Library of facilitation techniques

Wizard Mingle is a simple networking activity designed to break the ice while getting participants to discuss core facilitation skills and begin exploring group dynamics.

Unlike the traditional game of "2 Truths and 1 Lie," which can often turn into a competition, this activity focuses on building trust and connection. By sharing their achievements and aspirations, participants have the opportunity to get to know each other better and offer support. The goal is to create a supportive environment where everyone feels comfortable sharing and receiving feedback.

When you raise a difficult issue or surface a deep value conflict, you take people out of their comfort zone and raise a lot of heat. That is tricky business.

This is an agenda for an initial 4-hour FutureSearch workshop

Estimation Games are great for starting conversations and honing and tuning estimations before an estimation session. This exercise helps a team to get into the right mindset for estimating and planning for the sprint.

The “Penny Game” allows the team to learn through self-organization and observation; specifically, that smaller batches can deliver value to the customer faster. In addition, the game demonstrates that the size of the batches has a direct impact on the delivery. With a large batch, the Workers feel more pressure on themselves to get the batch to the next Worker; with smaller batches, the pressure is lower but more constant.

A simple reflection exercises where team members recall as many concepts or phrases relating to a workshop or training as possible for each letter of the alphabet.

The Make a World game appeals to visual, auditory, and kinesthetic learners because of its layers of interaction. It’s useful (and downright fun) because it lets players imagine the future and take action to create a first version of it. All successful ventures start with a vision and some small, initial effort toward crystallization. Alexander Graham Bell’s vision for the telephone started as highly rudimentary sketches.

This is a fun icebreaker or energizer where participants are asked “What's in the bag?” It's a simple way to engage people and have fun getting to know each other, it gets participants to step into the space together. Each team gets points for any items that are called out that they have with them.