Liberating Structures

Grief Walking

Utilise social support while experiencing loss or profound change in order to… Grief Walking helps you navigate loss and profound change with the support of others—creating space to honor what was, move through what hurts, and take your first steps toward what’s next. It’s a powerful way to transform private grief into shared strength.

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What is made possible - What it unlocks

This structure gives you permission to be seen in your vulnerability while being held by your community. It unlocks emotional processing that often stays locked inside, and transforms isolation into connection. Participants experience the profound relief of being witnessed without judgment, and discover that they don’t have to carry their grief alone.

When to use it

When a team has experienced a significant loss (a departed colleague, a failed project, a major organizational change)
During transitions that require letting go of the old before embracing the new
When working through the emotional weight of cancelled initiatives or discontinued work
After layoffs, restructuring, or organizational upheaval that leaves people grieving what was
When a community needs to collectively process shared trauma or disappointment
Before launching into renewal or innovation work that requires clearing emotional space
When people are stuck in resistance or denial about change because they haven’t had space to grieve
To help groups move from despair to active hope by walking through grief together

🛠️ The five design elements of Grief Walking

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.

Reflect on a loss or profound change you’ve experienced. Using a Spiral Journal, answer four questions that will guide you through grief: acknowledging the truth, naming what’s hard, honoring what matters, and opening to what’s possible. Then share your journey with others who will witness and walk with you—literally and figuratively.

2. Setup & Materials

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

A quiet, spacious area with a calm, safe atmosphere—consider soft lighting or a respectful tone-setting at the start
The area should be big enough for groups of 5 to spread out and move between “listening stations” in four designated spaces in the room marked (can be corners, different areas, or marked spots)
Paper or notebooks for each participant (Spiral Journals)
Optional: a designated “safety space” or support person for anyone who needs to step away

3. Participation Flow

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

Everyone starts solo, writing their answers to four prompts
Participants then self-select into “grief walkers” (those ready to share) and “witnesses” (those who will listen and accompany)
Grief walkers move through four listening stations, reading one sentence aloud at each station
At each station, one additional witness joins them by placing a hand on their shoulder or back, walking with them to the next station
After all grief walkers have completed their journey, groups of 5 gather for a reflective debrief

4. Group Configuration

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

Solo reflection
Self-selection Grief Walkers
Growing groups: Grief Walkers +1, +2, +3, +4
Group debrief

5. Sequence & Timing

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

Individual Spiral Journal (7 min): Everyone writes answers to these four prompts based on a loss or change they’ve experienced:
- “Yes, the truth is that…”
- “This is hard because…”
- “I will always remember and never forget…”
- “Now that I’ve shared my grief, it becomes possible that…”
Create listening stations (2 min): Mark four distinct spots in your space—these are your “listening stations” corresponding to each of the four questions.
Self-selection (1 min): Ask: “Who is ready to walk through their grief today?” Those who are ready step forward—these are your grief walkers. Everyone else becomes a witness.
Witnesses position themselves (1 min): Witnesses spread out evenly across the four listening stations.
Walk the stations (10-30 min): Each grief walker, one at a time:
- Walks to station 1 and reads aloud only the sentence starting with “Yes, the truth is that…”
- One witness (ideally the one most moved) places a hand on the grief walker’s shoulder and walks with them to station 2
- At station 2, the grief walker reads “This is hard because…”
- Another witness joins, placing their hand on the grief walker’s shoulder/back
- This continues through stations 3 and 4, with more witnesses joining at each station
- By the final station, at least 4 people have their hands on the grief walker, offering physical support
Group debrief (10-20 min): Once all grief walkers have completed their journey, form groups of 5 and discuss:
- What did you notice as a witness? What moved you to walk with someone?
- What did you experience as a grief walker? How does it feel to share your grief or carry it?
- What do you need from each other now?

Total time: 30-60 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 in Development by Keith McCandless, inspired by Joanna Macy and Stephen Jenkinson.

Note: As a Liberating Structure in Development, Grief Walking hasn’t been tested in all possible scenarios and doesn’t always deliver predictable results yet. This simply means it’s still being refined through practice and feedback from facilitators worldwide.

Progressive Disclosure

Breaking grief into four distinct phases (acknowledgment, difficulty, remembrance, possibility) creates a manageable pathway through overwhelming emotion.

Embodied Support

Physical touch—hands on shoulders—activates our mammalian care system and provides neurological reassurance that we're not alone in our pain.

Witnessed Vulnerability

Speaking our grief aloud in the presence of others transforms private suffering into shared experience, reducing shame and isolation while building trust and connection.

Scaffolded Hope

The structure doesn't rush to solutions—it honors each stage of grief before gradually opening toward possibility, allowing authentic healing rather than forced positivity.

Riffs and Variations

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

Solo variant: While the reflection questions work alone, the power of this structure lives in the physical accompaniment and witnessing. The solo version can help you process privately, but it loses the communal healing element—consider pairing with a trusted friend or therapist instead.
Online adaptation: Use breakout rooms as “stations.” Grief walkers share via camera, and witnesses can turn on their cameras one by one at each station, creating visual presence even without physical touch.
Extended journaling: Instead of single sentences, allow 2-3 minutes of reading at each station for those who want to go deeper.
Multiple rounds: In ongoing teams, revisit this structure periodically to process accumulated losses and changes over time.

Tips

Lessons learned from other facilitators.

Create a “safety valve”—designate a quiet space or support person where anyone can go if the process becomes too intense
Set the tone carefully: this requires psychological safety and genuine permission to be vulnerable
Make participation truly optional—never pressure anyone to be a grief walker
Remind witnesses that their role is to be present, not to fix or advise
The hand on the shoulder should be gentle and respectful—check in about physical touch preferences first
Allow silence—don’t rush between stations or fill pauses with commentary
Consider doing this later in a workshop series when trust has been built

Traps

Don't make the same mistakes.

Rushing through the structure or treating it casually—this requires time and reverence
Skipping the debrief—integration is essential for making meaning of the experience
Using this structure too early with a group that doesn’t yet have sufficient trust
Forcing positivity or jumping to “solutions” before grief has been fully honored
Having witnesses offer advice or commentary—their role is presence, not problem-solving
Using this structure when you (as facilitator) aren’t prepared to hold intense emotion

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:

Heard, Seen, Respected (HSR) to warm up the group’s capacity for witnessing each other
Appreciative Interviews to reconnect with what matters before processing loss
What I Need From You (WINFY) to identify specific ongoing support needs
15% Solutions to move from grief toward small, actionable next steps
Purpose-to-Practice (P2P) to rebuild shared purpose after significant change
Troika Consulting for groups who need both emotional processing and practical problem-solving
What, So What, Now What? (W³) to make sense of the collective experience afterward

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.

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.

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.

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.

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