Library of facilitation techniques

Workshop activities to Analyse, Understand and Innovate

Tools and techniques to analyse and understand complex situations, to unleash creativity and to discover new insights. Make sure your group explores the situation at hand and all participants get a thorough understanding before moving on to make decisions.

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160 results

Methods (159)

Hyper Island

Project Point of Departure

This is a method for individuals and teams to define the structure, direction and first steps of a project. The individual or team works through a set of questions and documents the answers in a sharable digital format. This can either be a “living” document that develops with the project it can be left as just a clear and concise record of the starting-point.

Nick Heap

Team of Two

Much of the business of an organisation takes place between pairs of people. These interactions can be positive and developing or frustrating and destructive. You can improve them using simple methods, providing people are willing to listen to each other.

"Team of two" will work between secretaries and managers, managers and directors, consultants and clients or engineers working on a job together. It will even work between life partners.

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Liberating Structures

Creative Destruction (TRIZ)

In Creative Destruction, groups imagine how to achieve the worst possible results. By asking “What must we stop doing to make progress on our deepest purpose?” participants can have fun, courageous conversations about letting go. Since laughter often erupts, issues that are otherwise taboo get a chance to be aired and confronted. With creative destruction come opportunities for renewal as local action and innovation rush in to fill the vacuum. Whoosh!

This structure embodies LS Principle #8, Invite Creative Destruction to Enable Innovation

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Liberating Structures

Purpose-To-Practice (P2P)

By using P2P at the start of an initiative, the stakeholders can shape together all the elements that will determine the success of their initiative. The group begins by generating a shared purpose (i.e., why the work is important to each participant and the larger community). All additional elements—principles, participants, structure, and practices—are designed to help achieve the purpose. By shaping these five elements together, participants clarify how they can organize themselves to adapt creatively and scale up for success. For big initiatives, P2P makes it possible to include a large number of stakeholders in shaping their future initiative.

Liberating Structures

Discovery & Action Dialogue (DAD)

DAD makes it easy for a group to discover better practices that only a few members are using to solve a common problem, called positive deviant behaviors.


We’re going to uncover the behaviors and practices some of us are already using to tackle our shared challenge. It’s like going on a treasure hunt to find the solutions hidden in our midst.”When held in a local setting close to where the problem manifests, it creates a safe space to invent new and more effective practices, sparking imagination and strengthening resolve to take action. It also builds relationships between people in diverse roles. This structure enacts LS Principle #2, Practice Deep Respect for People and Local Solutions.

Liberating Structures

Critical Uncertainities

In Critical Uncertainties, groups develop strategies for handling factors that are impossible to predict or control. This helps to quickly test strategies and improve our ability to respond to future challenges. Rather than creating fixed plans, this structure builds creative adaptability, enabling groups to envision multiple futures, articulate higher-order goals, and act flexibly. It brings to life LS Principle #7, Emphasize Possibilities: Believe Before You See.

Thiagi Group

Leadership Envelopes

Leadership exercise in groups, working with practical leadership principles.

This activity helps groups to translate abstract leadership principles into practical on-the-job behaviours. Participants work in groups to come up with real-life application of leadership principles. The groups take multiple rounds to build upon the ideas of each other, and in the end, evaluate the best ideas to identify the most useful behaviours.

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Thiagi Group

Participants from Hell

This is a structured sharing activity that enables us to explore techniques for handling participants who disrupt interactive training sessions. 


Different teams receive envelopes labeled with different types of disruptive participants. Participants brainstorm guidelines for handling disruptive behaviours, record the guidelines on a card, and place the card inside the envelope. 

Teams rotate the envelopes and generate guideline cards for handling other types of disruptive participants. During the evaluation round, team members review the guideline cards generated by other teams and identify the top five suggestions.