Library of facilitation techniques

In pairs, one person describes a modern appliance to someone from 500 years ago

Individuals express their response to a statement or idea by standing closer or further from a central object. Used with teams to reveal system, hidden patterns, perspectives.

Pairs take turns walking each other through one task from their job, something they do very often, genuinely enjoy, or find difficult, while the listener uses active listening to follow the process. The listener then names the one thing they think a new starter would most need to know to do it well, and the demonstrator confirms, corrects, or adds the part that's hardest to put into words.

Using the Social Process Triangles created by the Institute of Cultural Affairs to identify a broad range of issues faced by a community, followed by the Consensus Workshop Method to see larger patterns of issues.

Inviting a paired walk is surprisingly effective in its simplicity. Going for a walk together increases trust and can help prepare the terrain for conflict resolution, while acting as an energizer at the same time. Make it hybrid-friendly by pairing a person in the room to one joining online!

An energiser to loosen up people

For participants to get acquainted with each other in a meaningful way

You assign some predefined roles to the meeting participants that will support the meeting.

message passed without checking to next person

In Options Place, participants propose and lead their own breakout sessions instead of following a preset agenda. This unleashes people’s creativity and invites them to attend sessions that match their interests. When given the freedom to shape the agenda, participants become more engaged and take greater ownership of solutions, which leads to greater commitment, action, innovation, and follow-through. In this way, Options Place brings to life LS Principle #6, Amplify Freedom and Responsibility. This structure works well for large groups.

The Portrait Gallery is an energetic and fun icebreaker game that gets participants interacting by having the group collaboratively draw portraits of each member. The activity builds a sense of group because it results with each participant having a portrait drawn of him/herself by the other members of the group together. It also has a very colourful visual outcome: the set of portraits which can be posted in the space.