Library of facilitation techniques

Useful technique to examine the consequences of doing nothing.

Participants can gain insight into their own pattern of interaction and habits. Helping Heuristics make it possible for them to experience how they can choose to change how they work with others by using a progression of practical methods.

Heuristics are shortcuts that help people identify what is important when entering a new situation. They help them develop deeper insight into their own interaction patterns and make smarter decisions quickly. A series of short exchanges reveals heuristics or simple rules of thumb for productive helping. Try them out!

This structure enacts LS Principle #5, Practice Self-Discovery Within a Group

Todos los componentes del equipo contribuyen a la creación de una lista de objetivos colectivos a alcanzar durante el siguiente período de trabajo, agrupados en términos de urgencia e importancia.

With this facilitation technique you can immediately include everyone regardless of how large the group is. You can generate better ideas and more of them faster than ever before. You can tap the know-how and imagination that is distributed widely in places not known in advance.

Open, generative conversation unfolds. Ideas and solutions are sifted in rapid fashion. Most importantly, participants own the ideas, so follow-up and implementation is simplified. No buy-in strategies needed! Simple and elegant!

This structure reinforces LS Principle #1, ­Include and Unleash Everyone.

This process is intended to involve the team in shaping its own work environment and promote a culture of continuous improvement.

You can engage a group to learn and improve rapidly from tapping three levels of knowledge simultaneously: (1) explicit knowledge shared by participants; (2) tacit knowledge discovered through observing each other’s performance; and (3) latent knowledge, i.e., new ideas that emerge and are jointly developed. 

This powerful combination can be the source of transformative experiences and, at the same time, it is seriously fun. Participants identify and act out solutions to chronic or daunting problems. A diverse mix of people is invited to dramatize simple elements that work to solve a problem. Innovations represented in the Improv sketches are assembled incrementally from pieces or chunks that can be used separately or together. It is a playful way to get very serious work done! This structure embodies LS Principle #4, Learn by Failing Forward.

The trainee demonstrates that they have successfully applied what they have learned to their work and only then receives their certificate.

Every meeting deserves a plan. Note that a great plan can’t guarantee a great outcome, but it will help lay down the fundamentals from which you can adapt. Sketch out these fundamentals by using the 7Ps framework.

Two teams separately prepare and act out the same basic roleplay. Other participants watch these role-plays, compare the two versions, and evaluate them.

In Network Relationship Patterns, participants identify how their group describes its work, how it actually works, and how it wants to work.

This structure clarifies current relationship patterns to map a transition toward new ones. It is designed to make conversations about intangible group dynamics easier by providing a shared language for describing and visualizing patterns.

Participants use simple cards to represent different roles, behaviors, or connection types in a network (for example, who initiates, who bridges, who withdraws, who amplifies).

By arranging and rearranging these cards, groups can explore how influence flows, where bottlenecks exist, and how new connection patterns might improve collaboration. This structure helps teams better understand relational dynamics and intentionally shift toward more productive and inclusive network patterns.

It brings to life LS Principle #7, Emphasize Possibilities: Believe Before You See.

A SWOT Analysis is used in project planning, strategic planning and other processes where agreement is needed about the current situation of a project, team, department or organization. It stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats.