Facilitation Tools for Meetings and Workshops

Facilitation tools

This is a collection of tools we have found useful for participatory meetings and workshops. We’ve categorised the tools, but many of them can also be useful in other contexts. Don’t be bound by our categories! You might also find our guides on Facilitating Workshops and Facilitating Meetings useful. When choosing tools you might want to think about:

Variety: Using a variety of techniques will help a much wider range of people engage fully in your workshop or meeting. We all vary in things like how we take in information most easily, whether we prefer to speak in large groups or small ones, whether we need to move our bodies for our minds to stay active, how much reflection time we need to make up our minds on a topic… Building in a range of different activities will enable more people to stay involved.

Accessibility: It is important to remember that not every activity will be accessible to every individual or group. Wherever possible, ask people to give you information in advance about any access requirements that are relevant to the workshop. Make sure you are only asking for information you really need in order to facilitate – no-one should feel expected to share personal information unnecessarily. Ask people to be specific about how to make things work for them, rather than you making assumptions. Try to choose tools where everyone will at least have a choice about whether to participate.

Consent: Even if everyone could take part in all the activities you’ve planned, be aware that not everyone will want to! Give people a rough idea of what a tool will involve and why you are suggesting it so they can decide how / whether to join in. For example, you could let people know that a game involves some physical contact, or lots of moving around. If people are having personal conversations in pairs, tell them in advance what kind of feedback you will be expecting in the larger group.

Starting your session

It can be tempting to plunge straight in to the content of your workshop or meeting from the very beginning of the session. After all, there often isn’t enough time to ‘cover’ everything we want to. However, most people are able to participate more fully if you devote a bit of time to sharing information and creating a welcoming space. At a minimum, people need to know where the toilets and kitchen are! Most participants will also benefit from getting to know each other a little. Giving time to building trust and relationships enables people to take more risks. ‘Risk’ in this context doesn’t mean sky-diving or driving without a seatbelt! We are talking about the kinds of small risks which help a workshop or meeting be productive. If someone doesn’t trust the rest of the group then all kinds of behaviour could feel too risky: contributing to discussion in the whole group, asking questions when they don’t understand, expressing disagreements, exploring challenging issues or just having a go at a new skill. Most people develop trust most effectively when the level of risk and exposure increases gradually throughout the session. It can be counterproductive to ask too much of people at the very beginning. This section covers trust and relationship exercises that are suitable for the start of a session and mostly involve the sharing of basic personal information. See the chapter on Trust building exercises chapter (pp.47) for more challenging exercises and in depth guidance. Make it as easy as possible for people to share relevant personal information when they introduce themself – and equally to not share it, if that’s what they prefer! It is rarely helpful to put someone on the spot and push them to talk about themself – and especially not at the very start of a session. Think carefully about the words you choose and the examples you give, so people feel they have a choice about what to share.

Personal introductions

30 seconds – 1 minute per person; 3 – 20 people

Each person gets a chance to introduce themselves in turn. Many people will be more relaxed if they know a bit more information about everyone else in the room. For example, you could ask each person to explain in one sentence why they’ve come to the meeting, or how they are feeling today. You can also add less ‘functional’ questions, such as ‘What’s your favourite vegetable?’ or ‘Share something good that happened to you in the last month.’

Pronoun rounds

5 seconds per person; 2 – 30 people

Pronouns are words like ‘he/his’ and ‘she/her’ that we use to refer to people, instead of repeating their name lots of times. For example: “Elham said she’s happy for us to use her car” is easier to say than “Elham said Elham is happy for us to use Elham’s car.” The difficulty with pronouns is that they are often used without checking how someone actually wants to be called. For example, someone who is read by others as a ‘she’ may in fact use ‘he’, or gender neutral pronouns like ‘they’ (or a range of consciously created alternatives like ze and zir). For this reason, many groups like to start meetings with a pronoun round where people get the option to tell everyone what pronouns they use, in the same way they tell people their name. Even if people forget and make mistakes, it is easier to correct them if the introduction happened at the start. If you are introducing a pronoun round in a group that is new to it, make sure you explain what you are asking of people and why. If people don’t understand what is going on, they may feel confused or make a joke of it, which is counter-productive when you want to create a culture of respect. Making it optional for people to share their pronoun may help people who feel put on the spot – for example because they are questioning their gender and don’t feel ready to be public about that.

What would make it easier for you to participate

This involves creating space for people to share information that they need other participants to know in order for them to participate effectively. It can also be helpful in encouraging an atmosphere where people feel able to ask for what they need. Examples: • “Please can people speak loud and clear.” • “I’m keeping my phone on because my child isn’t well, and I need to get back quickly if the baby-sitter calls.” • “I’ve been having a rough time recently, if I leave the room it’s because I need a bit of space, don’t feel you have to come and check up on me.” The usual set up for this tool is to give each person in turn one chance to speak, often going in order round the room (see Go-rounds on pg19). It can help if you model as a facilitator by giving some examples, especially if they are true for you. Be clear that the objective is for people to share information or make requests if it is useful to them, and that it is fine for people to pass if their needs are being met, or they just prefer not to say anything. Explain why you are asking for the information to encourage people to take it seriously and create a respectful atmosphere. You could also give people the option to talk to you privately. If you say this, make sure there is a break or small group exercise near the start of the session, so that people definitely have the opportunity for an inconspicuous chat.

Name labels

Name labels which are attached to clothing are an easy way to help people get each other’s names right. As people arrive offer sticky labels and pens for people to write up their own names. You could ask people to add their pronoun (see Pronoun rounds above). If you are not sure whether everyone is familiar with the concept, it may be Facilitation tools for meetings and workshops 7 better to explain it first, before asking people to write their name label. If you have the resources you can have name labels prepared and hand them out at the start. However, this requires good records of who will be attending – make sure to spell names correctly.

Pair introductions

10 – 20 minutes; 10 – 30 people

This gives people the chance to have a more in depth introductory conversation with one other person, potentially with a shorter whole group introduction as a follow up. Process 1. Ask people to pair up with people they don’t know or know less well. 2. In their pairs people take turns introducing themselves to each other. You could provide a set of questions to prompt people. Questions could include the reasons why the person is there and what they are hoping to learn or achieve during the event. 3. (Optional) Follow up with a round of shorter introductions in the whole group.

Things to be aware of

Facilitators often invite people to introduce their partners in the whole group round (rather than introducing themselves). In our experience, this method can be quite ‘exposing’ for both people. The person introducing their partner may feel awkward about whether they have remembered right. People being introduced may prefer to choose what they say to the whole group, and be concerned about being misrepresented. If you want to follow the paired exercise with a whole group introduction, you could ask pairs to choose whether to introduce each other, or themselves.