Liberating Structures

Celebrity Interview

Reconnect the experience of leaders and experts with people closest to the challenge at hand. Celebrity Interview brings out insights, tacit knowledge, and stories that might otherwise stay hidden. Instead of a one-way lecture, participants get to actively shape the conversation—uncovering what matters most to them through their own questions.

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Celebrity Interview

Reconnect the experience of leaders and experts with people closest to the challenge at hand.

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In person & Online

Group

30-55 min.

What is made possible - What it unlocks

This structure turns passive listening into active discovery. By putting participants in charge of the questions, you tap into collective curiosity and surface the knowledge that’s actually relevant to the group. It creates space for authentic stories, practical wisdom, and unexpected connections—all while keeping energy high and engagement real.

When to use it

When you want to learn from someone with unique experience or expertise without a formal presentation
To surface tacit knowledge and practical insights that wouldn’t come out in a standard talk
When launching a new initiative and you need to hear from someone who’s been through it
To energize a group by letting them drive the conversation with their own questions
When you want to make an expert’s knowledge accessible and relevant to diverse perspectives
To build connection between a leader or specialist and a broader community
When you need to quickly transfer knowledge from one person to many in an engaging way

🛠️ The five design elements of Celebrity Interview

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.

Invite the ‘celebrity’ to let go of his or her formal presentation or speech and answer the harder questions on everyone’s mind in a casual “talk show” format
Invite group members to listen, see the person behind the celebrity, and write down questions with colleagues

“What new/bold questions do you have for our celebrity about [topic/challenge/experience]? What do you want to learn from their journey?”

2. Setup & Materials

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

Interviewer and ‘celebrity’ in the front of the room where everyone can see and hear the interaction (lapel microphones, bar stools, or living-room furniture recommended)
Unlimited number of people in a space where they can sit to view the interview and later form small groups (theater-style seating is OK)
Small speaker or index cards to collect questions generated via 1-2-4

3. Participation Flow

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

Part one, interview: everyone has an equal opportunity to listen while facilitator interviews the ‘celebrity’
Part two, questions: everyone has an equal opportunity to engage with one another to formulate questions
The facilitator helps manage flow and ensures diverse questions are heard

4. Group Configuration

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

Whole group for interview
Individuals, pairs, small groups for 1-2-4 to generate questions
Works with any size group—from 10 to 100+

5. Sequence & Timing

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

Interviewer welcomes and introduces the celebrity and topic to be discussed. (3 min)
Interviewer asks questions that the audience would be expected to ask (both humor and gravity are appropriate). (15–30 min)
Invite participants to generate additional questions in a 1-2-4 conversation and then on index cards. (5–10 min)
Interviewer sifts the cards, looking for patterns and asking additional questions to the celebrity. (5–10 min)
Interviewer makes closing comments, thanks the celebrity. (1 min)

Total time: 30-55 minutes

Online version

Adapted for virtual use, with the same impact

Prepare your main room and have the spotlight function ready so all participants can see the ‘celebrity’ and the interviewer on large screen.

Use breakout rooms for the 1-2-4-All part.

Interviewer welcomes and introduces the celebrity and topic to be discussed. (3 min)
Interviewer asks questions that the audience would be expected to ask (both humor and gravity are appropriate). (15–30 min)
Invite participants to generate additional questions in a 1-2-4 conversation and then let them enter their questions in the chat. If you have an option to upvote questions, that’s great to use!(5–10 min)
Interviewer sifts the questions, looking for patterns and asking additional questions to the celebrity. (5–10 min)
Interviewer makes closing comments, thanks the celebrity. (1 min)

Total time: 30-55 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

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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 seriously playful improvisers in Venezuela.

Curiosity Driven

When people ask their own questions, they're more engaged and retain more—because they're pursuing what genuinely matters to them.

Democratized Access

Everyone gets to shape the conversation, not just the loudest voices or those closest to the celebrity/expert.

Stories Unlock Wisdom

Direct questions invite stories and real examples, which carry nuance and context that formal presentations often miss.

Social Learning

Hearing others' questions sparks new connections and insights you wouldn't have thought of alone—collective intelligence in action.

Riffs and Variations

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

Have fun with talk-show styles: channel Oprah, Stephen Colbert, or your favorite interviewer
The interviewer can research in advance, asking participants: “What do you want to know but wouldn’t dare ask? What’s the most important thing you want to learn about this person or the work ahead?”
Use a storytelling template to structure the interview (e.g., the Hero’s Journey)
For strategy sessions, dig deeper by asking: What’s happening around us that demands creative adaptation? What happens if we do nothing? Given our purpose, what seems possible now? If our current strategies were wiped out overnight, what would you bring back today?
Use multiple “celebrities” in a panel format, each responding to the same questions
Try a “reverse celebrity interview” where the group interviews someone about to embark on a challenge, helping them think it through
Go virtual: collect questions via chat or a shared doc, then have the celebrity respond live on video
Rotate the celebrity mid-session—interview someone new every 15 minutes on related topics

Tips

Lessons learned from other facilitators.

Start with powerful opening questions. A good sequence of starting questions is: “What first inspired you in this work? What challenges you? What keeps you going? What do you hope can happen for us in this work?”
Frame the celebrity as someone “in the middle of it” rather than an untouchable expert—it invites more honest, grounded questions
Give the questions to the celebrity in advance so they can prepare thoughtful responses
Ask repeatedly for stories and concrete details that illustrate concepts—stories stick and reveal complexity
Ask the celebrity, “Why is _____ important to YOU (not the larger organization or system)?” to surface personal meaning
Celebrate bold or unusual questions—it gives others permission to take risks
Close with space for reflection: “What are you taking away from this?”

Traps

Don't make the same mistakes.

Allowing the introduction to become a minilecture—keep it brief and get to the interview quickly
Skipping the small-group question development—it’s where diverse perspectives get surfaced
Asking trivial or easy-to-answer questions—push for depth and substance
Letting the celebrity give a speech instead of responding to questions—keep it conversational
Only hearing from a few vocal participants—actively invite quieter voices or use a question queue
Choosing a celebrity who’s too far removed from the group’s reality—relevance matters
Running out of time before the best questions get asked—prioritize depth over breadth

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:

Impromptu Networking before the interview to warm up the group and surface initial questions
What, So What, Now What? (W3) after the interview to debrief and turn insights into action
Troika Consulting if participants want to work through challenges surfaced during the interview
25/10 Crowd Sourcing to prioritize which questions to ask if time is limited
Heard, Seen, Respected to close and reflect on how the conversation shifted perspectives

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.

Practice deep respect for people and local solutions

Practice deep respect for people and local solutions with Liberating Structures – Appreciative Interviews. A Field Story about how a team coach used Appreciative Interviews to surface local knowledge and turn respect into action—discovering that solutions were already present, just waiting for the right structure.

Build Trust as You Go

Build Trust as You Go with Liberating Structures – Impromptu Networking. A Field Story about how an experienced leader used Impromptu Networking to build trust and how repeated use led to more open behavior and stronger 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

Emphasize Possibilities: Believe Before You See

Emphasize Possibilities: Believe Before You See with Liberating Structures – Troika Consulting. A Field Story about how Troika Consulting as a peer-coaching structure increased confidence in the collective wisdom of a team and made possibilities visible.