Facilitation Market

Purpose: To engage the whole group in a discussion about facilitation skills, to share a story about how those skills might be demonstrated and share ideas and best practices.

Set-up: Download the Workshops & Wizards deck. For this exercise, you'll be using all of the cards and will need around 2x the number of participants you have.

Layout all the cards on a table facedown. 

Step 1 - Rules

• Briefly explain the concept of the cards to the group. In short, these cards are magical items that represent a core aspect of successful facilitation/collaboration.
• For this game, we are facilitation wizards and witches attending a market where we are trying to quickly build the best set of facilitation equipment with limited supplies. 
• Players must find 3 cards that:
  1. Add up to a total of less than Level 9.
  2. Are all different colour suits. 
  3. Once players have found 3 cards that add up to less than level 9, they may sit down.
  4. Give people a time limit of 1 minute or 30 seconds to get back to their chairs before the dungeon closes. Encourage them to be fast - the quest depends on it!

Step 2

• Start the timer and invite the group to grab the equipment for their quest! 

Step 3

• Once everyone has sat down, invite the group to look at their cards and choose their favourite item from those they have chosen and to reflect on:
• Why you chose it?
• Why is it important when working in a group?
• Why might it be useful for leaders/facilitators/trainers?

Step 4

• Get people into pairs and ask them to each bring their favourite item with them
• Ask them to discuss 
• how a facilitation witch or wizard might use those two items in a scenario relating to the topic of your training OR when facilitating a group workshop
• three bits of advice they would give to an apprentice mage who wanted to use these two items effectively.
• Give folks 5-10 minutes for this depending on how deep you want them to go. 
• Optionally, ask groups to give their facilitation witch or wizard a name and ask them to be ready to present how they might use the two items to have a great session in the form of a story. 
• For example, " Lilith is a witch who hails from the ice cold North of England. She specializes in humour magic and uses her two signature items: the Wand of Many Questions and the Lute of Good Times to help groups hold difficult conversations. When a wandering apprentice asked for advice she told them...." 

Step 5

• Ask pairs to report back on what they discussed and share how their facilitation witch or wizard would use their items to have a great session. 
• It can be fun for folks to start by introducing their witch or wizard and let the group know what level they are (the combined level of their two items.)
• Using the combined level to determine group order can be fun too. For example, you might ask all the Level 2 witches and wizards to raise their hand and share first, then move on to any Level 3 witches etc. 
• After all pairs have shared, thank the group for their stories and encourage them to hold onto their favourite magical items and think about embodying them during the session to see what happens. 

Step 6 (optional)

• Invite participants to keep their cards with them throughout the session, look out for examples of other people using this skill during the session and gift it to that person during the session or during the breaks.
• When gifting the card to someone, participants should tell that person why they are receiving the card and give thanks for embodying the magical artefact.
• Modelling this yourself is a great way to demonstrate this action. I'd give an example when explaining and give a few extra cards out during the session when you see an opportunity.

Step 7 (optional)

• As a closing activity for your session, you might ask participants to reflect on the cards and share along these lines:
• Which magical items did you see in action in the session?
• How did those items impact you or the session?
• How did it feel to give and receive magical items from others? 
• If you were to take one of the magical items with you for the rest of your day, which would it be?

Tips & Variations for Facilitation Market 

• If you have time or a particularly creative group, invite them to flesh out their characters during Step 4 more. For example, invite them to draw or find a picture of their witch or wizard and perhaps give them a class or preferred element of magic.