Liberating Structures are simple practices that enable rich collaboration for everyone in a group — from small teams to large organisations.
New in Fieldbook 2026 10 new
- Mad Tea / Calm TeaIn Mad Tea/Calm Tea, everyone rapidly completes sentences related to a shared challenge. Mad Tea is…
- Positive GossipIn Positive Gossip, participants share positive feedback about each other and the group. This…
- Talking with PixiesIn Talking with Pixies, a participant at a crossroads shares a challenge and hears from "pixies"…
- Principles Walk-AroundIn Principles Walk-Around, small groups form to reflect on the underlying principles of their work…
- Network Relationship PatternsIn Network Relationship Patterns, participants identify how their group describes its work, how it…
- Grief WalkingIn Grief Walking, participants offer or receive social support by sharing a loss or walking with…
- Folding SpectrogramFolding Spectrogram allows a group to visually and physically represent their perspectives on a…
- Spiral JournalIn Spiral Journal, participants reflect calmly on challenges or opportunities by drawing a spiral…
- Strategy Knotworking (SKW)In Strategy Knotworking (SKW), participants answer six questions to develop a strategic initiative…
- Future~PresentIn Future~Present, participants imagine looking back from fifteen to thirty years in the future to…
Classic structures 33 structures
- 1-2-4-AllIn 1-2-4-All, participants first work alone, second in pairs, then in small groups, to generate…
- 15% SolutionsIn 15% Solutions, participants identify small actions they can take right away in response to a…
- 25/10 CrowdsourcingIn 25/10 Crowdsourcing, a group can generate bold ideas and sort them to find the top ten in thirty…
- 9 WhysIn 9 Whys, participants ask each other guided questions to dig deep into their purposes and uncover…
- Conversation CaféIn Conversation Café, small groups engage in productive dialogue using a simple set of agreements…
- Creative Destruction (TRIZ)In Creative Destruction, groups imagine how to achieve the worst possible results. By asking "What…
- Wise CrowdsIn Wise Crowds, a "client" receives immediate help from "consultants." This structure engages…
- Ecocycle PlanningIn Ecocycle Planning, a group creates a shared Ecocycle to tell the story of their portfolio of…
- Simple EthnographyIn Simple Ethnography, a team observes its own context to gain deep insights into people's…
- Options PlaceIn Options Place, participants propose and lead their own breakout sessions without following a…
- User Experience FishbowlIn User Experience Fishbowl, a small group of people who have made progress on a shared challenge…
- Heard, Seen, Respected (HSR)In HSR, participants share and listen to each other's stories of feeling unheard, unseen, and…
- Generative Relationships STARIn Generative Relationships STAR, participants assess their team's attributes using a STAR Compass…
- Integrated~AutonomyIn Integrated~Autonomy, participants look for opportunities to boost central integration with local…
- Helping HeuristicsIn Helping Heuristics, small groups practice different ways of asking for, giving, and receiving…
- Impromptu NetworkingIn Impromptu Networking, participants connect briefly with several others in pairs to talk about…
- Improv PrototypingIn Improv Prototyping, participants respond to a challenge by acting out possible solutions. This…
- Celebrity InterviewIn Celebrity Interview, a host interviews a leader or expert about a shared challenge, and the…
- Critical UncertaintiesIn Critical Uncertainties, groups develop strategies for handling factors that are impossible to…
- Min SpecsIn Min Specs, participants generate a list of all potential dos and don'ts for achieving a purpose…
- Discovery & Action Dialogue (DAD)DAD makes it easy for a group to discover better practices that only a few members are using to…
- Design StoryboardsIn Design Storyboards, a group reinvents its meetings by selecting a set of Liberating Structures…
- Agreement and CertaintyIn Agreement and Certainty, participants sort problems into four categories—simple, complicated…
- PanarchyIn Panarchy, groups identify opportunities and obstacles for spreading ideas at multiple levels of…
- Drawing TogetherIn Drawing Together, participants use five simple symbols with universal meanings to share their…
- Shift & ShareIn Shift & Share, a few people set up stations to share an idea or innovation. Small groups of…
- Social Network WebbingSocial Network Webbing is a structure for mapping relationships from a core working group to…
- Troika ConsultingIn Troika Consulting, participants ask for help and get advice from two others in three rounds of…
- Purpose-to-Practice (P2P)In P2P, participants collectively define the five essential elements of their work together…
- Appreciative InterviewsIn Appreciative Interviews, participants tell each other stories about how they successfully faced…
- What I Need from You (WINFY)In WINFY, participants from different functional groups directly express what they need from each…
- What, So What, Now What? (W3)Instead of altering our beliefs to fit new information, we often force information to fit our…
- Wicked QuestionsIn Wicked Questions, participants ask, "How is it that we are doing two things in tension with each…
Learn this in practice
Practice Liberating Structures with others: in the Online Fieldbook series (Nov–Dec 2026), the Immersion in Brussels, or tailored for your team.