Unleashing Innovation in Montana:

The Surprising Power of Liberating Structures

September 19th, 9:30am - 4:30pm & September 20th, 9:30am - 4:30pm

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Prepare to be surprised.

Unwittingly, the conventional structures used to organize how people routinely work together stifle inclusion, engagement, and risk-taking while boosting resistance to change. Conventional structures for meeting and planning are either too inhibiting (presentations, status reports and managed discussions) or too loose and disorganized (open discussions and brainstorms) to creatively engage people in shaping their own future. They frequently generate feelings of frustration and/or exclusion and fail to provide space for innovation and good ideas to emerge and germinate. This means that huge amounts of time and money are spent working the wrong way. More time and money are then spent trying to fix the unintended consequences.

Want a way out?

Making waves around the world and in Montana, Liberating Structures (LS) productively and playfully disrupt the conventional patterns in how we work together. A repertoire of 33+ simple methods change dramatically the way results are generated without expensive investments, complicated training or shifts in formal structure. Inspired by insights from complexity science and innovation methods, LS shift group interactions towards more purposeful engagement, creativity and innovation in simple but very powerful ways.

Are you starting up an organization or restarting a group that has stalled or plateaued? Avoid the perennial problems of disengaged colleagues, dysfunctional groups, and wasted ideas faced by so many organizations. Do you want to work at the top of your intelligence and give the same opportunity to others on your teams and in your communities? Liberating Structures can help make it happen.

In this workshop, you will work side by side professionals and community members from throughout Montana to learn and practice LS with support from facilitator, Keith McCandless, author and co-founder of Liberating Structures! LS are a set of methods from which individuals and groups can choose what suits them and the challenges at hand. We invite you to bring the current challenges facing you and your organization and/or community to this workshop and get hands-on practice in applying LS to address your needs.

Join us for two days of exciting learning as you immediately apply seriously playful methods to liberate yourself from deadly boring meetings, someone else’s best practices, wondering why people don’t speak up, group processes that feel like drudgery, and great ideas that never leave the drawing board. It’s time for a new way of working together, wouldn’t you agree? Tap into the surprising impacts of applying liberating structures in your organizations and communities!

Liberating Structures have supported change efforts and new initiatives in numerous sectors, including: NASA, the World Bank, the United Nations, Fortune 500 companies, state government, higher education, the military, youth programs, software companies, nonprofits, and healthcare systems (including safety and infection prevention in Montana hospitals).

Registration Options: Day 1, 2 or Both

This workshop has been organized into two days: September 19th, 9:30am - 4:00pm and September 20th, 9:30am - 4:30pm. Participants can register for one, or both days (Options will appear in the payment section of this site; select either date in the initial drop down to access payment options for one or both days). Each day will feature the use of Liberating Structures, with the second day, diving deeper into the applied use of LS in your own companies, groups and/or communities.

Group Discount! If three or more people register from the same organization, you will each recieve a 10% discount on your registration fee (use discount code GroupDiscount17 at checkout).

By the conclusion of the event, we believe you will:

• Feel ready to use numerous Liberating Structures in everyday settings or interactions
• Be prepared to string together multiple structures to achieve a specific purpose with a group
• Have formed a set of loose connections with other practitioners who you can turn to for help & advice as you get started with using LS
• Have practiced applying LS to your own organization’s/community’s challenges

Read on for more about each day:

Day 1: September 19
Reaching In: Liberating Creative Adaptability in Everyday Group Interactions

In this practical session, we will cover “how to” liberate creative adaptability in everyday meetings and interactions. This includes: making the purpose of your meetings clear; increasing the velocity and productivity of group interactions of any size; eliminating counter-productive behaviors to make space for innovation; including and unleashing every voice in shaping next steps; and, designing meetings that address specific needs such as problem solving, coordinating across functions, launching innovations, and strategy-making. You will have the opportunity to learn and practice numerous Liberating Structures for different contexts and purposes.

Day 2: September 20
Reaching Out: Shaping Next Steps and Innovating Together with Your Constituents/Customers

Our world is increasingly complex, interdependent, and culturally diverse. The most pressing challenges we face cut across geographic, cultural, and technical boundaries. Reaching out and working together productively with difference is central to making progress. Through the use of Liberating Structures, you will learn how to practically include and unleash everyone—particularly end users of your services—in safely taking bigger risks.

This part of the workshop will reach beyond conventional surveys and focus groups to build skills in: observing and recording actual behaviors of users in the field; prototyping solutions in rapid iterations; engaging everybody in noticing opportunities for positive action; practicing neglected forms of listening and helping at-the-feet of your constituents; advancing and designing action-research projects with developmental goals and evaluation. Mastery of reaching out is simply a matter of practice.

MORE ABOUT LS!

Wondering what can be liberated in your work?
Check out “how to” and what has been made possible in these domains:

Government (helping a Montana Senator pass legislation)

Education (liberating self-authorship and engagement in the classroom)

Business (turning around the performance of a business in Venezuela)

Healthcare (stopping the spread of superbugs via front line ownership in Canada)

Restorative Justice (spurring a movement in communities across Colorado)

Sustainable Development (United Nations ILO coordinating labor initiatives)

Software (helping a global software unit manage distributed operations)

National Leadership Campaign (sparking local action with nurses across 50 states)

The Board Room (improving investment board decision-making for start-ups)

Military (liberating how after action reviews are organized)

Nurse Training (helping young nurses learn and speak to power)

Individual Transformations (advancing a manager’s career and skill set)

Primary Care (stopping counterproductive behaviors in primary care in Boston)

Child Welfare (developing collaborative leaders in the courts & child welfare)

Hear What Others Are Saying About Liberating Structures!

“Billings Clinic has been using many Liberating Structures for a decade. The engagement and emergence of new and stronger teams that include staff, leaders, physicians and nurses has helped us to improve patient experience and safety while reducing costs in an extremely complex healthcare environment. Highly recommended.”

-Nicholas Wolter MD, CEO, Billings Clinic

“There are those rare but delicious moments when you stumble across a resource that transforms everything. Liberating Structures have provided a delightfully rich repertoire of methods that live up to their bold name—liberating participants to engage, collaborate and reach into their collective wisdom to address their concerns and goals. And not just for my practice, but increasingly as fruitful tools for managers and staff across the Yukon Government organization.”

-Barrett W. Horne, OD Consultant with the Yukon Government, Canada

“This book [Liberating Structures] is so needed and so useful. The authors understand that the world is changed through small, elegant shifts in the protocols of how we meet, plan, conference, and relate to each other. The genius of this book is how it puts in the hands of every leader and every citizen the facilitative power that was once reserved for the trained expert. This will be a required text for all programs on leadership and change. “

-Peter Block, Bestselling author of Flawless Consulting, Stewardship, and Community: The Structure of Belonging

“Liberating Structures offer elegant approaches to get the most out of every discussion, meeting or workshop. Our NGO uses them internally and with our partners around the world. From Tanzania to NYC, from St. Lucia to Liberia, I have been amazed watching Liberating Structures unleash the potential of each gathering.”

-Sean Southey, Executive Director, PCI Media Impact

“A treasure trove of simple, practical methods to stimulate critical conversations and liberate the full potential of any group, from the frontline to the C-suite.”

-Cheryl M Scott, Global Programs Senior Advisor, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation

“Liberating Structures will forever change the way we look at collaboration, learning and leadership by showing us how structures are critical in the world of work. Simply put, this book is for every leader who wants innovative but proven methods to transform his or her organization and engage its members in that journey of discovery.”

-Pat Witherspoon, Dean, College of Liberal Arts, University of Texas at El Paso

“As a Wall Street Journal columnist covering executive leadership, I discovered Lipmanowicz and McCandless in the early days of their work with Liberating Structures. Today, as an entrepreneur in a complex industry, I use those practices routinely. Any group, anywhere is inherently poised for rapid transformation. Liberating Structures make it simple to turn this potential into reality.”

-Thomas Petzinger Jr., Founder of five life science companies and former Wall Street Journal "Front Lines" columnist

“Liberating Structures have given me not only many powerful new ways for engaging employees and customers; they have also succeeded beyond my imagination in providing endless new approaches to improve productivity and creativity, all in a fun and enjoyable way!”

-Guy Eiferman, President Healthcare Services & Solutions, Merck & Co

“Being able to manage interactions with Liberating Structures helps me be more self-confident and a better leader in the eyes of my team and my customers. Being an early adopter increased my influence in the organization and is one of the reasons I'm now a member of the senior management team. Liberating Structures helped me grow in my career. “

-Vanessa Vertiz, Business Unit Director, Lima, Peru