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that engaging people in an organization is difficult. First, they are easy to learn. Second, they don’t require charisma or any special skills to use. Third, they spread person-to-person, without formal training, making it possible for everybody to join in shaping next steps. Liberating Structures quickly boost creative adaptability across an organization.
    Without changing people, resources, or macrostructures, each instance of using a Liberating Structure will have an impact by affecting how ideas emerge and are filtered, how choices and decisions are made. The vignettes at the beginning of Chapter 1 are examples of the power of small structural changes and their impact. Many changes will have a small impact, but some will be significant. Cumulatively, their effect will be large because there is an endless number of opportunities every day for using Liberating Structures in every corner of any organization.
    With Liberating Structures, it is possible to change patterns of interactions, decisions, and actions between individuals, then within a team, then across teams, and then across other boundaries. This “liberates” changes that can radiate in all directions: down, sideways, and up ( figure 3.1 ).
    Figure 3.1
    Radiating Change in All Directions
    Principles and Practices
    “Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing themselves.” Tolstoy
    With Liberating Structures, it is possible, and not that difficult, to tap an organization’s collective intelligence and address opportunities and challenges together. This approach to including and unleashing everyone ensures that every individual not only has influence but also the structure to contribute something unique. Our experience with groups using Liberating Structures around the globe confirms that much more can be achieved by inviting those contributions. In fact, key contributions often come from unexpected sources when Liberating Structures are used to create the right conditions.
    From our own experience, and the stories our clients have shared, we have identified ten principles that emerge in organizations when Liberating Structures become part of everyday interactions:
    Include and unleash everyone
Practice deep respect for people and local solutions
Never start without a clear purpose
Build trust as you go
Learn by failing forward
Practice self-discovery within a group
Amplify freedom and responsibility
Emphasize possibilities: believe before you see
Invite creative destruction to make space for innovation
Engage in seriously playful curiosity
    Table 3.1 summarizes the full range of what gradually becomes possible in an organization when Liberating Structures replace or complement conventional microstructures.
    In other words, the principles listed in Table 3.1 become ongoing practices for how to stimulate positive changes and innovation. For example, in every situation where we have been involved, without exception, Liberating Structures made it quickly obvious when a group’s purpose was not clear or shared by all participants. This happened because, as everyone became engaged, confusion and differences that might otherwise have been suppressed came to the surface immediately. A clear, commonly held purpose is rarely seen for the simple reason that all the participants are almost never invited to generate jointly the answer to the question, “What is our purpose for working together now?”
    Table 3.1
    Liberating Structures: Principles and Practices
    What is standard in most organizations is importing best practices or imposing practices from above
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    Working with Liberating Structures has taught us that self-discovery and cocreation are the only reliable way to clarify purpose and ensure that it is both common and meaningful. The idea is to marry Principle #3, “Never start without a clear purpose,” with #1, “Include and unleash everyone, and #6, “Practice self-discovery,” and use appropriate Liberating Structures to make