Facilitating for Engagement

​Getting people productively involved in solving complex challenges together is both hard AND necessary. This workshop series will explore both the tools that make it practical to engage folks in working together and the planning, design, and preparation necessary to facilitate these kinds of interactions successfully.

​We will use the Liberating Structures (LS) repertoire of methods as our primary sandbox. LS are well-matched to many of the underlying dynamics, conditions, and purposes that makes engaging people difficult and complex work. 

​While we encourage you to join for the full series, we recognize the timing & collision of competing commitments may make that possible for everyone. We will do our best to record every session and provide a brief summary of the previous material, and it is designed to be a cumulative experience. 

​The workshop series is open to anyone and the impetus for it came from some colleagues who work in public planning & engagement processes so many of the participants are likely to be from state governments or work in those kinds of contexts. 

​For background on Liberating Structures, you can visit these links:

• ​LS Purposes

• ​LS Principles

• ​LS History

• ​LS Menu

​Your host for this workshop series will be Fisher Qua. He lives in northern New Mexico and has been practicing with Liberating Structures since 2010 when he was first introduced to them while working for the Washington Health Foundation. Along the way, he has facilitated across a wide variety of contexts and situations and can talk about the various ways that structure supports groups in generating better-than-expected results. You can learn more about him here. 

​In this 10-part learning series, we will dig into the following topics:

1. ​Getting Familiar with Our Tools & Building a Sense of Community

   • ​Liberating Structures Background & Principles

   • ​Some Simple Tools for Engagement

   • ​Debrief & Reflection

2. ​Facilitator Roles & Stances

   • ​Structuring Interactions

   • ​Personal Preferences & Priorities

   • ​Improvising & Staying the Course

3. ​Going Deeper Into the LS Repertoire

   • ​Expanding the Range of Options

   • ​Sequencing & Stringing Tools Together

4. ​Tools for Processing and Making Sense of Things Together

5. ​Tools for Generating & Prioritizing Ideas

6. ​Tools for Giving Input & Feedback Tools || Consulting on Challenges

7. ​Tools for Leading Meetings When You Aren’t Prepared

8. ​Tools for Strategic Planning

9. ​Composing, Designing, Planning, and Preparing to Facilitate

10. ​Exhibition of Nonsense

    • ​Anatomic Time