Library of facilitation techniques

find the right tool for your next session

Featured Author – International Association of Facilitators

IAF is a worldwide community of facilitators promoting excellence in the use of professional group process facilitation to create engagement and impact.

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256 results

Methods (256)

Mirna Smidt  from Trainers Toolbox

Signature Strengths

A positive psychology exercise that helps participants discover and apply their core character strengths in new and meaningful ways. Based on research by Seligman and colleagues, this activity boosts long-term well-being and reduces depressive symptoms by encouraging daily strength-based action.
Participants complete the VIA strengths questionnaire, reflect on their top strengths, and develop practical ways to apply one of them in new contexts during the coming week.

Ideal for personal development, coaching, and strengths-based workshops, this exercise promotes increased motivation, happiness, and a more conscious relationship with oneself.

Suzanne  Whitby

Sink or... sail, swim, surf and scuba!

This fun activity allows participants to follow instructions on a MURAL whiteboard to perform a variety of activities and eventually share their name and location. You can use this as a short ice-breaker or energiser (remove some of the activities) or as either pre-work or an opening activity to make sure that everyone knows how to use MURAL before an online session begins.

A MURAL template is included for you to use and modify as you wish (at the bottom of this method).

Hyper Island

Stakeholder Analysis

Managing stakeholders can help you ensure that your projects are met with success where others might fail. This activity supports you to identify your project’s stakeholders. It helps you take into account everyone who significantly impacts a decision, or could be affected by it. Identifying who has various levels of input and interest in your projects can help align decisions.

Hyper Island

Stinky Fish

A short activity to run early in a program focused on sharing fears, anxieties and uncertainties related to the program theme. The purpose is to create openness within a group. The stinky fish is a metaphor for "that thing that you carry around but don’t like to talk about; but the longer you hide it, the stinkier it gets." By putting stinky fish (fears and anxieties) on the table, participants begin to relate to each other, become more comfortable sharing, and identify a clear area for development and learning.

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Mirna Smidt  from Trainers Toolbox

Strengths Spotting

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.