Method guide · Arrange people and ideas
Drawing Together
Draw an experience with five symbols and receive another person's reading before explaining your intent.
- People
- 2–40
- Base procedure time
- 50 minutes
- Recording
- Individual record
Purpose: Reflect and learn; Explore through dialogue; Generate ideas.
English guide
Text acceptance is not approval of this rendered page, its media, or publication.
How this method works
A method for drawing an experience with a limited set of symbols and receiving another person's reading before the author explains it. Use it when words fix the discussion in place, feelings and relationships disappear from bullet-point lists, or discoveries depend too much on how well people explain. Participants depict change using only the custom symbols of a dot, parallel lines, enclosure, bridge, and wave, then create a second draft through size, distance, and overlap. While the author remains silent, the reader records the relationships they see on an interpretation strip. Afterwards, the author checks the differences from their intent. The result is two drafts of a symbolic drawing, another person's interpretation, and relationships newly noticed by the author. Do not use it to judge drawing skill or to make someone's feelings public without their consent.
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.
Use the arrow keys, Home or End while these controls have focus. The complete phase schedule remains below, including without JavaScript.
- Try the symbols0–8 minutes from the start (8 minutes)
Action: Try. Participation: Individually.
Recording not separately specified for this phase
- Draw an experience8–20 minutes from the start (12 minutes)
Action: Draw. Participation: Individually.
Individual record
- Refine the arrangement20–30 minutes from the start (10 minutes)
Action: Refine. Participation: Individually.
Individual record
- Read each other's drawings in silence30–45 minutes from the start (15 minutes)
Action: Read. Participation: Pairs.
Individual record
- Add an insight45–50 minutes from the start (5 minutes)
Action: Add. Participation: Individually.
Individual record
Facilitation steps
- For 8 minutes, try the 5 symbols of a dot, parallel lines, enclosure, bridge, and wave. Each person decides what their lines will mean in this session.
- For 12 minutes, draw the beginning, turning point, and present of the chosen experience on one sheet using only the 5 symbols, without adding explanatory text.
- For 10 minutes, review the first draft and draw a second draft, changing only 3 elements: distance, size, and overlap.
- For 7 minutes, work in pairs. The first author remains silent while the reader writes up to 3 relationships they see on an interpretation strip.
- For 8 minutes, switch author and reader. In the trio formed when the participant count is odd, read each person's drawing for 4 minutes so everyone's drawing is included.
- For 5 minutes, each author writes one relationship they have newly noticed through differences from their intent, then adds it in the margin of the second draft.
If something changes
If
Six minutes after the first draft begins, 2 or more people have not put a single symbol on their paper.
Then
Place just two symbols: a dot for a person present at the beginning of the experience and an enclosure for a barrier, then connect them with one line.
If
Three minutes after silent interpretation begins, an author in at least one pair has corrected the interpretation.
Then
Turn the author's interpretation strip face down. Until the reader finishes, the author notes only the words they hear.
Preparation
Materials
- One shared sample sheet of the custom symbol set: dot, parallel lines, enclosure, bridge, and wave
- 2 sheets of drawing paper per person, A4 or larger
- One thick pen per person
- 2 interpretation strips per person, one for the author and one for the reader
- 2 display fasteners per person
Room and setup
- One tabletop drawing area per participant
- Pairs; with an odd number of people, make the last group a trio
- One wall space per person where the completed drawing can be viewed from a distance
Adjust for people and time
With 2 people, form one pair and read each other's drawings. With 3 people, form one group and allow 4 minutes per person. With 4–40 people, form pairs; if the count is odd, add one person to the last pair. Even with 40 people, 20 pairs read simultaneously, so the activity fits within the 15-minute phase. Do not hold whole-group presentations. Let each author choose who can see their displayed drawing.
Safety and non-applicable situations
Do not judge drawing skill or make someone's feelings public without their consent. Do not hold whole-group presentations; let each author choose who can see their displayed drawing. Receive the reader's interpretation before correcting or explaining the drawing.
Historical translation and source notes
These original notes are retained verbatim with their fixed source versions. This historical label does not resolve a source-specific concern or establish current acceptance.
- The source allocates 7 minutes and 8 minutes to the pair-reading steps, while specifying 4 minutes per person for a trio in the shared 15-minute phase. It does not explain how the trio's 12 minutes are distributed across those two steps. This draft preserves both instructions without adding a schedule.
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): Drawing Together — Henri Lipmanowicz / Keith McCandless / Nancy White
https://www.liberatingstructures.com/drawing-together
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.
This site's notation diagrams and on-screen illustrations explain the facilitation process. They are not presented as official LS icons.
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.
This notice does not grant blanket permission to reuse third-party photographs, logos or linked materials. Trademark, personality and other rights are addressed separately.
Materials created before June 2026 may carry different terms. Check the terms attached to an older item before reusing it.
To the extent permitted by law, the source materials and adaptations are provided without warranties. See the legal code for details.
Credits on the checked source page
- Developed by: Henri Lipmanowicz, Keith McCandless
Related work credited on that page: Angeles Arrien; Signs of Life.
Source page checked on 2026-10-17: Drawing Together.
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.
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
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.