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Henri’s Meeting Macrostructure

Simple habits to operate your way into greater familiarity with the Liberating Structures repertoire

“Repetition is a form of change” - Brian Eno

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Daily (5-15 mins)

Purpose: To review workflow & options, coordinate around immediate needs, and creatively adapt to changes in the operating environment

Consistent Structures:

Tasks:

Kanban Review or Slack Update
WINFY Tracking

Other Structures:

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Weekly (30 - 60 mins)

Purpose: To notice important shifts in the operating environment while enhancing relational coordination across functions or business units; identify complex coordination challenges or problems that require a more focused and deliberate approach

Consistent Structures:

Tasks:

Kanban & Ecocycle Review
Populate & Coordinate Design of Monthly Working Sessions
WINFY Tracking

Other Structures:

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Monthly (90 mins - 3 hours)

Purpose: To face down and make rapid progress on the most complex, chronic and entangled problems or challenges facing a work group

Tasks & Responsibilities:

Select topic/challenge/problem from Weekly backlog
Ensemble of at least 2 people takes responsibility for designing, inviting, and coordinating a working session
Progress and emergent needs get addressed at the next weekly meeting

Possible/Likely Structures:

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Quarterly (3 hours - 1 day)

Purpose: To tune operational and strategic investments/arrangements towards current reality AND the needs of an emergent future

Consistent Structures:

Additional Possible/Likely Structures:

Reverse Kanban, Strategy Gameplan

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Annual (1 - 3 days)

Purpose: To rigorously confront reality and notice how the organizing macrostructures are enabling or dampening more agile responses to emergent challenges.

Consistent Structures:

Additional Possible/Likely Structures:

Reverse Kanban, Strategy Gameplan

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Specify Your Meeting Types Via 1-2-4-All

Daily	Weekly	Special Topic	Quarterly	Annual
Purpose:	Purpose:	Purpose:	Purpose:	Purpose:
15 minutes	30-60 minutes	60-90 minutes	½-1 day	Multi-day

First by yourself, answer three questions:

Do you have different types of meetings?
What purpose does each type serve?
Create a chart similar to the table below

Now, move to 2-4-All

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What purpose does each type of meeting serve?

1 minute alone

2 minutes in a pair

4 minutes in a foursome

5 minutes in the whole group

1-2-4-All

Engage everyone simultaneously in generating questions/ideas/suggestions

Dig deeper into the purpose of each meeting type: why, why, why is it important?

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What purpose does each type of meeting serve?

1 minute alone

2 minutes in a pair

4 minutes in a foursome

5 minutes in the whole group

1-2-4-All

Engage everyone simultaneously in generating questions/ideas/suggestions

Dig deeper into the purpose of each meeting type: why, why, why is it important?

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Linking Purpose To Meeting Types�Meeting Macrostructure

* Open means the agenda is created by participants at the beginning of the meeting

Daily Open *

Weekly Open *

Quarterly Single Issue

Annual

Strategy + Design

15 minutes

30-60 minutes

1-4 hours

4-24 hours

Special Issue

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Sample Purposes & Meeting Types

Daily	Weekly	Special Topic	Monthly	Quarterly
Coordinate daily individual tasks; ask for help critical to making immediate progress.	Take on challenges lingering from Daily meetings: what needs attention NOW to advance work NEXT WEEK.	Address a budget or a coordination problem that is time sensitive and can’t wait for Monthly.	Address a single challenge that requires a couple of hours of working to decide how to proceed.	Dig into strategic issues that need to be addressed vis-a-vis future options and longer-term ambitions.
15 minutes	30-60 minutes	60-90 minutes	½-1 day	Multi-day

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Where are you starting, really? �Rate your team’s Facilitation & Purposefulness (nirvana=10)

Level	Facilitation (Shaping Next Steps)	Purposefulness (Making Purpose Clear)
5	Participants share responsibility for matching microstructures to the challenges at hand	Arising out of the group interaction, purpose is renewed and evolves over time
4	Distributed peer-to-peer, individuals seek input rather than permission	Purpose drives mutually shaped action distributed among team members and roles
3	For meetings and teamwork, everyone generates purpose together	Each person understands how their role and authority serves the purpose
2	Facilitator defers to leader, drives buy-in to manage conflict	Organizational purpose clear; fuzzy roles, authority, & team purpose
1	“Going through the motions” inclusiveness	Purpose assumed but not explicit
0	No facilitator or interaction method specified	Accountability without authority or clear purpose

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Worthy Purposes for a Meeting

Yes, Yes, Yes

Making sense of a shared challenge or crisis from multiple points of view

Shaping choices together about how to move forward on a complex challenge

Getting help and advice from peers (e.g., to make decisions, take actions, formulate goals, or make investments)

No, No, No

These activities can be accomplished without a meeting

Updating progress re: work that does not require coordination or interdependent action

Presenting information that could be shared in advance

Getting buy-in on a decision made in advance

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Doing Now

This Week

This Month

This Quarter

This Year

Doing Now

Done

Daily

Weekly

Daily

Weekly

Daily

Quarter-ly

Annual