Library of facilitation techniques

Roses, buds, and thorns is a quick and simple team exercise that can be performed at the start of a group meeting. The idea is to evaluate a project, team task, or even your day by having each team member come up with a Rose (positive highlight), Thorn (struggle or challenge), and Bud (opportunity for improvement). The goal of this activity is to open up discussion among team members and acknowledge the strengths and weaknesses of others. This can allow you to put measures in place to do more of what's going well, and fix what needs fixing. As well, this activity inspires creativity and debate within teams. Discussing Buds can encourage new, creative ideas to come to the fore. Finally, the activity allows you to gain insight from all members of the team as communication and honesty are important for every group!

In the Design Sprint process, the interview is a crucial step to test your prototype.

This method provides a deliberate and scientific approach to conduct effective interviews. A consistent process and unbiased mindset yield realistic feedback. Effective scoring gives clarity to the results and primes you to make strategic decisions.

Even though Three Questions takes just a few minutes, it provokes the participants into reflecting for a long time.

Sometimes a number of people are silent and there is not necessarily a dominant person in the group. This often happens in cultures where being assertive is not valued.

As a leader or manager in a large organization, you probably have a sense of the culture and people challenges facing you, but at the same time, you must also manage not only down but up and across the organization.

Culture Mapping gives you the intelligent information you require to make a business case for the interventions, executive support, and budget you will need to minimize risk and maximize the chances of success for your change initiative.

What made success possible? In less than one hour, a group of any size can generate the list of conditions that are essential for its success. You can liberate spontaneous momentum and insights for positive change from within the organization as “hidden” success stories are revealed. Positive movement is sparked by the search for what works now and by uncovering the root causes that make success possible.

Used as a post-session follow up or multiple session activity, participants share their action plan or project success. Results can be posted and discussed on a shared network or brought to a later live session (such as a review session or informal group catch up). 

The object of this game is to examine an issue from another perspective and find significance in the issue.

Participants find other participants’ LinkedIn profiles (or other social media) and search for specific information to relay during program icebreakers.

In this activity, the group will be asked to express a defined quality through drawing. The result will be a mixture of perceptions, and will open the conversation around a particular topic.

Vivid way to structure a discussion for a complex topic.