I understand this structure to be a workshop-friendly take on Appreciative Inquiry, and often use it as a collective sense-making step early in the process of identifying the change we want to bring forth.

Sidebar: The first time I did something similar was the Stanford Design School’s crash course on Design Thinking about re-designing the gift giving experience. I remember being amazed that one seemingly banal story (about the last time you selected a gift for someone) could open the door to so many ideas, once I started listening with a different kind of ear.

Facilitation notes

Inquiring into first-person accounts of what’s already working quickly highlights weak signals that can be extrapolated into a bigger story. The cross-storytelling generates warm energy in the group dynamics too, as everyone’s contribution is weaved into the conversation and the group recognizes, hey, we’ve got this.

I like to explicitly prompt the interviewer to open the exchange by asking their partner, "Tell me a story about..." The desired effect is to re-inforce a) that it's time to share a story, not ideas or opinions b) the question-and-answer dynamic.

Workshop design notes

Sometimes I’ll ask that the outputs of the interview be expressed as storyboards, so that we’re breaking down the behaviors that make up conditions of success.

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