Workshops that are rounds of 1-2-4-All are high energy and fun. As a generative activity, it's a great way to be inclusive to all input and catch strong signals from a wide-ranging group.

In practice

In a consulting context though, I like to run it early in a day-long workshop to prime participants to work in a time-boxed manner where every single person contributes. It quickly levels the playing field for organizational cultures where a small number of personalities dominate, or there are existing sub-groups that don't usually work together. It also doubles as training the room to follow the facilitator's instructions - the activity is simple, non-threatening and puts content up front and center, all of which quickly builds confidence that it’s worth investing energy participating.

Facilitation notes

Because the convergence is based on a majority vote, weak signals from minority segments or the less articulate will get muted. Also, the quality what's reported back to the room is dependent on the skill of one individual out of the four. If a certain level of quality is required of the activity output, a strong hand at harvesting is needed. If there’s no follow-up activity planned, I’ll typically incorporate harvesting as part of the All section by facilitating with a flip-chart marker in hand, which allows me to orchestrate the share-out and control what's documented.

See instructions

This entry is part of an ongoing series of Field notes from my Liberating Structures practice.

LS under development
- Aug 16, 2020 Tiny monsters
- Aug 13, 2020 Narrative reauthoring
- Aug 12, 2020 Spiral journal
- Aug 9, 2020 Mad Tea Party
Microstructures
- Feb 24, 2021 Helping Heuristics
- Oct 4, 2020 Nine Whys
- Oct 4, 2020 Appreciative interviews
- Sep 24, 2020 Ecocycle planning
- Sep 20, 2020 Celebrity interview
- Aug 22, 2020 25/10 Crowdsourcing
- Aug 22, 2020 Open space technology
- Aug 22, 2020 Wise crowds
- Aug 14, 2020 Wicked questions
- Aug 13, 2020 Heard, seen, respected
- Aug 13, 2020 15% Solution
- Aug 13, 2020 Triz
- Aug 13, 2020 Min specs
- Aug 12, 2020 User experience fishbowl
- Aug 11, 2020 Conversation cafe
- Aug 11, 2020 Troika Consulting
- Aug 11, 2020 Impromptu networking
- Aug 10, 2020 1-2-4-All