Library of facilitation techniques

The closing evaluation of a program.

🔍 Embracing Self-Discovery: The "Getting to Know Your Role" Icebreaker

This is a uniquely designed icebreaker activity that serves as a powerful catalyst for self-reflection and team communication. This resource, set against the backdrop of the BIG PICTURE Board, is tailored to deepen the understanding of individual roles within an organisation. It's not just about breaking the ice; it’s an exploration into how each team member perceives their contribution and how they interact with the broader business landscape. By engaging in this activity, participants embark on a journey to uncover the value they add and the dynamics of their workplace relationships.

This icebreaker leverages the BIG PICTURE Board to visually map these insights, making abstract concepts tangible. The Board's design, encompassing various aspects of a business, provides a structured yet flexible platform for this exploration. Participants use the board to position themselves within the organisation, leading to revelations about alignment with team goals, potential areas of misalignment, and opportunities for growth. The simplicity of the BIG PICTURE approach amplifies the effectiveness of the "Getting to Know Your Role" activity, making it an essential tool in any facilitator's repertoire.

Dropping 'Getting to Know Your Role' in your workshop planning offers a structured yet flexible approach to session design, enabling facilitators to create more engaging, introspective, and impactful experiences that deepen team understanding and cohesion.

A fun and quick check-in activity: share positive intentions to start the day in a fun, childlike form!

Open Book is a quiz game that helps participants become familiar with the structure and organization of a reference manual. During the first phase of the game, individual participants review the manual and prepare 10 questions. During the second phase, participants form into teams and select their five best questions. During the third phase, you conduct a quiz program using these questions and some others that you have prepared earlier.

Help people to share their individual way of navigating an activity - such as doing their work, or attending an event - by combining the revealing power of metaphor with a series of simple interactions.

When people are hesitant to engage with each other, for example at the beginning of an event, you can help them to actively feel heard, and create a space where discovering and sharing rarely-noticed personal talents and insights becomes straightforward.

Once participants feel heard and have begun to share, they will be more inclined to trust, to work together, and to take interpersonal risks. And each person will have created an enduring personal image to carry with them and to share with others.

I've been using this for years as a Clean Language introduction, and recently submitted it as a candidate Liberating Structure because I'd love to see loads of other people trying it out.

Works in person or online, with six to 600+ people.

A popular Agile game to remind companies of their Agile roots, to harness collaboration and participation. Discover parallels in Agile and lean in a reflective discussion

Fun activation with serious background

Writing with empathy is all about inhabiting the shoes (or paws) of something that is not yourself. In this exercise, we ask participants to imagine the perspective of a fox and then write from the point of view of the fox.

Help a group get to know each other better with simple mnemonics in this fast, fun game played in a circle.

Quick icebreaker to find commonalities among a group. Many facilitators from different organizations have contributed to this exercise as written.

This exercise is ideal for editing written content in a hands-on way. A simple and effective exercise for editing workshop content or presentation text for talks. Use it when you have to write for a specific audience and want them to stay focused on the most important information.

The activity is aimed to create personal fanzines, a collage method for auto-narrative and self-discovery.