Events & Calendars Elevating Voices: Use Liberating Structures to Encourage Equitable Participation

The Learning & Development Team invites you to develop your team with Ana Devlin Gauthier.

By now, we have all witnessed the silence that follows an open question or ask for participation on a Zoom call. Not only are these silences awkward, the method of participation in itself reinforces structural inequities in who is invited to take up space and participate in conversation. Conventional structures for participation are either too inhibiting (e.g. formal presentations) or too loose (e.g. unstructured open discussions) to promote equitable participation. This leads to frustration, lack of progress and missing out on generative ideas. Liberating Structures are microstructures for facilitation used in groups of any size that promote relational coordination and trust amongst members. This session will introduce several Liberating Structures activities for use in a virtual or face-to-face environment to ensure that you are elevating everyone’s voice and cut back on those awkward Zoom silences.