Celebrity Interview

How this method works

A conversation structure that opens one person's experience to questions from the whole group. Use it when welcoming a new person in charge, reflecting on a significant event, or helping people close to the work understand its background. The host asks prepared questions to draw out a concrete story. Participants then develop additional questions in groups of two or three and bring them back. Rather than rushing toward conclusions or praise, trace what happened and how choices were made. The result is learning that everyone can take away and a question to investigate next. Do not use it to elevate an authority figure, probe private experiences without the person's consent, or handle complaints in public.

Phase schedule

Minutes are cumulative from the start of the base plan, not a live timer. Read scaling for any additional time. Phase controls do not advance automatically.

1. Welcome the question0–4 minutes from the start (4 minutes)

   Action: Welcome. Participation: Everyone.

   Recording not separately specified for this phase

2. Listen to the experience4–16 minutes from the start (12 minutes)

   Action: Listen. Participation: Everyone.

   Recording not separately specified for this phase

3. Develop questions16–22 minutes from the start (6 minutes)

   Action: Develop. Participation: Groups of 2–3.

   Individual record

4. Bring questions back22–28 minutes from the start (6 minutes)

   Action: Ask. Participation: Everyone.

   Shared record

5. Connect the learning28–30 minutes from the start (2 minutes)

   Action: Connect. Participation: Everyone.

   Shared record

Facilitation steps

1. For 4 minutes, present the challenge to be shared in one sentence. Confirm the roles of host, guest and audience, and the boundaries for questions.
2. For 12 minutes, the host uses prepared questions to invite a concrete account of events, doubts and choices.
3. For 6 minutes, participants confer in groups of two or three. Each person writes one additional question needed to understand the account on one card.
4. For 6 minutes, the host groups the questions and puts several to the guest. Those listening to the answers record their own learning in one word on the shared surface.
5. For 2 minutes, thank the guest and close by displaying just one question the whole group will investigate next.

If something changes

Preparation

Materials

• 2 chairs at the front, one for the host and one for the person sharing their experience
• One A4 list of prepared questions for the host
• 2 A6 question cards per audience member
• One thick pen per person
• One box or shared board for collecting questions

Room and setup

• Arrange seats in a semicircle or classroom layout so everyone can see and hear the host and guest
• Place neighbours so they can confer briefly in groups of 2–3
• Explain at the outset that questions containing personal information will not be handled

Adjust for people and time

For 8–30 people, use one guest and one host, with participants consulting in groups of two or three about their questions. For 31–100, retain groups of two or three, divide question cards among four collection boxes, and assign 2–4 host assistants to sort them into events, choices and learning. When inviting more than one guest, provide separate slots of at least 15 minutes each; do not turn it into a comparative debate. For a room of more than 30 people, provide a microphone so everyone can hear.

Manuscript's recorded references

These translate the original manuscript's source and rights claims. They remain separate from any current-page notice below; they do not establish new verification.

• Liberating Structures Fieldbook (2026) — Henri Lipmanowicz; Keith McCandless; Nancy White

  https://www.liberatingstructures.com/celebrity-interview

  Adaptation under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes made

• Creative Commons License — Liberating Structures

  https://www.liberatingstructures.com/cc-license

  CC BY-SA 4.0 statement

• CC BY-SA 4.0

  https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

  Licence text

Diagram, print, and video language

Original Japanese guide, diagram, and print view. Their labels and print text have not been translated; an English print edition is not provided here.

English video-library navigation. Original Japanese audio, subtitles and transcripts remain labelled Japanese resources. Their translations are separate later work. No remote player is embedded here.

The manual English phase controls are a navigation aid, not a live facilitation timer. Interactive diagram motion remains pending.

Editorial provenance

Stable method ID

celebrity-interview

Japanese source status

Japanese source: field-tested status

Source path

src/content/methods/celebrity-interview.yaml

Source SHA-256

05fb64e4bd1edb2e4ed5dbe474295a7b9f06046206ede30971106f5afa1aff8f

English text path

design-lab/drafts/english-site-20261015/batches/M-001-local-draft/methods/celebrity-interview.json

English text SHA-256

34ba70b2c4b460655de0c5894d09ff57ba677c3107a60d7792cf4e285eb45917

Historical fixed-text English acceptance record

local-draft-not-independently-reviewed

Historical fixed-source recorded publication hold

LS source-version/licence/icon reconciliation before publication

Original Japanese asset identifiers (not rendered here)

• main: celebrity-interview-main.svg
• print: celebrity-interview-print.svg
• thumb: celebrity-interview-thumb.svg

Japanese source status and logs are provenance only. They do not mean this English text or interface was field-tested. Historical fixed-text acceptance and hold records remain specific to their recorded versions; displaying them neither asserts current acceptance nor resolves source-specific restrictions.