Transform how groups think, collaborate, and make decisions through a fast-paced, hands-on immersion into Liberating Structures.
April 24 (9:30-5:30) & April 25 (9:30-1:30 coaching), 2026
Edmonton, AB (ArtsHub Ortona)
Experience and practice a diverse array of LS - classic and "LS in development" - so you can shift from front-led facilitation to shared participation. You'll leave with ideas about LS you can try for your own context.
Learn simple adjustments that make LS effective and energizing no matter the medium. Expect practical tips, templates, and adaptations you can use immediately.
Through contrast with conventional methods, you’ll sharpen your awareness of dynamics that limit participation and discover ways to use LS that create space, agency, and clarity for everyone.
You’ll hear practical examples from diverse fields - community, corporate, civic tech, education - to expand your sense of what’s possible and learn how others navigate constraints.
Identify “small moves” you can bring into your work right away - tiny LS-informed shifts that gently transform how people meet, think, and decide together.
Most leadership and facilitation training teaches tools from the outside in. Liberating Structures work differently: you learn them by using them - inside real conversations, with fellow participants.
This immersion drops you straight into that experience.
If you work with groups of humans - as a leader, facilitator, manager, educator, consultant, or community organizer - you’ll discover practical ways to distribute participation and responsibility so the group can think and act together.
As you move through a diverse array of Liberating Structures, you’ll start to notice patterns: how small shifts in invitation, sequence, or group configuration dramatically change what a room is capable of.
You’ll feel the shift:
Less pressure to “run the meeting” or perform as the expert
More confidence in designing processes that let the group do the work
More voices shaping direction
More clarity emerging from complexity
You’ll experience what happens when control is distributed, when diverse perspectives meaningfully shape outcomes, and when complexity stops feeling overwhelming and starts becoming something you can navigate with the group rather than for them.
By the end of the immersion, you’ll be able to mix, match, and adapt LS for your own contexts: team meetings, strategy sessions, community gatherings, conflict conversations, innovation sprints, governance forums, and anywhere participation matters.
During the applied coaching half-day, you’ll design a real session and receive feedback from peers and guided refinement: so you leave not just inspired, but prepared.
The goal is real fluency: not just knowing the structures, but knowing how they feel, how they work, and how to trust a group to carry the process with you.
It’s the kind of confidence that changes how you show up the very next day.
If you regularly bring people together to think, plan, collaborate, or make decisions, this immersion is designed for you. You want processes that don’t rely on charisma or control, and you’re looking for practical, repeatable ways to unlock participation in any room. Whether you facilitate internal teams, cross-functional groups, community dialogues, or multi-stakeholder sessions, you’ll leave with tools that make your work lighter, more inclusive, and more impactful.
You work in environments where complexity, uncertainty, and competing perspectives are the norm. You know that no single expert has the full picture—and you need methods that distribute sensemaking, surface insights fast, and generate real engagement. This immersion gives you Liberating Structures you can immediately apply to strategy development, research processes, creative collaboration, service and systems design, and large-scale change work.
If your team is tired of top-down meetings, stuck decision cycles, or conversations dominated by a few voices, this experience offers a different path. You’ll learn structures that create shared ownership, encourage distributed leadership, and help groups navigate uncertainty together instead of waiting for answers from the top. Ideal for leaders, managers, educators, nonprofit teams, civic innovators, and anyone working toward healthier collaboration.
The 1.5 day agenda
Day 1: 9:30-5:30
We'll start at 9:30am, landing and grounding in the space, place and purpose of our time together.
Throughout the day we will experience a core set of LS. Partly based on what I've used in countless other LS trainings, and partly based on what participants are curious to practice.
1hr break around 1 or 1:30pm, with coffee breaks interspersed in the morning and afternoon, wrapping up by 5:30pm (or a little before). Coffee and snacks provided, bring your own lunch.
Day 2: 9:30-1:30
We'll start at 9:30am, welcoming ourselves back into our shared practice.
Design time! Participants give and get help from one another while they design real or hypothetical sessions using LS. Coaching, conversation and experimentation throughout.
Coffee break in the morning, with immersion closing by 1:30.
Ongoing Community of Practice!
One month later, we come together, take a look at LS we want to practice, and create opportunities for everyone to practice hosting LS they want to try.
How it works:
This immersion is part of a larger regional build: a barn-raiser for ongoing participatory practice in our community. (Read more HERE or when you select your pricing).
Liberating Structures tend to stick when people aren’t practicing alone. By widening participation across sectors and income levels, we increase the chances that LS becomes part of how good, big work gets done here in our community - not just a great workshop memory.
We use a Contribution Within Capacity model to increase accessibility. The guideline is simple:
Give the most you can without overstretching or resentment.
If you’re organization-funded or well-resourced, consider contributing at the sustainability or commons builder level. If finances are tight, choose the accessibility level. And please just reach out if you want a group discount (stefan[at]workingtogether.io)
When more of us can participate, the practice spreads. And when it spreads, it takes root and lasts.
Philip Clark @ Haute école spécialisée de Suisse occidentale; Projet Socrate
"The program is essential for those who want to lead and work differently by tapping into collective intelligence. It will walk you through Liberating Structures with sensitivity and acumen. You will also get a chance to join a very active and giving community. Walk the talk and enjoy the ride."
Kelley Abbell @ Woollard Nichols Torres Consulting
"Are you tired of uninspired meetings and endless open discussions that lead nowhere? Are you tired of facilitating gatherings in rigid, same-old structures that yield familiar, same-old results? Are you tired? There are several places you could seek support, inspiration, and change, but few training opportunities where you will be so thoughtfully shepherded toward brave new possibilities. I could not recommend this experience more highly to anyone interested in liberating structures, deepening their facilitating skills, or feeling grounded and present in collaboration."
J'aime Stratton @ Teladoc Health
"This workshop is a great blend of practice, reflection, and teaching, in that order. Instead of talking about the structures, we DID the structures, and then debriefed on the experience. Time flew by because we were engaged and active the entire time. Now that I understand what's possible with LS, I can't imagine going back to conventional meeting structures ever again."
Tosca Bruno-van Vijfeijken @ Five Oaks Consulting
"I am now even more in admiration of the creativity, playfullness and the understanding of humankind that is embodied in LS!"
See more testimonials and reviews of our work on google maps:
This local, in-person workshop takes place in:
As practitioners living and working in Edmonton on Treaty 6 territory - ᐊᒥᐢᑲᐧᒋᐋᐧᐢᑲᐦᐃᑲᣕ (Amiskwacîwâskahikan) - we acknowledge this place as a traditional gathering space, travelled, and cared for since time immemorial by the Nêhiyawak (Cree), Anishinaabe (Saulteaux), Niitsitapi (Blackfoot), Dene, Nakota Sioux, Métis Nation of Alberta, Region 4, and others.
We are grateful to learn and collaborate here, and we commit to building more just relationships through our workshops and ongoing work in leadership and organizational development.