Open to All, Owned by None: Primed to Spread Everywhere

Writing the LS Fieldbook with Nancy White gave me an opportunity to look back over the last dozen years. I could see a glorious constellation of innovations spreading across the world and a vibrant social movement composed of leaders working on higher-order goals. The co-evolution and spread of LS is breathtaking. Within months of Covid-19 arriving, 90% of the repertoire was adapted for online interactions. To face new realities, practitioners stepped up to co-evolve timely prototypes like Spiral Journal, Grief Walking, and Strategy Knotworking.

And this hindsight helps when looking over the horizon. Immediately, a few big questions pop into view, followed by a pair of strategic actions.

**First, the questions:**

What becomes possible when a global repertoire is treated not as intellectual property, but as a living, breathing commons?
How is it that we are creatively adapting LS in the wild, while simultaneously protecting the minimum specifications and principles that keep the structures potent and magical?
How is it that we are carefully guarding this work so it remains open to all, while simultaneously encouraging practitioners worldwide to build livelihoods around its spread?

With the release of the new Fieldbook and remastered website, we are clarifying both our legal scaffolding and our social architecture. The Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike license (CC BY-SA 4.0) and the new LS Commons hub are two sides of the same coin: one offers light, clear legal protection, while the other invites creative exploration and deep engagement.

Together, they ensure the foundational DNA of Liberating Structures remains open to all, owned by none, and primed to spread everywhere.

Action # 1: The CC BY-SA 4.0 Legal Scaffold

We shifted to a CC BY-SA 4.0 license because it balances open propagation with fidelity to the core principles and ambitions of LS. What it means in plain language:

The legal scaffolds of LS have three core elements:

**Attribution (BY):** Honor the Origin
**ShareAlike (SA):** Keep the Well Open
**Commercial Freedom:** Value Your Labor

Attribution (BY): Honor the Origin. You are free to share, translate, and remix anything in the repertoire. All we ask is that you trace the breadcrumbs back to the source so others can discover the wider repertoire.
ShareAlike (SA): Keep the Well Open. If you remix a structure, design new slides, or build a digital tool, you must release that derivative under this exact same license. This simple rule prevents anyone from fencing off the commons into a proprietary product. What starts open stays open via a link or an excerpt of the artifact itself.
Commercial Freedom: Value Your Labor. Unlike the prior "Non-Commercial" license, CC BY-SA encourages coaches, consultants, and educators to charge for workshops, facilitation, and coaching. Sell your expertise, your time, and your artistry with confidence—while keeping the foundational resources freely available to the next person. Far-flung practitioners everywhere won't need to hire lawyers to know they can put these resources to work.

Maintaining Commitments to One Another: Simple Ways to Give Credit

Fulfilling the Attribution requirement is straightforward. We honor the source of foundational assets so others can find the origin. Adapt these snippets to match your medium:

**Websites, Apps, & Digital Platforms (Footer):**
"Includes content from the *Liberating Structures Fieldbook* and website by Keith McCandless and Nancy White, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0."
**Slide Decks, Agendas, & Participant Handouts:**
"Adapted from the Liberating Structures repertoire (*The Surprising Power of Liberating Structures* and *The Liberating Structures Fieldbook*). Shared freely under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0."
**Social Posts & Short Captions:**
"Anchored in #LiberatingStructures by Lipmanowicz, McCandless, & White. Licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Examples of attribution in three different mediums.

Examples of LS community members giving sharp attribution include: Elise Keith’s LS Design Cards; and, Barry Overeem, The Liberator’s 1-2-4-All Practice Guide.

Action # 2: Launch the LS Commons

A legal license is only a scaffold; community is what brings it alive. While CC BY-SA 4.0 provides the legal rules of engagement, our LS Principles provide the social contract.

The LS Commons is our shared generative hub where field practitioners can bring local experiments, surface emerging structures, share translations, and cross-pollinate across domains.

When you create an app, discover an elegant twist on a string, or adapt a structure for a challenging setting, the Commons gives your innovation a place to land, evolve, and benefit practitioners worldwide.

To give this inventive energy a reliable home, we are transitioning away from scattered platforms (e.g., Slack, LinkedIn) to Qiqochat. It offers dedicated infrastructure to maintain fidelity via a global calendar, an emerging resources library, a prototyping space for novel structures, and user group coordination. If you are interested in stewarding and hosting within the LS Commons on Qiqochat, [sign up here].

Liftoff Questions: Stepping into the Commons

What creative riff or surprising string have you invented locally that is ready to be protected-and-shared with the wider world?
What needs to be invented next for you to move forward on a higher-order goal?
Where in your ecosystem could the commercial freedom of CC BY-SA help you boldly introduce Liberating Structures to new audiences?
What is one reciprocal gift—a translation, a case story, an illustration, or a constructive critique—you might bring to the LS Commons this year?