What Does This Make Possible?
In Simple Ethnography, a team observes its own context to gain deep insights into people's experiences, needs, and pain points. Instead of relying on outside experts, the group learns directly from the people it serves in their local setting, embodying LS Principle #2, Practice Deep Respect for People and Local Solutions. This immersive connection fosters empathy and leads to more meaningful solutions. Understanding actual behavior enables rapid improvements and innovative prototypes, allowing positive change that once seemed impossible.
Structural Elements — Min Specs
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Structuring Invitation
"We are going to immerse ourselves with the people who work close to the challenges in our own settings. Our aim is to learn from their direct experience and discover new approaches to our shared challenge."
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Space and Materials
A convenient space for sharing findings and artifacts. Observation sites can take place in physical and virtual spaces. Provide notebooks, pens, and cameras, or ask participants to bring their own. Copies of the observation guide for each participant.
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Participation Distribution
Roles include host [tech host] and ethnographers. Minimum group size is two. Everyone working on a challenge is included as an ethnographer and has an equal opportunity to contribute.
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Group Configuration
Ethnographers conducting observations alone or in pairs. 1-2-4-All to debrief.
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Steps and Time Allocation
- Intro: Share the structuring invitation and identify the shared challenge. Hand out copies of the observation guide. (15 min.) (15 min.)
- Plan Observations: Participants identify sites and people to observe to learn how people experience the challenge. Encourage participants to secure permission to observe if needed and take measures to ensure safety and confidentiality, without disrupting people's activities. [Participants make their own observations, then turn off their camera and mic.] Before starting observations, review W³ and the Ladder of Inference. The goal is to "stay low on the ladder" by recording facts and observable data only. No interpreting or fixing! (1 min.)
- Site Visits: Participants visit their chosen sites and observe interactions and activities, taking notes and collecting artifacts [as digital files and screenshots]. (10–180 min.)
- Share Artifacts: Participants share artifacts they collected in a shared space. Optionally, they can do this step on their own during a break. (5–10 min.)
- Debrief in Small Groups: In small groups [breakouts], participants review their notes and share patterns and stories, focusing on observable facts rather than interpretations. (15 min.)
- All-Together Sharing: The group identifies W³ and identifies opportunities for follow-up action research, interviews, or small experiments. (10–15 min.)
- Repeat Steps: Repeat the process for additional cycles until powerful insights emerge that could lead to a prototype. (40–60 min. per cycle)
Tips & Pitfalls
- Encourage participants to go where conditions are rough. A good observation site is one where problems are extreme, solutions seem impossible, and you can expect to find people getting truly creative.
- Insight often comes from overlooked details. Encourage participants to pay attention to behaviors that are inconspicuous, irregular, intimate, and crude.
- Be prepared to repeat steps if the participants don't feel they have a powerful new approach to prototype at the end of one round.
- Stay low on the Ladder of Inference: record facts, not interpretations. Ask "What did you literally see or hear?" if someone starts interpreting.
- Conduct follow-up ethnography after the group implements its new approach to see what has actually changed.
Riffs & Variations
- Use a storytelling template to structure and personalize observations (e.g., a narrative in which a protagonist leaves their ordinary world, faces trials in an unfamiliar context, and returns transformed with a reward or insight).
- Do more rounds after the group implements its new approach.
- Ask participants to draw or model what they observe — visualizations sometimes reveal what words don't capture.
- Include customers or users recording their own behaviors via video or photos.
Practical Applications
- Help sales reps discover how colleagues are getting better results without additional resources.
- Understand how some clinicians are able to attend to patients' spiritual needs while others are not.
- Understand how to prevent accidents and falls in the workplace or hospital by observing actual behaviors around risk.
- Distinguish effective from ineffective meetings by observing what actually happens in the room.
- Understand how patients cope with isolation protocols and where the friction points are.
Online & Hybrid Facilitation
This structure has not been extensively tested online. It could be valuable in a hybrid setting, with teams starting online, observing in the field, and then debriefing online. Observation sites can include both virtual and physical spaces. Use breakout rooms for small-group debriefs. The host stays in the main room.
Combine with Other Structures
Sources & License
Liberating Structure developed by Henri Lipmanowicz and Keith McCandless.
Based on the work of Keith McCandless and Nancy White, The Liberating Structures Fieldbook (2026), CC BY-SA 4.0.
