Helping Heuristics

Practice progressive methods for helping others, receiving help and asking for Help

Five Structural Elements – Min Specs

1. Structuring Invitation

“Every human interaction is an offer that we can either accept or block, just as improv artists say yes to every suggestion. In this activity, we’ll use heuristics, or mental shortcuts, to practice different ways of accepting or blocking offers when we ask for, give, and receive help.”

2. Space and Materials

• Space for groups of three to stand or sit [breakouts].
• No tables in the way of people standing face-to-face!

3. Participation Distribution

• Roles include host [tech host], client, coach, and observer.
• Minimum group size is three.
• Everyone is invited and has an equal opportunity to learn and contribute.

4. Group Configuration

• Groups of 3: two participants interacting face-to-face in the roles of client and coach plus one observer
• Whole group for the debrief
• Encourage diverse roles within groups.

5. Steps and Time Allocation

Intro: Share the structuring invitation.

Display Helping Heuristics Patterns and Prompts (see attachment) and explain the process.

In small groups, everyone will pick a role—client, coach, or observer.

During each round, the client shares a challenge they are passionate about, the coach responds using one of the four helping patterns in the figure, and the observer pays close attention to how the other two accept or block each other’s ideas.

Participants play the same roles for all rounds. There will be four rounds of one to two minutes of improvised interactions and a five-minute debrief round, for a total of thirteen to fourteen minutes.

The host will signal [broadcast a message] when it’s time for everyone to move to the next question.

Participants form trios [breakouts]. (3 min.)

Round 1 (Quiet Presence): The client shares, and the coach listens compassionately, asking only “What else?” The observer looks for accepting and blocking. [Bring everyone back to plenary to check in.] (1–2 min. F2F, 3–4 min. online)

Round 2 (Guided Discovery): The coach asks, “Do you have a story about a time when you made progress or were stopped? What influenced the progress or blockage?” The observer looks for accepting and blocking. (1–2 min.)

Round 3 (Loving Provocation): The coach offers advice asking, “Would it be possible to try . . . ​?” The client accepts and blocks the coach’s suggestion. The observer looks for accepting and blocking. (1–2 min.)

Round 4 (Generative Shaping): The coach and client accept all offers from each other, building on each other’s ideas with “Yes, and . . . ​“ and “If . . . ​ then . . . ​” The observer looks for accepting and blocking. (1–2 min.)

Debrief: In their small groups, participants discuss the impacts of the four helping patterns. The client and coach debrief for one minute each, and the observer takes three minutes to share the accepting or blocking they noticed in each pattern. (5 min.)

All-Together Sharing: Everyone returns to plenary. A few participants share a takeaway everyone should hear. (1 min.)

Taking It Online

After the first round, bring everyone back to the main room to check for understanding and progress. If the groups are on track, send them back to complete the remaining rounds. If not, bring them back after the second round for another check-in

WHY? Purposes

• Reduce/eliminate common errors and traps when people are giving or asking for help
• Change unwanted giving help patterns that include: premature solutions; unneeded advice; adding pressure to force use of advice; moving to next steps too quickly; trying too hard not to overhelp
• Change unwanted asking for help patterns that include: mistrusting; not sharing real problem; accepting help without ownership; looking for validation, not help; resenting not getting enough

Tips

• When introducing the approach, create a climate of playful mutual discovery and trust. For example, share a story about a pattern you overlook that is obvious to everyone else.
• Encourage the observer to focus on patterns that will help the client find their own solutions or next steps and not to ignore status differences, body language, demeanor, subtle signals of blocking, or the setting itself.
• Encourage people to change roles in each round
  
• Focus on patterns that will help the client finding his or her own solutions (self-discovery in a group)
• Do not ignore status differences, the setting, body language, demeanor, subtle signals
  
  
  Riffs and Variations
• Invite participants to self-identify their default patterns and practice using other ones.
• Incorporate extreme but fun patterns such as neutral (zero response via a poker face) and blocking (ignoring or interrupting incessantly).
• After the initial cycle, let trios choose the roles they want to play and the patterns they want to focus on in their group. For example, if the default approach in their groups is generative shaping, take time to practice using other approaches.
  
• Incorporate the helping progression into other Liberating Structures that focus on give-and-take: Troika Consulting, Wise Crowds, What I Need From You, Improv Prototyping, Simple Ethnography
  

• Used when Wise Crowds or What I Need From You does not achieve a group’s intended purpose—for example, when participants have fallen into one of the unwanted asking for or giving help patterns
• Help people in the helping professions (e.g., nurses, coaches, teachers) learn new relational skills. Expand your options when you feel frustrated trying to help another person.
• For any group working to improve interprofessional coordination
• For Liberating Structures facilitators to dig deeper into underlying patterns that cut across many Liberating Structures
• For expanding options when frustrated with trying to help another person

Optional String

String with another LS that allows practicing the behaviors, such as Troika Consulting Wise Crowds or What I Need From You

Attribution: Liberating Structure developed by Henri Lipmanowicz and Keith McCandless. Inspired by author/professor Edgar Schein (see Helping in Learning Resources).

Source: Liberating Structures