What Does This Make Possible?
In Options Place, participants propose and lead their own breakout sessions without following a preset agenda. This unleashes people's creativity and invites them to attend sessions that match their interests. When given the freedom to shape the agenda, participants become more engaged and take greater ownership of solutions, which leads to greater commitment, action, innovation, and follow-through. In this way, Options Place brings to life LS Principle #6, Amplify Freedom and Responsibility. This structure works well for large groups.
Structural Elements — Min Specs
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Structuring Invitation
"What burning questions or key topics do you want to explore within our theme? Let's build an agenda together."
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Space and Materials
An open wall with a large blank agenda, called a Breakout Board. Chairs arranged in small groups around the room, one station per session in each round. Sticky notes and flip charts for each station. Microphones for a large group. [Breakout rooms for each session; visual collaboration space with digital sticky notes.] Estimate that three in ten participants will post a session. Include enough slots to accommodate one to three rounds of concurrent sessions, estimating fifteen minutes per session with two-minute transitions in between.
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Participation Distribution
Roles include host [tech host], session leaders, and participants. Minimum group size is ten. Everyone is invited and has an equal opportunity to contribute.
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Group Configuration
Small groups, whole group. When people work alone, in small groups, or as a whole group, plus breakout-room logistics for online meetings. In F2F gatherings, hosts may join small groups. In online meetings, we assume hosts and tech hosts stay in the main room and do not join breakouts.
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Steps and Time Allocation
- ► Intro: Share the structuring invitation. Establish a purpose, theme, or shared challenge for the meeting. (1 min.)
- ► Create the Agenda: Participants create an agenda for X rounds of sessions that are Y minutes long. To propose a session, they write the session title and their name on a sticky note and place it on the Breakout Board. [Online: participants add digital sticky notes to the shared agenda board.] (5–20 min.)
- ► Individual Agendas: Participants choose which sessions to attend, following Simple Rule 1: "Go to where you are learning or contributing. If you find yourself in a session where you are not learning or contributing, go somewhere else!" Session leaders prepare their stations by writing the name of their session, their name, and the LS they will use on a flipchart. Encourage everyone to jot down important notes, next steps, and key recommendations or actions during the sessions. (5 min.)
- ► Attend Sessions: Participants move to their first session. Signal when it is time to move to the next session. [Online: send a broadcast message to change sessions.] (One to three sessions of ~15 min. each; 32–50 min. total)
- ► All-Together Sharing: Everyone returns to plenary. A few participants debrief on the structure and share notes and next steps from the sessions. [Online: use the chat or a shared document to summarize findings.] (10 min.)
Tips & Pitfalls
- A compelling theme is a key requirement for Options Place. Without one, the agenda becomes too diffuse.
- To sharpen the topics proposed, invite participants to reflect individually on topics before they start adding to the Breakout Board.
- If there are challenges with overlapping agendas, encourage participants to resolve them before the agenda is complete.
- Don't rush to consolidate—often sessions that sound the same are not.
- Session leaders prepare their stations by writing the name of their session, their name, and the LS they will use on a flipchart.
Riffs & Variations
- Reopen the Breakout Board for a second round or schedule longer rounds for deeper work.
- For small groups, try the "Lean Coffee" method: cover multiple topics all together in fast-paced, seven-to-ten-minute sessions.
Practical Applications
- Options Place can help plan any type of meeting where participants bring their own expertise and the agenda is not preset.
- After a merger, bring together all employees of both companies to shape next steps and take action together.
- Share prototypes among widely distributed teams.
- Build collaborative agendas across departments or disciplines.
Online & Hybrid Facilitation
Options Place works online with no major adjustments. Allow participants to choose their own breakout rooms. If self-selection isn't an option, a tech host can manually assign participants. Use a shared digital collaboration space — such as Miro or MURAL — for building the agenda. Some platforms allow people to self-select breakout rooms, which reinforces the "Go to where you are learning" rule. Send a broadcast message when it is time to change sessions.
Combine with Other Structures
Sources & License
Options Place designed to fit in the Liberating Structures repertoire by Nancy White and Keith McCandless. Dig deeper by exploring Open Space Technology created by Harrison Owen, and Lean Coffee: https://leancoffee.org/ by Jim Benson and Jeremy Lightsmith.
Based on the work of Keith McCandless and Nancy White, The Liberating Structures Fieldbook (2026), CC BY-SA 4.0.
