Repeat / Reword / Support
Partner A either repeats, rewords, or supports Partner B's statement before adding their own dialogue.
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6 Words
This tool is designed to help critical thinkers focus on a core idea by writing a short phrase summarizing their thoughts into a set number of words that are clear, concise, and accurate. This idea is based on a complete short story written by Ernest Hemingway: “For sale, baby shoes – never worn.” Six Words forces people to synthesize their ideas in a succinct and meaningful way, cutting away fluff and distilling the idea to its bare essence.
Fist to five
Fist to Five is quality voting. It has the elements of consensus built in and can prepare groups to transition into consensus if they wish. Most people are accustomed to the simplicity of “yes” and “no” voting rather than the complex and more community-oriented consensus method of decision making. Fist to Five introduces the element of the quality of the “yes.” A fist is a “no” and any number of fingers is a “yes,” with an indication of how good a “yes” it is. This moves a group away from quantity voting to quality voting, which is considerably more informative. Fist to Five can also be used during consensus decision making as a way to check the “sense of the group,” or to check the quality of the consensus.
1/2/3 - Snap/Clap/Stomp
In pairs count to 3. Then replace 1 with snap, 2 with clap, 3 with stomp
Workers and Watchers
Blindfold half of the participants and ask them to lay a rope on the floor in the form of a circle. Conduct a quick debriefing involving the blindfolded workers and the watchers. Blindfold the other half and give them the task of laying the rope on the floor in the form of a triangle. Continue with the debriefing discussion.
Switch
n a reflective teamwork activity (RTA), the process and the content merge with each other. Participants work through an activity and use the outcomes to evaluate the process they used. Here's an RTA that explores challenges associated with losing and gaining team members in the midst of a project.
Missing Step
Many training topics involve procedures or processes (e.g. Team formation process; a product launching process, etc.). Here's an interactive lecture design that encourages the participants to go beyond the content of the presentation and critically examine the steps of the procedure or phases of the process.
Use This Strategy When:
* The training content is a procedure with different steps or a process with different phases.
* The participants know something about the procedure or process and can conduct a group discussion.
Mix and mingle
Fun and easy sequence to be used with all types of groups of people (colleagues, team mates, new team, communities, random group of people, etc.)
World Cafe
The World Cafe is designed primarily to generate collective knowledge sharing, webs of personal relationships, and new possibilities for action.
Wheel of Reasoning
Based on a storytelling technique, this tool is used to develop a deeper understanding of reasonable alternative future scenarios.
A Day in the Life
Understand your users day-to-day. To better design for people, try shadowing them for a day. By observing someone in their own context, you'll notice details about their life - the way they engage with people, pr their routine - that you'd otherwise never see.