Liberating Structures (LS) are a set of interaction forms that provide minimal structure to avoid chaos and time-pressure and liberates creativity and enables everybody to be heard. These interactions are used in workshops, meetings, and 1-on-1 conversations. As the design group of the Dutch Liberating Structures Immersion workshop, we are more than convinced about the power of LS. After years of experience in having applied LS in physical gatherings, we were curious if LS would withstand the virtual and online setting. That is why we had decided to host two webinars on the 16th of January. We have facilitated this webinar using Zoom software.

in a series of blogs we will share our experience as facilitators, as techies, and as participants. We will also share our tips and tricks to make it easier for you to us LS in a virtual environment as well. In a one hour webinar, we used Impromptu Networking, Troika COnsulting, and 1-2-4-ALL.

Part 1-4

Impromptu Networking

The purpose of Impromptu Networking is to make new connections and to share challenges and expectations in a limited timeframe. Participants receive an invitation and in pairs, they answer that question within 2 minutes. after the two minutes, they make new pairs and answer the same question. and finally, they change for the last time and create new pairs to answer the same question within the same time frame. As a facilitator, you ask the participants about any patterns or insights they have gained in these three rounds. in a non-digital environment, participants walk and find another person to talk to, stand close to each other and you mentally close yourself from the environment. In a room of 100 participants, you are so focused on your own conversation, that you block all other conversations in the room. in a digital environemnt, this would be very difficult to to. that is why we used the breakout room-functionality of Zoom. participants were randomsent to break