From Attendance to Participation: Invite Learners to Do More of the Thinking with Liberating Structures

From Attendance to Participation

Get learners doing more of the thinking with Liberating Structures

Free interactive virtual session
6 October | 12:30–1:30pm AEDT | Zoom

Here’s the problem

Not everyone arrives ready to speak up, contribute or even know what they think yet.

Your learners arrive with different levels of knowledge, confidence, motivation and experience — but all of them need meaningful ways to engage.

The challenge is creating conditions where more people can think, contribute and learn — not just the quickest, most confident or most experienced voices.

But too often, learning still depends on the trainer, educator or facilitator doing most of the work.

You explain. You ask a question. A few people respond. Others stay quiet. Breakouts can be hit-and-miss. And by the end, you’re not always sure how much thinking, sense-making or application actually happened.

What if you could make a few small shifts in how you structure participation — and get more people thinking, contributing and learning from each other?

Your mission, should you choose to accept it…

Join us for one practical hour to experience how Liberating Structures can shift learning from something people mainly attend to something they actively participate in and shape.

No long presentation. No catalogue of facilitation tools.

You’ll experience the methods as a participant, unpack why they work, and hear real examples of how educators, trainers and facilitators are using them in practice.

Simple structures. More voices. Better thinking.

Can you imagine…

A learning session where:

• you don’t have to generate all the energy and conversation yourself;

• everyone has a way into the discussion — not just the quickest or most confident voices;

• participants make sense of ideas together rather than simply receiving information;

• people learn from the experience already in the room;

• reflection and application happen throughout, not just in the final five minutes;

• you can create meaningful participation without designing increasingly elaborate activities.

That’s the possibility we’ll explore together.

What you’ll experience

1. Experience participation differently

Take part in a small selection of Liberating Structures designed to get everyone thinking and contributing quickly.

Notice what changes when participation is structured differently, rather than simply requested.

2. See what it looks like in the real world

Hear short stories from educators, trainers and facilitators who have used Liberating Structures in their own contexts.

Not perfect case studies. Real situations:

What was happening? What did they try? What changed?

3. Apply it to your own practice

Identify where more participation would make a difference in one of your own learning experiences — and leave with practical ideas you can experiment with straight away.

You’ll leave with

• first-hand experience of a couple of Liberating Structures;

• practical ways to get more learners thinking and contributing;

• ideas for distributing participation beyond the usual voices;

• real examples of how others are applying LS;

• at least one small experiment you can try in your own work.

Who is it for?

This session is for people who bring others together to learn, think and develop — including:

Learning & development practitioners · educators · trainers · learning designers · facilitators · capability and OD practitioners · academic developers · people leaders

You don’t need any previous experience with Liberating Structures. You're also very welcome if you do!

And you don’t need to think of yourself as a facilitator.

This is an interactive session

This won’t be a webinar where you sit back while we talk at you for an hour.

Liberating Structures are learned by experiencing them.

Expect to think, talk, listen, meet other people and experiment.

Cameras are welcome where possible and we’ll use small breakout conversations during the session.

When?

Tuesday 6 October 2026
12:30–1:30pm AEDT
Live on Zoom

What’s the investment?

Nothing. It’s free.

Coming with colleagues? Even better.

Liberating Structures become particularly useful when more than one person in an organisation knows how to use them.

If you work with a learning, facilitation, OD or capability team, invite a colleague — or bring a small group and experience the approaches together.

Reserve your place!

About Alkimia Learning

At Alkimia Learning, we design and facilitate experiences that help people transform together.

Our work draws on participatory, experiential approaches including Liberating Structures and Kaospilot methodologies — helping learning designers, facilitators and organisations create experiences where people do more than simply listen passively. They think, contribute, experiment and learn together.

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