Liberating Structures

Wise Crowds

Tap into the wisdom of the whole group quickly and effectively. Participants take turns as “clients,” presenting challenges and receiving rapid input from everyone else. Each consultation draws on the full expertise and creativity of the group simultaneously. Through this process, individuals gain clarity and develop stronger capacities for self-correction and self-understanding.

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Wise Crowds

Tap into the wisdom of the whole group in rapid cycles.

Help Reveal

In person & Online

Group

60 min.

What is made possible - What it unlocks

Wise Crowds make it possible to instantly engage groups of any size in helping one another. Clients ask for help and receive it quickly from all group members simultaneously. The process develops people’s ability to ask for help, deepens inquiry and consulting skills, and builds supportive relationships quickly. Through cumulative learning—where each participant is both client and consultant multiple times—groups achieve transparency and often outperform individual experts.

When to use it

When you need everyone’s input on a challenge, not just advice from a few voices
When you want to give each person dedicated time to receive focused help from peers
When individuals are stuck on their own challenges and would benefit from fresh perspectives
When you want to practice active listening and collaborative problem-solving in small groups
When you need to surface blind spots or assumptions someone hasn’t considered
When you want to build trust and reciprocity by giving and receiving help equally
When you need actionable advice quickly rather than lengthy one-on-one coaching sessions
When you want to create a culture where asking for help is normalized and valued

🛠️ The five design elements of Wise Crowds

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.

Ask the participant who is the “client” to describe their challenge, the status of any work in progress, and the advice or help he or she is looking for
Ask the other participants to act as a group of “consulting teams” whose task it is to help the “client” clarify his or her challenge and to offer advice or recommendations.

2. Setup & Materials

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

One chair for the client in the front of the room
Screen and projector only if absolutely indispensable
Three chairs for the primary consultants in the front of the room
Groups of 5–8 chairs arranged around small tables, or in circles without tables, for all the satellite consulting teams
Paper for participants to take notes
Index cards at each table to write recommendations
With large groups: microphones for the client and primary consultants

3. Participation Flow

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

The client has a specific amount of time to present and ask for help
The primary consulting team has a fixed amount of time to offer help
Everyone else on each consulting team has an equal opportunity to contribute help during the balance of the time, which is also fixed

4. Group Configuration

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

Individual client
One group of 2 to 3 primary consultants
Any number of satellite groups of 5 to 7 people as consulting teams
Mixed groups across functions, levels, and disciplines are ideal
With smaller groups you can also do a Troika Consult in front of the group

5. Sequence & Timing

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

Each person requesting a consult (the client) gets one hour broken down as follows:

The client presents his or her consulting question and selects the 2-4 individuals who will form the primary consulting team. The primary consultants move and occupy their chairs in the front of the room. (2 min)
The client presents the challenge and request for help. (10 min)
The primary consultants pose clarifying questions to the client, using microphones so that all participants can hear them. (10 min)
The client turns his or her back to the primary consultants and gets ready to take notes.
The primary consultants jointly form advice and recommendations, working as a team while the client has his or her back turned. Microphones are used so that all others in the room can follow their discussion. (7 min)
Every satellite consulting team separately critiques the work of the primary consulting team and generates its own recommendations for the client. (10 min)
While the satellite teams work, the client turns around and uses this ten-minute period to discuss with the primary consulting team.
Do one round to gather the critiques from the satellite teams first and then a second round to gather their recommendations. Gather only one comment or recommendation per team, with no repeats. It may be useful to ask the satellite teams to write their recommendations for the client on 3-by-5-inch index cards. (10 min)
The client provides feedback to the consultants: what was useful and what he or she takes away. (2 min)
Invite a full-group conversation reflecting on the process, so what, and now what. (5 min)

NOTE: The timing for each step can be adjusted depending on the complexity of the problem and the size of the group, but it is essential to stick strictly to the schedule and not let discussions drag beyond the time set. It is always better to have a second round instead.

Online version

Adapted for virtual use, with the same impact

All the steps are the same as described above.
Make sure to highlight the client and consultants on the main stage so everyone can see them on the big screen.

Prepare breakout rooms for the satellite consultant groups to work in.

Total time: 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 developed by Henri Lipmanowicz and Keith McCandless. Inspired by Quaker Clearness Committees.

Collective Wisdom

Everyone contributes perspectives that exceed individual expertise. Consultants working together reveal insights that transcend any single viewpoint.

Rapid Learning

Multiple consultation cycles create cumulative insights across the group. Fixed time intervals ensure focus and equal attention for all participants.

Psychological Safety

Turning away creates space for honest feedback without immediate response pressure. Role rotation builds empathy through experiencing both vulnerability and contribution.

Normalized Help

The process trains people to formulate clear requests for assistance. Asking for help becomes a valued skill rather than a weakness.

Riffs and Variations

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

Q-Storming (Questions Only): Restrict consultants to asking only honest, open questions—no recommendations or advice disguised as questions. This helps the client gain personal clarity through inquiry rather than direction, similar to a Quaker Clearness Committee.
Small Groups Wise Crowds: Use Troika Consulting when groups are smaller than 7 persons
Virtual Wise Crowds: Use breakout rooms for small consultant groups, then have consultants share answers via chat or on a shared whiteboard. Open the chat and whiteboard to the whole group for additional feedback and collective wisdom.
Silent Consultation: Have consultants write their questions and advice on sticky notes or in a shared document rather than speaking aloud, allowing for more reflection and less groupthink.
Themed Rounds: Run multiple consultation rounds with different lenses—first round focuses on obstacles, second on opportunities, third on resources needed.

Tips

Lessons learned from other facilitators.

Invite a very diverse crowd to help—not only the experts and leaders. Fresh perspectives often come from unexpected sources.
Remind participants to stay focused on the client’s direct experience by asking, “What is happening here? How are you experiencing what is happening?”
Advise the consultants to take risks while maintaining empathy—bold ideas need psychological safety to emerge.
Encourage participants to critique themselves when they fall into traps (e.g., jumping to action before clarifying the purpose or the problem). See Helping Heuristics for a complete list of unwanted patterns when helping or asking for help.
If the first round is weak, try a second round—practice builds confidence and deeper insights.
Invite participants not to shy away from presenting complex challenges without easy answers—these often yield the richest consultations.
Build trust and create a climate of mutual discovery by developing inquiring and humble dialogue among participants.

Traps

Don't make the same mistakes.

Avoiding having some participants choose not to be clients—everybody has at least one challenge worth exploring. You can also use Troika Consulting to let everyone bring in a challenge
Letting consultants jump to premature solutions or offer unneeded advice before fully understanding the client’s situation.
Moving to next steps too quickly without adequate reflection on what the client has heard and learned.
Ignoring status differences, body language, or subtle signals that affect how help is given and received.
Having consultants try too hard not to overhelp, which can result in holding back valuable insights.
Clients looking for validation rather than genuine help, or not sharing the real problem they’re facing.

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 after Wise Crowds to help the whole group reflect on patterns that emerged across multiple consultations
15% Solutions to turn the advice received during consultations into immediate first steps the client can take
What, So What, Now What? (W3) to help clients make sense of the consultation feedback and decide on concrete next actions
Helping Heuristics before starting to prime participants on effective helping behaviors and common traps to avoid
TRIZ to identify what behaviors or patterns the group should stop doing when giving or receiving help
Integrated~Autonomy after multiple consultation rounds to clarify what decisions clients can make independently versus what requires coordination

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.

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

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.