Library of facilitation techniques

It enacts LS Principle #9, Engage in Seriously Playful Curiosity.

A playful and reflective group exercise that helps participants recognise and appreciate both their own and each other's signature strengths.

By anonymously sharing top character strengths and guessing which list belongs to whom, the group engages in a positive exchange that promotes self-awareness, team bonding, and mutual appreciation.

This activity is based on the VIA classification of character strengths developed by Peterson & Seligman (2004), and is ideal for team-building, coaching, or personal development workshops.

Strengths Spotting is a reflective coaching exercise in which participants uncover personal strengths by engaging in deep, meaningful conversation with a partner. Using guiding questions, each person interviews the other and listens for clues about their natural talents, motivations, and flow states.

This coaching-style activity boosts self-awareness and is particularly useful in personal development, team-building, or coaching sessions.

Developed by futurist Sohail Inayatullah, CLA is a cornerstone of critical futures thinking. It’s designed to support more inclusive, layered conversations by opening up not just what might happen, but why we imagine it that way.

A speculative prompt-based activity that encourages participants to explore alternative futures by asking bold or unexpected "what if" questions. This method invites imaginative thinking and helps loosen assumptions about how the future has to unfold.

This activity invites participants to look for weak signals, which are early signs of change that may shape the future. It helps build awareness of emerging trends, stimulates curiosity and encourages participants to notice what’s happening at the edges of the present.

A creative warm-up and visioning exercise that invites participants to imagine a future world or situation and describe what it feels like to be there. This approach helps surface early assumptions, hopes, and curiosities, while gently introducing the idea that the future can be imagined and shaped.

Get participants to reflect on facilitation skills they'd like to develop and set out on a quest of personal development.

Wizard's Boon is a quick, energizing activity that encourages group presence and invites participants to consider how they might collaborate more effectively in the session ahead.

In Social Presencing Theater, the word theater is used in connection to its root meaning – a place where something significant becomes visible, or where a community of people can see a shared experience. 4D mapping makes visible the current reality in a social system, such as a school system, health care system, or government.

Mindfulness of body is a foundational skill for Social Presencing Theater. And like any skill, we learn it through practice. The 20-minute Dance is a practice in which we pay attention to the feeling of the body, without thinking about it or judging it. We are not trying to fix or change or accomplish anything. We welcome every moment.

The Stuck Exercise is a process by which one experiences going through the whole U journey by moving from Sculpture 1 (current reality) to Sculpture 2 (emerging future). We do not know what the movements will be or where they will stop, but we can follow the movement and then reflect on our experience. Surprising insights can arise.