Library of facilitation techniques

Become a product owner and get feedback on your ultimate chocolate bar.

Humans live in language. It defines what we do, how we do it, and why we do it. Language is the bedrock of our cultures and societies. As with fish in water, we go about our daily business without paying much attention to the language around us and how it influences us. Information architect and author, Jorge Arango developed Semantic Environment Mapping years ago to make visible the everyday language through which we so naively swim.

We don’t truly have a good grasp of a situation until we see it in a fuller context. The Context Map is designed to show us the external factors, trends, and forces at work surrounding an organization. Because once we have a systemic view of the external environment we’re in, we are better equipped to respond proactively to that landscape.

We live in fast changing world and we need to think and react quickly and decisively. This gamification tool encourages people to think rapidly and creatively. Remove the mental barriers that prevent people from overthinking and blocking in branstormings.

A critical thinking mindset supports people to reflect by using critical thinking questions when they discover and discuss new information. Critical thinking involves the evaluation of sources such as data, facts, media, stories, observable phenomenon, and research findings. Good critical thinkers can draw reasonable conclusions from a set of information and discriminate between useful and less useful details to solve a problem or to make a decision. Critical thinking skills are key to making better, and well-informed decisions.

In the Desert Island Game, begin by asking your participants an important question – if you were stranded on a desert island, what essential items would you choose to survive?

Participants are given a list of items to choose from and must work together to decide which items will help them stay alive.

The Desert Island Game is a great, remote-friendly exercise for a team to work together and share opinions.

A live two round demo of the same feedback conversation, then pair practice where giver and receiver each score how direct it was. The gap between the two scores shows people how much their message softens on the way out.

One player leaves the room and the group decides a short series of actions (or one action) to positively reinforce and get the player to do. Group decides on a song to sing louder/softer to hot/cold the person into doing the activity.

This game is effectively shows the power and advantages of collaboration and can be a practical demonstration of the Prisoner Dilemma