exercise · all tools
9 Whys
Depth · what it can open●●○○2 — reflective
Holding · facilitation1 — host
Trust · group readiness★any
Disclosure · what is sharedoptional
Pairs interview each other about their work on a shared challenge, asking "why is that important to you?" again and again — up to nine times — until the answer reaches bedrock purpose. Insights consolidate through quartets to the whole group. Makes the purpose of working together unignorable.
Hold with care
- Repeated whys can reach surprisingly personal ground — interviewers hold curiosity, not interrogation
Practical
- Time
- 25-30 min
- Group
- 2–∞ · pairs, small-group, large-group
- Settings
- in-person, online
- Materials
- Chair pairs, no tables; paper
- Mechanisms
- values-clarification, dialogic-encounter, narrative-identity
- Change scope
- state · repeatable
Origin & where it lives
Henri Lipmanowicz, Keith McCandless & Nancy White — Liberating Structures
Instructions: open online · CC BY-SA 4.0
In this directory via Liberating Structures
Related: values check in (pairs-with)
status: checked · added 2026-08-25