IDOARRT is a simple tool to support you to lead an effective meeting or group process by setting out clear purpose, structure and goals at the very beginning. It aims to enable all participants to understand every aspect of the meeting or process, which creates the security of a common ground to start from. The acronym stands for Intention, Desired Outcome, Agenda, Rules, Roles and Responsibilities and Time.
Teams need to explore, test and try new things to innovate. Early efforts will be improved and progress when feedback is given and received. Feedback is a key part of any project development and crucial to the iterative process.
It's important to have a learning/growth mindset to see new possibilities and a framework in place to provide boundaries and a safe container for both the receiver and the giver of the feedback at hand.
A process such as I Like, I Wish, I Wonder can support teams (big and small) to collect feedback quickly. Can be run online or face-to-face. A Miro template is attached below.
People share a fear, it is received by another, and then they are asked to share the advice that a trusted mentor or friend would give them.
In this decision-making exercise, possible actions are mapped based on two factors: effort required to implement and potential impact. Categorizing ideas along these lines is a useful technique in decision making, as it obliges contributors to balance and evaluate suggested actions before committing to them.
Brief active response during a presentation or (shudder) lecture, can take 2 minutes or 10, can be silent or voiced.
A process for understanding a complex problem situation
This is an exercise to use when the group gets stuck in details and struggles to see the big picture. Also good for defining a vision.
This Pizza Game is a great way for new or established teams to understand the principles of Lean & Agile by diving into Kanban in a quick and fun way that is hard to communicate through words alone. It teaches you how to get from an existing process to a Kanban system, how to visualize the system, and start modifying it.
The Pizza Game enables the teams to have a hands-on experience feeling the pains, gains, frustrations, and fun throughout the process - and to reflect on improvements that the participants can share back in their workplace. Bonus: you get to make (paper or digital) Pizza!
The KANO model is one the most effective methods of prioritization. It allows you to look at the importance of tasks from the customer's perspective.
This leadership development activity offers a self-assessment framework for people to first identify what skills, attributes and attitudes they find important for effective leadership, and then assess their own development and initiate goal setting.
We live and work in turbulent times, juggling never-ending to-do lists, back-to-back meetings, and constant context switching. When people enter a meeting, they often carry mental clutter – unfinished tasks, lingering thoughts, or stress from the previous discussion.
This simple yet effective exercise helps participants mentally transition into the meeting by externalizing their distractions, physically letting them go, and creating a fresh focus for the discussion ahead. I use this whenever I sense a group (whether virtual or in-person) is distracted, overwhelmed, or coming straight from another meeting. It works well when combined with a check-in question that gets everyone speaking.
