators and LS practitioners looking to make strategic planning faster, more participatory, and more accessible.

Guest Facilitator:

Nami Ishihara is an IAF Certified™ Professional Facilitator and Liberating Structures enthusiast who cares about creating opportunities for meaningful conversations and drawing out the wisdom of the group. She facilitates group processes for team development, with the philosophy that happy teams make successful teams, not the other way around. As an IAF Certified™ Professional Facilitator, Nami has facilitated impactful retreats and workshops for various international development agencies and NGOs, including UNICEF Indonesia, UN Resident Coordinator’s Office Indonesia, and African Development Bank. She has lived in the U.S., Japan, UK, Laos, and is currently based in Jakarta, Indonesia. She misses her friends in the U.S. and looks forward to meeting the LS group.

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.