Method guide · Work with a structured grid
What I Need from You
Turn requests for support into explicit acceptance, conditional acceptance, or refusal between roles.
- People
- 6–50
- Base procedure time
- 60 minutes
- Recording
- Shared record
Purpose: Build working relationships; Make a decision; Explore through dialogue.
English guide
Text acceptance is not approval of this rendered page, its media, or publication.
How this method works
A conversation method for exchanging needed support and responses of acceptance, conditional acceptance, or refusal between roles. Use it when requests for cooperation are abstract and work stalls because the receiver's silence could mean either acceptance or refusal. Small groups with the same role write concrete requests to other roles, whose members explicitly accept, accept with conditions, or refuse. Keeping refusals in the matrix separates vague expectations into actionable commitments and unresolved requests. The result is a support matrix recording response status, conditions, and the person responsible. Do not use the method where large differences in authority make it unsafe to refuse.
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.
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- Separate into roles0–8 minutes from the start (8 minutes)
Action: Separate. Participation: Small groups by role.
Shared record
- Write requests8–20 minutes from the start (12 minutes)
Action: Write. Participation: Small groups by role.
Shared record
- Exchange requests20–40 minutes from the start (20 minutes)
Action: Exchange. Participation: Everyone.
Shared record
- Add responses40–52 minutes from the start (12 minutes)
Action: Add. Participation: Small groups by role.
Shared record
- Choose commitments52–60 minutes from the start (8 minutes)
Action: Choose. Participation: Everyone.
Shared record
Facilitation steps
- For 8 minutes, divide participants into small groups by role, with requesting roles in the support matrix's rows and responding roles in its columns.
- For 12 minutes, each group writes the support it needs from another role as one request specifying who will do what by when.
- For 10 minutes, requesters read one item at a time while receivers respond only with questions to clarify the request's conditions.
- For 10 minutes, receivers choose acceptance, conditional acceptance, or refusal, and write the conditions or reason in one sentence.
- For 12 minutes, return to role groups and transfer overlapping requests received and feasible deadlines to the support matrix.
- For 8 minutes, everyone reads the conditional acceptances and chooses one commitment to confirm first and one unresolved request.
If something changes
If
Eight minutes into request writing, each group still has at least 2 cards that say only ‘cooperate’.
Then
Point out the blank deliverable, person-responsible, and deadline fields, and rewrite each card as one request.
If
Six minutes after responses begin, at least 80% of all requests still have unconditional acceptance.
Then
Ask receivers how many requests they can carry out at the same time and return excess requests to conditional acceptance.
If
Five minutes after selection begins, at least 5 unresolved requests remain.
Then
Keep only requests that would block the coming week's work and hand them to the responsible person.
Preparation
Materials
- Support sheets organised by role (1 per role, approximately A3)
- Request cards (5 per role)
- Response markers for acceptance, conditions, and refusal (1 of each per request)
- Dark-coloured pens (1 per person)
Room and setup
- Tables where participants with the same role sit together (1 table per role)
- One whole-group support matrix with rows showing requesting roles and columns showing responding roles
Adjust for people and time
With fewer than 6 participants, use just 2 roles and have each participant alternate between requesting and responding. Up to 30 participants, use the same support matrix with 3–6 people per role. With 31–50, form several sets of roles with no more than 10 people in each set. Exchange within each set, then transfer just one conditional acceptance to the whole-group matrix. Above 50 participants, use separate venues and do not combine the support matrices.
Safety and non-applicable situations
Refusal is an explicit response and remains in the support matrix. Do not use the method where differences in authority make refusal unsafe. Check how many requests can actually be carried out at the same time and return any excess to conditional acceptance.
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): What I Need from You — Henri Lipmanowicz / Keith McCandless / Nancy White
https://www.liberatingstructures.com/what-i-need-from-you
Adaptation under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes made
- CC BY-SA 4.0
Current-page licence notice
This explanation is an adaptation for Taiwa no Fumen based on the official Liberating Structures page linked below. The manuscript's recorded references are listed separately from the web page checked on 17 October 2026.
Changes: the Japanese explanation and facilitation plan have been edited for Taiwa no Fumen. The English edition translates that Japanese manuscript; it is not a verbatim translation of the official page.
The LS-adapted text on this page, including this site's editorial and translation contributions, is shared under CC BY-SA 4.0. When reusing it, credit the creators, identify the source and licence, indicate changes, and follow the licence's ShareAlike terms when sharing adaptations.
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Method names are used to identify their sources. This is not an official LS website, and no endorsement or approval by the creators or rights holders is implied.
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Credits on the checked source page
- Developed by: Henri Lipmanowicz, Keith McCandless
Source page checked on 2026-10-17: What I Need from You (WINFY).
Source lineage
- Original repertoire (2013): Henri Lipmanowicz, Keith McCandless
- 2026 Fieldbook: Keith McCandless, Nancy White
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International · Legal code · Official source policy
This material-specific notice does not itself establish publication clearance. Preserved manuscript references above remain separate from the current page's credits and licence evidence.
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.
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Editorial provenance
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.