exercise · all tools

Panarchy

Depth · what it can open○○○1 — informational
Holding · facilitation2 — facilitator
Trust · group readinessany
Disclosure · what is sharednone

Groups map how their challenge lives at multiple embedded system levels — individual, team, organization, sector, society — and where change at one level enables or blocks change at another. Identifies which level the group can actually move, and who must be engaged above and below. The longest-range systems lens in the LS repertoire.

Practical

Time
130 min
Group
8 · small-group, large-group
Settings
in-person, online
Materials
Large panarchy chart on the wall; sticky notes; ideally participants from multiple organizational levels
Mechanisms
systems-sensing, perspective-taking
Change scope
state · one-off

Origin & where it lives

Henri Lipmanowicz & Keith McCandless (panarchy concept: Gunderson & Holling) — Liberating Structures / resilience ecology

Instructions: open online · CC BY-SA 4.0

In this directory via Liberating Structures

status: checked · added 2026-08-25