Library of facilitation techniques

The Thiagi Group

Workshop Activities and Training Games from The Thiagi Group.
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Who and Why?

You already know a lot about factors that increase and decrease people's trustworthiness. This is because ever since you were a baby, you have learned through experience who to trust and who to distrust. This activity asks you to think about six people and decide why you trust or distrust them.

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Data Mining

Here's a game that can be used in a content-heavy training session that relies on reference manuals. It is a combination of a textra game and an interactive storytelling activity.
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Triads

Triads is a structured sharing activity for identifying the advantages and disadvantages of an object (examples: iPad, chicken soup) or a process (examples: meditation, conflict management). It also enables the participants to leverage the advantages and to reduce the disadvantages.

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Mixed-Up Sentences

The use of lectures for training adults has several advantages and several disadvantages. So does the use of training games. What if we combine these two approaches in a complementary fashion? That is the idea behind interactive lectures.

Interactive lectures involve participants in the learning process while providing complete control to the instructor. These activities enable a quick and easy conversion of a passive presentation into an interactive experience. Different types of interactive lectures incorporate built-in quizzes, interspersed tasks, teamwork interludes, and participant control of the presentation.

One effective approach to adding interactivity to lectures involves requiring participants to review what they heard and summarize the key points. This approach reinforces learning and improves recall.

Missing Sentence provides an intriguing twist to an interactive lecture that is based on the review-and-summary strategy.

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Whispers

You can use Whispers as a follow-up activity to any interesting experience among a group of friends. It's my favorite game to informally debrief my colleagues at the airport or during the drive back after a conference.

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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.

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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.
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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.


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Big changes

In a brain-pick activity, participants interview people who share a common experience or background. (These people are called informants.) Participants interact with these informants—and with each other—to collect and organize useful information.

This activity uses people who have undergone major organizational changes. Participants interview them to come up with a list of guidelines for coping with change.

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Group Development Stage Directions

Different teams receive envelopes labeled with the names of different stages in the development of a team. Participants brainstorm guidelines for facilitating a team at a specific stage, record the guidelines on a card, and place the card inside the appropriate envelope. Teams rotate the envelopes and generate guideline cards for other stages in the life cycle of a team. During the evaluation round, team members comparatively score the guideline cards generated by other teams.