In my team, I manage to get everyone to participate and speak up, even the quietest ones.
And for that, I use the Liberating Structure 1-2-4-All.
1-2-4-All is the basic Liberating Structure. It’s one of the simplest, but also one of the most powerful. You can apply it almost anywhere. And to do it, you don’t need much.
The first thing you need is a topic or a question that can be shared and discussed together.
Starting from that question, everyone takes one minute to think individually about how to answer it or approach the topic.
Now that everyone has reflected, you form pairs, two people, and they discuss together for two minutes.
Then, once the pairs have worked together, you create a group of four, and you start again for five minutes. Everyone shares their ideas and together you try to build something.
It’s like a snowball. You start from a small idea, an individual reflection, and you grow and refine it together to reach the right idea or the right reasoning.
In summary, 1-2-4-All is a meeting format that transforms your silent meetings into a truly collective session where everyone can participate and bring value.