Library of facilitation techniques

Fishbone diagrams show the causes of a specific event.

The objectives are to build group member relationships through verbal and nonverbal cue-sensing and effective adaptation to others' displayed emotions through entertaining and nonthreatening skits.

The real name of this jolt is Proactive Planning, but using that name will give away the key point that we want players to discover. Presented as a word game, this jolt lulls lures players to go after immediate gains in a mindless fashion only to regret the action later.

Organize the day's meeting by co-creating and assigning roles among participants.

Open your workshop / session / meeting with a visual check-in that enables people to be there as who they are and what's on their mind:

• Every participant selects a picture representing how they are
• Take turns sharing how this cards represents them/their mood/situation

A focused meditation to become present and aware. We accept our feelings, leaving behind what we doesn't serve us right now. A ideal way to open a workshop or team meeting.

Individuals or groups prepare a collage of photos, icons, or quick art that reviews the concepts and skills previously learned in the program. Others interpret what the art and images mean based on their own learning.

A fun energizer that uses multiple senses.

I dread the moment when people ask me, “What do you do?” I don't know how to explain that I am a performance technologist, or an instructional designer, or a facilitator. So I cheat by saying that I am a trainer.

Here's an activity that helps you become more fluent in explaining what you do for a living.

This exercise can be used as a warm-up for project and other planning processes. It can also be used in team building.

Because a checklist is a focusing object, it demands that the team discuss the order and importance of certain tasks. Team members are likely to have different perspectives on these things, and the checklist is a means to bring these issues to the surface and work with them.