What one department rewards, another one punishes.
Recognize this situation? Below are the Liberating Structures that change it — a concrete example, and the reason this one fits here. New to Liberating Structures? Here's what it is.
What I Need from You (WINFY) puts conflicting expectations between departments on the table where they can actually be discussed.
For example: Sales gets rewarded for fast commitments to clients. Operations gets rewarded for strictly following the schedule. When sales promises something extra, it collides head-on with exactly what operations is supposed to avoid — both departments are doing precisely what's being asked of them.
Liberating Structures for this situation:
Integrated~Autonomy
Integrated~Autonomy first explicitly surfaces where central control and local freedom contradict each other: participants note activities where they feel that tension, then brainstorm separately about actions that centralize more and actions that give more local room.
Only in a third round does the group look for actions that strengthen both at once. For this situation, that means: not deciding which department is right, but looking for a rule that serves sales' speed and operations' schedule at the same time.
What I Need from You (WINFY)
What I Need from You makes the conflicting expectations themselves discussable: each department formulates a concrete, actionable request to the other — for example, what sales needs from operations to keep its commitments realistic.
The receiving department answers explicitly: yes, no, "huh?" or "whatever." A request-and-answer that direct forces the contradiction between the two reward systems onto the table, instead of staying hidden behind two separate targets.
No certification, no lengthy prep — read the steps and try it at your next meeting.
Keep exploring
Browse the full list of 43 structures, or get support if this situation is too complex to facilitate yourself.