Aug 10, 2021
We have two guests joining our host Nikki Wilson in this
episode: Steve Yorkstone, talking about IAF Scotland and Ewen Le
Borgne, who talks about process literacy with Liberating
Structures.
Steve Yorkstone, tells us about how he got involved with the IAF
and how he's ended up running the IAF Scotland chapter.
Since he's taken the baton, Steve has set up a website for the
chapter, where people can sign up to the mailing list and receive
updates about what's going on.
https://www.iaf-scotland.org/
Steve and some of the other members of the chapter are coming up
with many ideas about how to develop the chapter.Steve works in a
university, facilitating as part of his job in process improvement,
and so he's keen to hear from people who use facilitation in all
sorts of ways.
A retreat in the Scottish Highlands (or a castle in Spain!) for
people to take the time to focus on what facilitation is and how to
learn from each other, is one of Steve's ideas. Meanwhile, he's
hoping to bring people together in Edinburgh.
Of course, you don't have to be based in Scotland to get involved
with the chapter!
LINKS:
Twitter @IafScotland
Or email: chair@iaf-scotland.org
https://www.iaf-scotland.org/
https://www.meetup.com/Scotland-facilitators-and-friends/
Starting at 05.39, Nikki introduces someone who got in touch with the podcast team: Ewen Le Borgne (by the way, we love hearing from you podcast@iaf-englandwales.org)
While facilitation constitutes a lot of his work, Ewen doesn’t
consider himself a facilitator. He has a Knowledge Management and
Communication background, helping people think about how they can
use their information and combine it with others. As this
involves a lot of collaboration, behaviour change and
relationships, facilitation plays a part.
Ewen first experienced Liberating Structures as part of a
Community of Practice called Knowledge Management for Development,
but his first proper experience was a few years later.
Working at a research centre for Agricultural Issues in Developing
Countries he and a colleague arranged an Agricultural Process
Knowledge Share Fair; They invited one of the pioneers of
Liberating Structures to co-design and facilitate the event which
allowed him to go in at the deep end with Liberating
Structures. It has since become an increasing part of his
work.
Ewen goes on to explain what Liberating Structures are.
The terms and language can be confusing but people usually
experience them first as a toolbox of facilitation formats. Some
have been developed by the co-creators of Liberating Structures.
Others are borrowed from other sources but have been broken down
across 5 micro design elements present in all Liberating
Structures.
More than this, he sees them as a pattern library; for helping
groups collaborate and allow them to do something magical
together. They’ve been developed from complexity theory and
they’re particularly apt for complex environments.
Nikki asks how Ewen’s use of Liberating Structures has evolved
and become more of a part of his work. This has been quite
gradual. In the “Share Fair” Ewen interested in how Fisher Qua had
been able to use the Liberating Structures in different
combinations to create results.. As he began to use them, he moved
more into thinking about the language and logic and the lenses
within them, such as looking at things in a dynamic way, or
recognising that whatever you are doing that’s not adding value
needs to be removed to make way for things that do add value.
He realised that Liberating Structures is about getting deep,
fast and as they’re easy to use - they don’t need a lot of
facilitation experience. Liberating Structures is an open
source movement so one can make a business out of it as long as the
creators are credited.
He never used purely Liberating Structures but began planting
them into his process design and then he got an opportunity to be a
trainer on an Immersion Workshop which took his involvement to
another level.
Nikki asks Ewen about his observations in the Immersion
Workshop of others experiencing Liberating Structures for the first
time. It confirmed for him that others could see the depth
and complexity quickly. He also observed that despite
seeming “harmless” in fact you are confronting the group with deep
questions that are sometimes uncomfortable.
He began to see the impact of some of the design
choices. For example the high pace of Liberating Structures
is to encourage “quick draft”, agile thinking. If the
structure hasn’t given enough the first time, then it’s repeated
rather than extending the time as repetition is seen as another
form of change.
He noticed that when workshop participants began to consider
their own contexts they could see lots of applications, including
in personal life.
Nikki asks how using Liberating Structures has changed the way
Ewen views the facilitator’s role. He sees them as a way of giving
a role to everyone. While he sees the value of a central
facilitator in complex environments, the long game is not to have
an external facilitator, but to allow people to find solutions for
themselves.
He works a lot around "process literacy", giving people some
tools to be able to harness the power of the process and connect
their energy to that of others. He considers Liberating
Structures to be “process literacy in a box” allowing everyone to
be part of the solution and also be a facilitator. If a whole
group is familiar with Liberating Structures he sees that they can
create their own collaboration processes without the need for an
external facilitator.
He then describes the opportunity to “string”, “nest” and
“merge” Liberating Structures which means that while the
repertoire is quite small, the possibilities are
endless.
Ewen has been exploring some of the lesser used Liberating
Structures and would like to contribute more to the global LS
community on Slack. He’d like to use Liberating Structures in
France, his home country where he hasn’t worked very much. He
sees there’s potential as the national culture is not collaborative
and he feels that Liberating Structures is a natural repertoire to
encourage it, particularly as one of the creators is French.
He’s also working with established partners on Immersion
Workshops, and they’ve decided they will begin to offer both a
standardised workshop and some more creative immersion experiences.
He’s also thinking about how to use the “Critical Uncertainties”
structure to look at his consultancy business.
Nikki asks for Ewen’s suggestions on how listeners can get a
taster. Ewen suggests https://www.liberatingstructures.com
as a good starting point, and he knows that there is an
established community in the UK that listeners could contact and
give them a try. He suggests reading and trying structures,
starting with something like 1-2-4-All
or Troika
Consulting. As with a lot of facilitation it’s about
giving it a try with a playful, curious and open mind.
You can also use the LS community on Slack. http://bit.ly/lscommunityslack
You can also use the LS community on Slack. http://bit.ly/lscommunityslack
(Let them know you heard about it here!)
And of course, you can get in touch with Ewen through:
And of course, you can get in touch with Ewen through:
You can find Nikki on Twitter: @NiksClicks
Get in touch with us: podcast@iaf-englandwales.org
Get in touch with us: podcast@iaf-englandwales.org
Twitter @Fac_Stories
www.facilitationstories.com
www.facilitationstories.com