Library of facilitation techniques

Participants will design a Coat of Arms that represents them, their support system, and the things they like to do. Participants can draw or write within the different spaces to create the picture. A "Coat of Arms" is a shield with pictures that mean something.

Instructions:

1. Draw a Coat of Arms with these pictures in different spaces: 1. The people in my support system, or the people in my life who are special to me, are.... 2. My favorite food, is.... 3. The things I do best, are..... 4. My future self, 10 years from now (in 2033) is.....
   
1. Other options: favorite music artist/genre, animal that represents who you are
2. Participants will share their "Coat of Arms" with the group once completed. Participants should be given 7 minutes to complete the activity and depending on the size of the group, the facilitator should encourage group share or peer sharing. The Participants can also take the Coat of Arms home with them to hang up in a special place.
   

I was using this approach when facilitating workshop on Continuous Improvement within my organisation. I saw another approach using this method and continuous with this sharing as I feel it was bringing across different message.

Le « World Café » est un processus créatif qui vise à faciliter le dialogue constructif et le partage de connaissances et d’idées, en vue de créer un réseau d’échanges et d’actions. Ce processus reproduit l’ambiance d’un café dans lequel les participants débattent d’une question ou d’un sujet en petits groupes autour de tables.

Attività di facilitazione creativa per sfidare i limiti reali o presunti.

This activity gets participants thinking about the power of relationships and what it means to be a part of a connected community.

Participants use the shared visualization to create a visual representation of all the communities and groups that they have been and currently are a part of. They can create their "map" any way that want, but it's best if the facilitator has an example to share with participants for reference.

After five minutes, participants pair up and share their maps with each other. Alternatively, the reflection can be in a full group.

Reflection Questions:

• How did you feel while you were making your map, and how did you feel looking at your completed map?

• Considering everything you included in your map, what do you think makes a community “woven strong”?

You will choose, as a team, which letter you will select from either X or Y. On a signal from the banker, you will show your chosen letter. The banker and the teams keep a tally of debits and credits.

Each must select 'X’ or ‘Y' in each round. Money is awarded or taken by the banker according to the scoring key below. Play as many rounds as is necessary to find a winner.

This teamwork activity requires participants to work closely together to build a tower from a set of building blocks. 

The players need to coordinate their actions in order to be able to move the wooden blocks with the crane they have, and this can only be solved by precise planning, good communication and well-organised teamwork.

You may use this exercise to emphasise the following themes and outcomes:

• In Leadership training: identifying interdependencies in systems, leadership communication, dealing with risk, giving feedback
  
• In Team building: communicating effectively, cooperating, being an active listener, maintaining the balance, working with values
  
• In Project management: simulating strategic planning, working under time pressure
  
• In Communication training: meta communication, facilitating, dealing with different perspectives
  

Virtual High Five - energetic icebreaker for online groups

It doesn’t matter where you work and what your job role is, if you work with other people together as a team, you will always encounter the same challenges:

• Unclear goals and miscommunication that cause busy work and overtime
• Unstructured meetings that leave attendants tired, confused and without clear outcomes.
• Frustration builds up because internal challenges to productivity are not addressed
• Sudden changes in priorities lead to a loss of focus and momentum
• Muddled compromise takes the place of clear decision- making, leaving everybody to come up with their own interpretation.
• In short, a lack of structure leads to a waste of time and effort, projects that drag on for too long and frustrated, burnt out teams.
  

Use this method if you would like to show the participants the importance of collaboration, team strategy and team effectiveness.