Library of facilitation techniques

A simple exercise that complements exploratory, discursive, and creative workshops with insights and opinions from outside. Use this exercise when brainstorming ideas, developing a new product or service or creating a strategy or plan that will include others. Participants phone a co-worker and ask them questions relevant to the task. This quickly generates meaningful input from a range of “outside” perspectives. Often, participants will be surprised at how simple it was to solicit this input and how valuable it is to the process.

The story template is a method to help in the exploration or research phase of a project. It is especially useful during shorter processes such as a design sprint or a design jam. It can serve as a substitute for interviews if time/ context does not allow for it and it helps the workshop participants to create data connected to real experiences in their lives.

In order to work without "living in the past", this imaginative activity aims to face and release grief/loss by memorializing former best practices/values from previous workplaces/environments.

Blind Drawing is an icebreaker game where one person describes an object the other person must then draw with only verbal instructions as a guide.

Either checking-in or checking-out is a simple way for a team to open or close a process, symbolically and in a collaborative way. Checking-in/out invites each member in a group to be present, seen and heard, and to express a reflection or a feeling. Checking-in emphasizes presence, focus and group commitment; checking-out emphasizes reflection and symbolic closure.

A 4-step process to co-create group agreements (also known as codes of conduct, group contracts, or ground rules). Discuss each 'G' in turn, starting with Gains, then Gives and Groans, then use the topics that emerged to define Guidelines.

Here's a jolt that can be conducted within 99 seconds, raising awarness of our automatic stereotyping processes.

The empathy map allows you to generate a deeper understanding of one’s motivations and why. 

A step-by-step process to help teams align on their plans and set focus for an upcoming period - in this case, setting Objectives (Rocks) and Key Metrics for quarterly planning.