Liberating Structures

25/10 Crowd Sourcing

Rapidly generate and sift through a group’s most powerful and actionable ideas. This fast-paced structure unleashes bold thinking and uses the collective intelligence of the group to surface the top ideas in less than 30 minutes — no discussion, no politics, pure crowd wisdom.

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25/10 Crowd Sourcing

Rapidly generate and sift through a group’s most powerful and actionable ideas.

Reveal

In person & Online

Group

30 min

What is made possible - What it unlocks

25/10 Crowd Sourcing makes it possible to quickly generate bold ideas and identify the most promising ones in large groups. Instead of long discussions where a few people dominate, everyone has equal influence in shaping the top ideas. The process removes hierarchy, reveals unexpected insights, and creates collective ownership for what emerges.

When to use it

When you need many ideas fast — and want to find the best
To energize large groups (15–500+)
When brainstorming is stuck in safe or predictable ideas
To democratize decision-making and eliminate hierarchy from idea selection
As a bridge between ideation and action
To prioritize ideas generated by 1-2-4-All or other Liberating Structures

🛠️ The five design elements of Troika Consulting

Each Liberating Structure consists of five simple design elements to make participation possible for everyone. By shaping these elements with care, you move beyond rigid control or chaos and create space for people to contribute, listen, and co-create.

1. The Invitation
2. Setup & Materials
3. Participation Flow
4. Group Configuration
5. Sequence & Timing

1. The Invitation

How you frame the purpose or question that sets the focus and energy of the group.

“Write down a bold idea — something 10 times bolder than usual — along with one first action to start it. Then we’ll use crowd scoring to discover the top ideas.”

2. Setup & Materials

The arrangement of space and which tools or resources are needed to support interaction.

Index cards or small slips of paper
Pens or markers
Timer or bell
Open space for standing and milling around
For virtual sessions: digital cards + automated randomization tools

3. Participation Flow

Who gets a voice and how everyone is actively included in the process.

Everyone contributes one idea and everyone evaluates five other ideas.
All participants score anonymously, ensuring equal influence regardless of status or personality.

4. Group Configuration

How people are arranged (alone, small groups, or all together) and how this shifts during the activity.

Entire group stands and moves freely
No subgroups needed — the movement is the method

5. Sequence & Timing

The step-by-step flow of the activity and the time given to each step to keep energy and focus.

Step 1 — Idea Generation (5 min)

Each person writes a bold idea + one first step on a card. Work individually and silently.

Step 2 — Five Scoring Rounds (15 min total)

Stand up and walk around the room, exchanging cards until the bell rings.
Stop, read the card you’re holding, and score it 1–5 on the back.
Repeat for 5 rounds so every idea is scored by 5 different people.

Step 3 — Calculate Final Scores (5 min)

Add up the 5 scores on each card and identify the highest-scoring ideas.
Share the Top 10 with the whole group.

Optional Step 4 — Action Planning (5 min)

People sign up for ideas they want to support.
Form small action groups around top ideas.

Total time: 25–30 minutes.

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All Liberating Structures in 1 e-book

All Liberating Structures (44!) including explanations, visual step-by-step guide, and worksheets in a handy workbook for € 11,-

Simple methods for big changes
Have interactions that truly matter
Build a culture of innovation step by step
Involve and activate everyone in the group

Show the e-book!

Proven over decades

🧠 Why it works

Liberating Structures are not magic tricks—they work because they tap into how people naturally think, connect, and collaborate. Each structure is carefully designed to unlock participation, spark creativity, and build trust, using principles grounded in social science and human interaction.

Attribution: Liberating Structure developed by Henri Lipmanowicz and Keith McCandless. Inspired by improvisationalists, including Keith Johnstone.

Collective Intelligence

Crowd scoring removes personal bias and leverages diverse viewpoints. Research shows that independent evaluations from many people reliably produce better decisions than expert committees.

Psychological Safety

Anonymous scoring reduces fear of judgment and frees people to think boldly. It prevents seniority, loud voices, or internal politics from steering outcomes.

Movement & Energy

Behavioral science shows that physical movement boosts creativity and alertness. The quick exchange rounds activate the body and sharpen intuitive evaluation.

Pattern Emergence

In complex systems, important patterns emerge when many small inputs combine. 25/10 reveals these system-wide preferences instantly without discussion.

Riffs and Variations

Start with creative constraints to learn this structure and then... go liberate yourself and try some variations.

Best Riff ever: turn on some music while exchanging idea-cards. Fun and laughter guaranteed!
Extended Scoring: 7–10 rounds for more nuanced results
Category-based: Color-coded cards for themes (e.g., innovation, culture, process)
Feasibility Pass: After bold ideas, run a second round focusing on practicality
Digital Version: Online card shufflers + automated scoring
Top 5 or Top 15: Adjust depending on group size or purpose
Prototype Round: Turn top 10 ideas into quick sketches or storyboards

Tips

Lessons learned from other facilitators

Emphasize “10 times bolder than usual”
Keep rounds fast — energy is part of the method
Encourage writing the first step clearly — it makes ideas actionable
Remind people to score independently based on their own judgment
Celebrate the bold ideas that emerge, even if not all are implemented

Tips

Don't make the same mistakes...

Making the invitation too vague — specificity helps boldness
Skipping the “10x bolder” framing — it unlocks creative thinking
Trying to reach consensus on scores — let the crowd wisdom speak
Letting people discuss ideas before scoring
Doing too few scoring rounds for large groups

Try it with…

The real power of Liberating Structures emerges when you combine them into "strings." Link different structures together to build on insights and create more powerful results. Here are some nice combinations:

1-2-4-All: Use it to generate source ideas before prioritizing with 25/10
15% Solutions: Turn top ideas into immediate action steps
Troika Consulting: Get focused help on developing Top 10 ideas
Wicked Questions: Use bold insights to challenge paradoxes
Open Space Technology: Use the Top 10 as starting topics

Field stories

To get to know Liberating Structures without having used them yourself, it helps to see familiar situations from real-life practice. Chances are that you or your team have faced one of these challenges before. Discover how to approach these kinds of situations in a fresh and engaging way.

Engage in Seriously Playful Curiosity

Engage in Seriously Playful Curiosity with Liberating Structures – Drawing Together. A Field Story about how Drawing Together activated curiosity, broke open stuck conversations, and made play serious in collaboration.

Include and Engage Everyone

Include and Engage Everyone with Liberating Structures – 1-2-4-All. A field story about influence without power — and how one experiment became a new habit

Invite Creative Destruction to Make Space for Innovation

Invite Creative Destruction to Make Space for Innovation with Liberating Structures – TRIZ. A Field Story about how a team used TRIZ to dismantle ingrained patterns and learned to critically examine their own actions.

Amplify Freedom and Responsibility

Amplify Freedom and Responsibility with Liberating Structures – 15% Solutions. A Field Story about how a leader used 15% Solutions to let go of control, increase ownership, and restore responsibility in the team.