A searchable library of 752+ facilitation techniques for workshop designers, coaches, and team leads. Browse by category, duration, or group size — from classic methods like World Café and Dot Voting to advanced design thinking and retrospective formats. Each method includes step-by-step instructions, timing guidelines, and facilitator tips.
752 methods · Pick the right tool for your next workshop
1-2-4-All is a structured method that engages every participant in generating ideas and solutions. It is particularly effective for harnessing diverse perspectives and facilitating rapid idea development in any group siz
A collaborative facilitation exercise for aligning a team or group of stakeholders on the purpose, scope, goals, constraints, and success criteria of a project — on a single page. The constraint of one page forces clarit
15 Toasts is a dinner format for about fifteen guests built around a single theme, described by Priya Parker in her book 'The Art of Gathering'. During the meal each guest, at a moment of their own choosing, tells a shor
15% Solutions is a method that encourages participants to identify and act on small, immediate actions within their control. This approach helps to build momentum, empower individuals, and uncover grassroots solutions to
The 2 Brains: Tell it & Sell It method helps teams craft compelling pitches by combining logical facts with emotional appeal. This method is ideal for forming slogans or pitches that need to captivate an audience by bala
20/20 Vision is a strategic prioritization exercise that helps teams identify and focus on the most valuable projects or initiatives. By evaluating the perceived benefits of each option, participants align on priorities
25/10 Crowd Sourcing is a dynamic method for rapidly generating and evaluating a group's most compelling ideas. Over a short session, participants individually propose bold ideas, which are then scored through a series o
This method supports groups and individuals in outlining actionable steps toward achieving a specific vision. It emphasizes discussion and collaboration, focusing participants on their desired future and how to get there
This activity encourages participants to learn about each other through self-created questions. It promotes movement and interaction, making it ideal for early team development stages.
The 3-12-3 Brainstorm is a rapid ideation exercise designed to spark creativity and quick thinking. It involves generating ideas, developing concepts, and presenting them in a structured yet fast-paced manner. Ideal for
3-2-1 Bridge is a before-and-after reflection routine in which participants record their first take on a topic as three thoughts, two questions and one metaphor, repeat the same after a learning experience, and then desc
The '35' method is designed to quickly prioritize ideas or items through a structured, pair-based ranking system. It effectively prevents bias and lengthy discussions by having participants distribute points across multi
36 Questions for Increasing Closeness is a structured self-disclosure exercise for pairs, developed by psychologist Arthur Aron and colleagues and published in 1997. Partners take turns answering three sets of twelve que
The 4Cs method is a structured approach to explore and organize information about any topic using four key concepts: Components, Characteristics, Characters, and Challenges. This method is excellent for fostering diverse
4D Mapping is an embodied systems-mapping practice from Social Presencing Theater in which volunteers each represent one stakeholder of a real case and use position and body shape to show the system as it currently is, t
The Four Disciplines of Execution (4DX) is an execution framework developed by FranklinCovey consultants Chris McChesney, Sean Covey, and Jim Huling, published in their 2012 book of the same name. 4DX addresses a fundame
6-8-5 encourages participants to quickly generate multiple ideas to overcome the tendency to settle on the first good one. By imposing time constraints, it pushes for creativity and diverse thinking within a short period
The 7Ps Framework provides a structured approach to planning a meeting by focusing on essential components. It helps clarify the meeting's purpose, desired output, participant roles, agenda, risks, preparation, and logis
The 9 Dimensions activity is designed to foster connections and enhance trust within a team. Participants explore various aspects of themselves and share insights with others, building a deeper understanding.
A Fake Artist Goes to New York is a social-deduction drawing game in which everyone except one player knows a secret word, all players add single lines to a shared drawing, and the group then votes on who was bluffing. I
Use this activity to foster connections among team members by sharing personal pictures that tell their stories. It's particularly beneficial for remote or international teams, helping to create a relaxed and open atmosp
A3 Problem Solving is a practice pioneered at Toyota in which the whole story of a problem, from background and current condition through cause analysis to countermeasures, plan and follow-up, is fitted onto a single A3
AARRR, known as 'Pirate Metrics' for its memorable acronym, is a growth funnel framework developed by venture capitalist and entrepreneur Dave McClure, presented in a 2007 talk at 500 Startups. It maps the customer lifec
Abstraction Laddering is a problem-framing technique that moves a problem statement up and down levels of abstraction: asking "why?" produces broader statements that show the purpose behind the problem, and asking "how?"
Acting in Alignment is a values workshop of about 85 minutes in which participants name their core values, compare a recent situation where they acted on those values with one where they did not, and commit to concrete a
Action Learning is a method in which a small group meets repeatedly to work on real, urgent problems by asking questions instead of giving advice, commits to action between meetings and reflects on what it is learning. R
This workshop helps participants outline their future goals while identifying the steps needed to reach them. By visualizing their desired outcomes, participants create concrete action plans to achieve personal or group
Actions for Retrospectives is a structured method to help teams reflect on past projects or events and identify actionable improvements. It encourages participants to explore different aspects such as challenges, potenti
This activity encourages participants to deeply reflect on a question while using active listening practices with peers. It emphasizes focused listening and allows individuals to explore their thoughts in a supportive en
Adapting Response Patterns is a workshop in which participants analyse an automatic, self-defeating reaction to pressure with the ABCDE model and then rehearse a more supportive response in a short role simulation. It wa
Affinity Mapping is a technique used to organize ideas and data into meaningful clusters. It is ideal for identifying patterns and themes within a large set of information, making it useful for brainstorming follow-up se
Developed by the US Army, the After Action Review (AAR) is a structured debrief conducted immediately after a project, event, or incident. It uses four questions: What was supposed to happen? What actually happened? Why
A set of ten structured questions that help a team build shared understanding before a project begins — developed by Jonathan Rasmusson. Used to align stakeholders, set realistic expectations, and surface the most import
Agile UX Sketching and Scrum is a collaborative sketching exercise designed to generate a wide array of ideas quickly within agile teams. It helps teams visualize and explore potential product features, fostering a share
The Agreement-Certainty Matching Matrix helps teams classify challenges as simple, complicated, complex, or chaotic. It is a powerful tool for identifying mismatches between challenges and solutions, enabling participant
AI as Student is a learning exercise in which the usual roles are reversed: an AI chat assistant plays a student who explains a topic, and the learner acts as the teacher who judges what the explanation got right, got wr
AI Devil's Advocate is a decision check in which a team asks an AI chat assistant to play a friendly dissenting teammate and question a decision the team has made or is about to make. The assistant asks one question at a
AI Empty Chair is a deliberation technique in which a large language model generates contributions in the voice of stakeholder groups who are affected by the topic but absent from the room. It is based on 'The Empty Chai
AI Innovation Day is a half-day team session in which a team brainstorms where AI could help with its real work, tries tools on selected use cases in small groups, and then demos and reflects on the results. It is a play
AI Landscape is a canvas-based workshop tool for finding the places in an existing service where AI could be built in. The team lays out the service's phases, actors and front-stage and back-stage interactions, marks whe
The AI Opportunity Radar is a canvas from Board of Innovation for exploring where AI could matter for a business. Starting from one core AI capability, a team maps the direct applications in its own business and then the
AI Scaling Blockers is a diagnostic canvas from Board of Innovation for teams whose AI pilots are not turning into scaled use. Participants map what is holding them back in four areas: strategy and organisation, technolo
AI Team Skills Map is a kickoff exercise in which a project team holds a guided conversation with an AI chat assistant that asks about the project, each member's skills and how the work could be divided, and ends with a
AI Working Agreements is a one-hour team session for co-creating explicit norms on when, why and how the team uses AI. It is a play from the Atlassian Team Playbook: the team discusses what people need to feel confident
Air Time Mastermind is a playful brainstorming activity designed to generate creative solutions to participants' pressing problems. This method encourages participants to engage in a fun, childlike activity by making and
Align on Your Impact Goals is an early-project exercise from IDEO.org's Design Kit in which a team and its stakeholders write down the change they hope the project will create and arrange those hopes on a ladder from nea
This workshop helps teams reflect on their alignment with shared goals while enhancing individual autonomy. Focus on fostering a culture where team members take responsibility and can adapt efficiently to change.
Analogous Inspiration is a design-research technique from IDEO and IDEO.org in which a team looks for inspiration outside its own field. The team isolates the activities, behaviours and emotions at the heart of its chall
This method helps participants practice handling angry customers through discussion and role-play. By alternating between group discussions and one-on-one scenarios, participants learn to respond effectively to challengi
Published by Igor Ansoff in the Harvard Business Review in 1957, the Ansoff Matrix (Product-Market Growth Matrix) is the simplest and most widely used framework for mapping growth strategy. It plots four strategic option
Participants reflect on their strengths through feedback from peers, helping to boost motivation and self-esteem. This exercise creates a positive atmosphere, especially effective at the end of a workshop.
A closing ritual where participants offer specific appreciations — to each other, to the facilitator, or to the group as a whole. Unlike generic 'good job' feedback, appreciations are specific and personal: naming what a
Developed by David Cooperrider, Appreciative Inquiry (AI) is a strengths-based approach to organisational change. Rather than focusing on problems, AI asks 'What is working at its best?' and builds change from there. The
A structured paired interview process from Appreciative Inquiry where participants interview each other about peak experiences and what they value most. Unlike problem-focused discussion openers, appreciative interviews
Appreciative Interviews (AI) leverage the power of storytelling to uncover and amplify success within organizations. By focusing on what works well, this method creates a positive atmosphere and encourages participants t
Archival Memories is a paired get-to-know-you activity in which each person scrolls back to the oldest picture in their phone's photo gallery and tells a partner the story behind it. The activity is credited to Mark Coll
Are You More Like... is a mingling icebreaker in which each person holds one half of a word pair, finds the person holding the other half, and the two discuss which of the two words they are more like and why. The activi
The Argument Map method facilitates structured debate by organizing arguments for and against a topic in a visual format. This method is ideal for scenarios requiring comprehensive analysis and mutual understanding among
An Ask Me Anything (AMA) is an open question-and-answer session in which a leader or project group takes questions from anyone in the audience, on any subject or on one announced topic. The name was popularised by questi
A structured exercise for surfacing and evaluating the hidden assumptions underlying a plan, strategy, or product idea. Participants list all the assumptions the plan depends on, then map them by importance (how critical
An Async Retrospective is a retrospective held in writing over several days or weeks instead of in a meeting: team members add their observations to a shared issue or document on their own schedule, and a moderator guide
Attention-getting signals are a small set of agreed cues a facilitator uses to bring a talking group back to silence without shouting: a raised hand that everyone copies, a 'if you can hear me, clap once' call, a clap rh
The Awe Narrative is a short individual writing exercise in which a person recalls a fairly recent experience of intense awe and describes it in about two paragraphs, staying with the detail of the moment itself. It is p
The 'Back of the Napkin' method encourages teams to brainstorm and capture their ideas on a napkin, inspired by the informal and spontaneous nature of 'aha' moments. Ideal for networking events, it fosters creativity and
Back Tracking is a mixer in which every participant wears an icebreaker question on their back that they cannot see, collects other people's answers to it, and then has to work out what the question was from the answers
This method helps teams build trust and self-awareness through structured feedback. Participants take turns receiving compliments and constructive suggestions while seated with their backs to the group, creating an open
A strategic planning technique that begins with a vivid description of a desired future state, then works backwards to the present to identify the sequence of events, decisions, and milestones that would need to occur to
A recurring collaborative session where the Product Owner and development team review, clarify, estimate, and prioritise Product Backlog items. Refinement ensures the top of the backlog is always well-understood and 'Rea
Developed by Robert S. Kaplan and David P. Norton at Harvard Business School and first published in the Harvard Business Review in 1992, the Balanced Scorecard is one of the most influential management frameworks of the
Bang is a lively game that encourages quick reactions and brings laughter to the group. Participants stand in a circle, creating an engaging way for people to learn each other's names and bond.
Bang-for-the-Buck is a collaborative prioritization tool used by product managers and development teams to evaluate and order backlog items based on their cost and value. This method helps teams visualize priorities and
A participant-driven event format (also called an unconference) where the agenda is created collaboratively at the start by participants themselves. Anyone can propose a session; sessions are scheduled into a grid of tim
Developed by the Boston Consulting Group in 1970, the BCG Matrix (Growth-Share Matrix) is a strategic portfolio analysis tool that plots business units or products across two dimensions: relative market share (horizontal
The Behaviour Change Wheel is a framework for diagnosing why a desired behaviour is not happening and choosing interventions to change it, published in 2011 by Susan Michie, Maartje van Stralen and Robert West. At its hu
This icebreaker activity helps participants get acquainted quickly. It encourages sharing personal experiences by discussing both positive and negative questions, fostering a relaxed atmosphere for future discussions.
A Black Mirror Brainstorm is a product design exercise in which small teams imagine their own product or feature as the premise of a dystopian television episode and work out how a well-meant idea could end up harming pe
This team-building activity helps participants work together in a fun and challenging way. They will need to rely on communication and collaboration to form a perfect square using a rope while blindfolded.
The Strategy Canvas is the central diagnostic and action-planning tool of Blue Ocean Strategy, developed by W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne and first published in their 2004 Harvard Business Review article and subsequent
BlueStarOpoly is a giant floor board game for large groups in which several teams roll dice at the same time and move their tokens around a board of 40 to 60 squares. About a quarter of the squares trigger a short team t
Bodystorming is an innovative approach to brainstorming that involves physical role-playing to explore and develop ideas. This method is particularly useful for understanding real-world interactions and testing concepts
Bohm Dialogue is a free-flowing group conversation with no set agenda and no decision to reach, in which participants try to notice and suspend their assumptions and reactions instead of defending them. The physicist Dav
The Boundary Matrix method helps teams from different disciplines communicate effectively by mapping out key information and terms that need translation across fields. Use this method to facilitate better understanding a
Establish clear rules for a brainstorming session to enhance creativity and collaboration. These guidelines encourage open idea sharing while preventing negative criticism that stifles creativity.
Brainstorming is a group technique for generating ideas in which participants produce as many ideas as possible on a stated question while judgment is suspended, and only afterwards cluster, discuss and prioritise them.
Brainwriting is a structured ideation method where participants silently generate and build on each other's ideas. It is particularly effective for tapping into the creativity of all group members, including those who ma
The Four Quadrants activity is a simple and engaging way to help participants share about themselves and build connections. It encourages creativity and provides a visual format to spark conversation and understanding wi
Break-Out Room Tag is a game of tag played by hopping between breakout rooms on a video call. Whoever is "it" enters a room, counts down from ten and then names someone present; if that person has not left for another ro
In the Breaking News activity, participants analyze assumptions and implications of a specific theory after preparing with relevant reading. A new theory is suddenly introduced, prompting discussion on the differences be
Build The Checklist is a structured method for teams to create a comprehensive and prioritized list of tasks. This helps ensure complex tasks are manageable and well-organized, surfacing differing perspectives and priori
Create a unique handshake with a partner to foster connection and creativity. Participants will collaborate to develop fun handshake sequences, promoting engagement and interaction among group members.
Building Partnerships is a strategic workshop method that uses the Partnership Canvas to explore and visualize potential or existing partnerships. This tool helps teams define business priorities, empathize with partners
Bundle Ideas is a convergence step from IDEO.org's Design Kit in which a team combines the strongest parts of several separate ideas into a small number of fuller solutions. The ideas are put on a wall, grouped, examined
Bus Trip is an engaging feedback activity that promotes positive exchanges among participants. This method energizes the group while reinforcing the importance of appreciation and acknowledgment of each other's contribut
Developed by Alexander Osterwalder, the Business Model Canvas is a strategic management template that maps nine building blocks of a business on a single page: Customer Segments, Value Propositions, Channels, Customer Re
The Business Model Kit is a visual tool from Board of Innovation for sketching a business model as a set of stakeholders connected by value exchanges. The organisation and every other party are placed as separate entitie
The Button method is a dynamic alternative to the traditional round-robin approach, maintaining engagement by allowing participants to choose who speaks next. This technique ensures that everyone contributes once before
A prioritisation game developed by Luke Hohmann where participants spend a limited budget of play money to 'buy' features from a list. Each feature is priced (roughly proportional to implementation cost). Since some feat
Campfire is a storytelling activity that encourages participants to share work-related stories, fostering informal learning and uncovering shared experiences. It is ideal for building relationships and enhancing team dyn
Capacity Planning is a 30-minute team exercise in which each person lists everything that fills a typical working week, works out how many hours are really left for a given project, and the team adds those hours up by ro
Card Sort is a method used to organize and categorize information by arranging cards, each containing a piece of information. It is useful for designing navigation structures, organizing presentation content, or any scen
Card Talk is a get-to-know-you mixer with ordinary playing cards in which each person chooses a card according to how brave they feel, and the card's value is the number of things they tell each partner about themselves.
The Carousel method is designed to gather diverse perspectives and insights on various aspects of a topic. It encourages participation from all attendees, making it ideal for exploring complex issues through collective i
A Case Clinic is a peer coaching process in which one person presents a current leadership challenge and a small circle of peers acts as coaches. Instead of giving advice, the coaches listen, sit in silence and then mirr
A systems thinking tool for mapping the feedback loops, delays, and relationships between variables in a complex system. Arrows show causal relationships (positive = same direction, negative = opposite direction). Loops
The Celebration Grid is a one-page chart for retrospectives that sorts recent work by the kind of behaviour it was (a mistake, an experiment or a known good practice) and by whether it succeeded or failed. It is a Manage
The Celebrity Interview method transforms a standard presentation into an engaging dialogue with a leader or expert, allowing participants to connect on a personal level. This format is ideal for drawing out stories and
Centering Practice is a very short body-based routine, taught by Wendy Palmer in her Leadership Embodiment work, for shifting out of a stress reaction into a calmer and more open state before speaking or acting. It combi
Challenge Cards is a problem-solving method designed to identify and address potential challenges in products, services, or strategies. It engages participants in a competitive storytelling format, encouraging them to br
Challenge Your Beliefs is an 80-minute session in which each participant identifies one limiting belief, examines it with a partner and rewrites it as a short statement they can act on. It was developed by Hedwig Boer an
The Challenger Selling Model is a strategic workshop to develop customized sales strategies by balancing three key skills: teaching, tailoring, and taking control. It leverages a visual organizational tool to help sales
A Change Audit is a six-question reflection in which a leader or team takes stock of the changes they started in a recent period, how those changes went and who was involved, and then sets intentions for what to change n
A charrette is an intensive, multi-day collaborative design workshop in which a multidisciplinary team works on site and repeatedly shows its developing proposals to stakeholders and the public. It is used mainly in urba
A Chat Waterfall is a way to collect everyone's answer in a video-call chat at the same moment, so that people do not anchor on each other. Participants type a response but hold it, then all press enter on a count of thr
Check-in and check-out are simple processes that allow team members to express their current feelings and reflections. This practice helps foster a sense of presence, commitment, and closure among group members.
Check-in questions help a team begin a session or project by facilitating open sharing. They can cater to the specific stage of the group's journey and the mood they wish to create, fostering connection and engagement am
A structured closing ritual where each participant briefly shares a takeaway, reflection, or commitment before the session ends. It creates a meaningful close, reinforces learning, and ensures everyone leaves with clarit
Choose your words wisely is a method that uses the Semantic Environment Canvas to explore and understand the language and power dynamics within a specific context. It helps participants uncover how language shapes intera
Circle of Viewpoints is a perspective-taking routine from Project Zero at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, developed in its Visible Thinking work. The group lists the different viewpoints that exist on a topic,
This method promotes reflection at the end of a workshop. Participants identify what they understand well, what still puzzles them, and key takeaways they can implement in their lives or work.
Circles and Soup is a reflective method used to help teams identify factors they can control, influence, or must adapt to. It's particularly effective for overcoming unproductive blame and creating actionable plans in re
Circles in the Air is a short physical demonstration that what you observe depends on where you observe it from. Everyone traces a clockwise circle on the ceiling with a raised finger, lowers the still-circling hand belo
Circles of Influence is a strategic method to identify and leverage your network for achieving business goals. It helps participants map out connections that can provide support and resources, transforming plans into act
Circular Questions is a systemic facilitation technique that prompts participants to take the perspective of others in the group or system. By asking questions like 'What do you think your colleague would say about this?
Claim, Support, Question is a reasoning routine from Project Zero at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, developed in its Visible Thinking work. It has three moves: make a claim about a topic, name the evidence tha
Clean Escalations is a protocol for resolving a decision that is stuck between two people or teams: both sides name the disagreement, set out the options and trade-offs together, and take the question jointly to the near
Clean Language is a precise questioning technique developed by therapist David Grove in the 1980s. Facilitators use a small set of carefully worded, non-interpretive questions — such as 'And when X, what happens next?' —
This activity helps participants generate various examples related to specific communication categories. It promotes understanding and clarity by encouraging individuals to think critically about different aspects of com
A Clearness Committee is a process in which a small group gathers around one focus person who faces a personal question or decision and, for two hours, does one thing only: asks honest, open questions. Advice, fixing and
Co-Designing Transition Experiments is a card-guided process for designing a small real-world experiment in a specific place that should teach something about a larger sustainability transition. It was developed by Guido
This method helps individuals shift their mindset and improve their emotional state. It involves reflecting on one’s needs, creating a vision for the future, and establishing supportive habits that foster personal growth
The Code of Conduct method helps establish a shared understanding of group values and behaviors to foster mutual trust and a positive environment. It is ideal for aligning expectations and responsibilities within a team.
The Collaboration Blueprint is a kick-off sequence for a mixed project team in which members state what they bring, get and need, ask each other in turn what is expected of them, and record the resulting agreements on on
Collage is a research and expression technique in which each participant builds a collage in response to a prompt and then explains what it means. The explanation matters more than the artefact: talking through why a pic
Collective Story Harvest is a storytelling process from the Art of Hosting community in which a group listens to a real story of a project or change while each listener follows one assigned theme, called an arc, and then
Color, Symbol, Image (CSI) is a thinking routine from Project Zero at the Harvard Graduate School of Education in which each participant sums up what matters in a piece of content by choosing a colour, a symbol and an im
A lively physical exercise where the facilitator reads out a statement and anyone it applies to stands up (or steps forward, or raises a hand). Participants discover shared experiences and traits across apparent differen
This exercise challenges participants to enhance their communication skills by collaboratively solving a puzzle. It requires participants to communicate effectively under constraints, mirroring complex communication dyna
This activity helps participants understand the impact of different communication styles: passive, aggressive, and assertive. It encourages exploration of how these styles affect group discussions and decision-making pro
Compass Points is a thinking routine from Project Zero at the Harvard Graduate School of Education for examining an idea or proposal from four directions before judging it. E stands for what is exciting, W for what is wo
Competitive Landscape Mapping is a strategic visualization exercise that plots your organization and its competitors across key strategic dimensions — typically price, quality, innovation, customer segment, or other fact
Concentration is a traditional circle game in which a group keeps a steady four-beat rhythm of claps and finger clicks while passing the turn by name. The active player says their own name on the two claps and someone el
A concept map is a diagram that shows how the concepts in a subject relate to one another: each concept sits in a node, and every connecting line carries a linking phrase so that two nodes and their link read as a statem
Teams distill a solution concept onto a single poster as if they were designing a billboard or magazine ad for it. The physical constraint forces clarity — if you can't explain it on one page, you don't understand it wel
A Concept Walkthrough is an early feedback technique in which a service or product idea is presented to potential users or providers as a step-by-step imagined experience, and they comment on it as it unfolds. Rough mate
This workshop guides teams through reflecting on past conflicts to establish effective conflict management guidelines. Utilizing the Thomas-Killman model, participants analyze their experiences and develop strategies for
Connect, Extend, Challenge is a three-question reflection routine from Project Zero at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, used after a group has taken in new information. Participants say how the new ideas connect
Connection Circles are an entry-level systems thinking tool: the elements of a situation are written around the edge of a circle, and an arrow is drawn between two elements wherever one directly causes a change in the ot
A consensus conference is a formal public deliberation in which a small panel of lay citizens questions experts on a contested issue, usually scientific or technological, and then writes a joint statement with conclusion
Consent decision-making is a facilitated way of deciding in which a proposal is adopted when nobody has a reasoned objection to it, not when everyone prefers it. It comes from sociocracy, developed by Gerard Endenburg in
Constructive Conversations is a practice format in which participants learn to hold a real dialogue on a contested local issue: listening actively to someone who disagrees while still arguing their own position. It was d
The Context Map helps visualize the external factors influencing an organization. It's a collaborative tool for identifying trends, political and economic factors, technology impacts, customer needs, and uncertainties, p
The Context Map helps teams visualize external factors affecting their organization, enabling strategic foresight. Use it to understand political, economic, technological, and other external influences, allowing teams to
Contextual inquiry is a field-research method in which a small team visits people in the place where they work, watches them do their normal tasks and asks about what it sees while it happens. The method comes from the w
The Conversation Café method facilitates meaningful dialogue among participants, helping them make sense of challenging situations and develop new strategies. By using a structured format and a talking object, it encoura
Core Competency Mapping is a strategic framework derived from the work of C.K. Prahalad and Gary Hamel ('The Core Competence of the Corporation,' 1990). A core competency is a combination of complementary skills and know
The Coriolis Effect is a dynamic team exercise focused on communication, collaboration, and problem-solving. It challenges teams to transport a ball around a circle using only gutters, highlighting individual preferences
The Council of All Beings is a group ritual in which each participant sets aside the human role and speaks on behalf of another life-form, such as an animal, a plant or a river. It was created by Joanna Macy and John See
A ceremonial form of structured dialogue rooted in indigenous traditions and developed for contemporary use by Jack Zimmerman and Virginia Coyle of the Ojai Foundation. Council creates a held space for authentic expressi
Count To Six is a short coordination energiser in which each arm follows a different movement pattern over the same count of six. One arm repeats a two-beat pattern three times while the other repeats a three-beat patter
In this activity, participants take turns counting to a predetermined number without overlapping. The objective is to foster focus and collaboration, making it ideal for team building.
Cover Story is a visionary exercise where participants imagine their organization achieving such extraordinary success that it lands on the cover of a major magazine. This method encourages expansive thinking and helps t
A fast ideation exercise from Google Design Sprints. Participants fold a sheet of paper into eight panels and sketch eight different ideas — one per panel — in eight minutes (one minute per sketch). The extreme time pres
Encourage participants to reflect on a topic by using critical thinking questions. This method helps in evaluating information from various sources to enhance understanding and make informed decisions.
Critical Uncertainties is a strategic planning method that helps groups explore the impact of unpredictable factors on their operations. By surfacing critical uncertainties, participants can develop strategies that enhan
This activity helps participants discover shared experiences in a fun way. By moving through the circle, they visually connect with others who have similar backgrounds or interests.
Crossfire is a dynamic debate method that encourages participants to explore opposing viewpoints on a topic. It is ideal for delving into controversial issues, evaluating new ideas, or analyzing competitive strategies.
Crossword Names is a name activity in which a group builds one interlocking crossword grid out of letter cards, using everyone's first name. Each name has to cross or share a letter with a name already laid down, so lear
The Cultural Tensions Canvas is a one-page diagnostic tool, created by Gustavo Razzetti of Fearless Culture, that maps a team's culture as four pairs of opposing forces: frustrating and driving emotions, limiting and lib
A Culture Contract is a written agreement, described by NOBL Collective, in which a team spells out the values it prizes, the trade-offs it accepts for them, why they matter for its strategy, the behaviours that express
The Culture Design Canvas is a one-page framework by Gustavo Razzetti of Fearless Culture, published in 2019, for mapping an existing workplace culture or designing a desired one. It breaks culture into ten building bloc
Curiosity Ping Pong is a virtual icebreaker in which everyone answers one question in the chat at the same moment, and participants then take turns choosing an answer that intrigues them and asking its author to tell the
This method visualizes the steps a customer takes while using a product or service, along with their reactions. It helps uncover barriers in the customer experience.
The Customer-Centric method helps teams map out and identify key stakeholders and users who impact or are impacted by a product. By organizing stakeholders into concentric circles, teams can visualize direct and indirect
The 'Customer, Employee, Shareholder' method encourages participants to envision a business's future from different stakeholder perspectives. By adopting these roles, participants explore potential future scenarios and i
The Cynefin Framework is a sense-making framework created by Dave Snowden in 1999 that sorts situations into five domains (clear, complicated, complex, chaotic and confusion) according to how well cause and effect can be
DACI is a decision-making framework that assigns four roles before a group decision is made: a Driver who runs the process, an Approver who makes the final call, Contributors who provide expertise, and the Informed who a
A daily time-boxed synchronisation ritual from Scrum, run standing up to encourage brevity. Each team member answers three questions: What did I do yesterday? What will I do today? Is anything blocking me? The stand-up i
A retrospective format that asks the team to reflect across four dimensions: what to Drop (stop doing entirely), Add (start doing), Keep (continue doing well), and Improve (do better). More action-oriented than Start/Sto
This energetic activity invites participants to dance in small teams, creating a lively atmosphere. As the music changes, team members take turns leading the dance, encouraging fun and playfulness among the group.
A Decision Matrix is a table that compares several options against a shared set of criteria: each option is scored on each criterion, the criteria are weighted by importance, and the weighted scores are added up to give
This exercise explores the influence of how options are presented on decision-making. Participants will choose between two options that have identical outcomes but are framed differently, highlighting the framing effect
Deep Democracy Decision-Making is a majority-vote process from the Lewis Method of Deep Democracy that deliberately looks for dissent before and after the vote. The facilitator collects every view, makes it safe to disag
Define Your Challenges is a fast prioritisation exercise in which each person writes ten challenges facing the team or company and then discards the least important ones under time pressure until only one or two remain.
This session helps teams articulate their purpose and culture by collaboratively defining what they stand for and how they work together. Participants will create a visual representation of their collective identity, whi
A collaborative session for a team to define their shared standard for when work is truly complete. A strong Definition of Done (DoD) prevents technical debt, misaligned expectations, and the 'done but not really done' t
A team agreement that defines the minimum criteria a backlog item must meet before it can be pulled into a Sprint. The Definition of Ready prevents teams from starting work on stories that are too vague, too large, or mi
Developed by Jurgen Appelo as part of Management 3.0, Delegation Poker uses playing cards to make delegation levels explicit. Seven delegation levels range from 'Tell' (I decide, I tell you) through 'Consult', 'Agree', '
The Delphi Technique is a structured way to bring a panel of experts or stakeholders to a considered judgement through several rounds of individual, usually anonymous, answers, with a summary of the group's responses fed
Demo Trust is a one-hour review session from the Atlassian Team Playbook in which a project team shows unfinished work to a small leadership panel early enough to change direction. The leaders question the work, check it
Dependency Mapping is a one-hour team session that lists every system and team a project touches, the risks those dependencies create, and how each risk will be handled. It then sets up regular check-ins with the owners
A dérive (French for 'drift') is an unplanned walk through an area, usually a city, in which participants drop their normal reasons for moving about and let the character of the surroundings decide where they go. Guy Deb
A structured review session where design, product, or creative work is evaluated against specific goals — not personal taste. Unlike an informal review, a design critique separates observation from opinion, grounds feedb
Design Principles are a short set of memorable statements, grounded in user research and the organisation's values, that describe the experience a product or service should give people. A team drafts them together and th
A five-day intensive framework developed at Google Ventures by Jake Knapp. Each day has a specific focus: Map (understand the problem), Sketch (generate individual solutions), Decide (select the best approach), Prototype
This method helps teams quickly prototype and test new ideas. It is structured to encourage fast-paced creativity and collaboration, enabling teams to transform concepts into tangible prototypes in a short period.
Design StoryBoards is a method for creating a detailed and visual plan to guide group interactions and achieve a clear purpose. It helps in organizing the necessary microstructures, participation, and facilitation elemen
Design The Box is a creative exercise where teams conceptualize and design a box to represent their product or idea. This method encourages teams to clarify the essential features and benefits of their concept by visuali
Dicebreakers is a getting-to-know-you activity in which people in small groups take turns rolling a die and answering whichever of six prepared questions matches the number rolled. Chance decides the question, which take
Discovery & Action Dialogue helps groups identify effective local solutions to common challenges shared among members. Participants collaborate to uncover hidden practices that lead to better problem-solving without need
The Disney Method is a creativity technique in which a person or group works on an idea from three separate positions in turn: the Dreamer who imagines freely, the Realist who works out how it could be done, and the Crit
Disruptive Brainstorming is a fast ideation format from the Atlassian Team Playbook in which two groups brainstorm in three timed rounds and silently cut each other's ideas after each one. Between rounds the groups swap
Diverge-Narrow-Converge with AI is an ideation structure for workshops in which participants generate ideas with an AI chat assistant, have the assistant score and shortlist those ideas against agreed criteria, and only
The Diversity Index is a Management 3.0 practice in which a team scores how varied it is on dimensions it chooses itself, such as country of origin, age group, professional background, skills or experience. For each dime
The Diversity Welcome is a spoken opening ritual in which the facilitator welcomes, one after another, the many identities, backgrounds and states of mind that may be present in the room. It was published by Training for
Do, Redo & Undo is a method that encourages teams to plan for potential mistakes and changes in their projects by considering how to avoid, correct, or completely reverse actions. It is particularly useful in developing
Participants engage in a collaborative drawing activity that fosters creativity and team bonding. By passing around their artwork, they build on each other's ideas while having fun.
A democratic prioritisation technique where each participant receives a fixed number of votes (represented by dot stickers or marks) to allocate across a set of options. Options with the most dots rise to the top. It's f
Draw Toast is an engaging activity that introduces participants to visual thinking, mental models, and systems thinking. It serves as an excellent warm-up exercise to spark creativity and discussion among group members.
Drawing Together is a creative method that uses simple symbols to express complex ideas and emotions, bypassing verbal limitations. This technique is ideal for accessing insights and patterns not easily captured through
Dress Up is a short energiser for video calls in which everyone switches their camera off, has one minute to improvise a costume from whatever is within reach, and then all cameras come back on at the same moment for a r
Dynamic Facilitation is an open, non-linear way of facilitating a group through a difficult issue, in which the facilitator follows the group's energy and records every contribution on four running charts: problem statem
Dynamic Personas is a persona format that describes how a person's behaviour could change through a series of stages, instead of fixing them in a single snapshot. The team maps what helps and what hinders the move from e
E.T. stands for 'Effective Trainer.' In this activity, participants analyze both effective and ineffective trainers to uncover key techniques for successful training. This reflective process helps participants appreciate
A structured pair-discussion method where participants brainstorm with unfamiliar partners by rotating roles. One group (Eagles) moves to new partners while the other (Hawks) stays put, ensuring everyone exchanges ideas
Ecocycle Planning is a strategic tool that helps teams evaluate their activities through the lenses of four developmental phases: birth, maturity, creative destruction, and renewal. This method encourages a balanced appr
An Ecosystem Map is a diagram of all the people, organisations and systems that influence a user and a service, with the user in the centre, the other actors placed by importance and lines showing what they exchange with
The Elevator Pitch method helps groups succinctly articulate the essence of a product, service, or idea. It's ideal for defining a unique value proposition by identifying the target customer, their needs, and the key ben
The emotional journey method visualizes a user's feelings while interacting with a service or product. This technique helps teams pinpoint where users experience both joy and frustration, guiding them towards improvement
The Empathy Map is a tool designed to help teams gain a deeper understanding of their stakeholders, such as customers or partners, by visually mapping their experiences and perspectives. It's particularly useful when you
Empowerment Evaluation is a participatory approach to evaluation in which the people who run and take part in a programme assess it themselves, with an evaluator acting as coach and critical friend instead of outside jud
Engineering Your Team OS is a team-development workshop from the Hyper Island toolbox that treats the way a team works together as an operating system to be upgraded in small iterations. The team writes positive, aspirat
Enhancing Sensorial Connectedness is a field exercise in which a small group visits a local ecosystem, attends to it one sense at a time, and collects natural and waste materials while noting the sensations and associati
Epistemic Recontextualisation (ER) is a reflective practice for intellectual humility in which participants examine their own reaction to a provocative claim and then test the standards behind that reaction in other cont
Establishing a workshop rhythm involves structuring activities to accommodate diverse thinking styles. This method helps engage both quick thinkers and those who prefer more reflective time, ensuring all voices are heard
Ethos, Logos, Pathos is a feedback method drawing on Aristotle's principles of rhetoric to evaluate the persuasiveness of a communication piece. Ideal for assessing presentations or proposals, it helps participants ident
The Evaporating Cloud is a five-box logic diagram for resolving a conflict between two opposing actions, one of the thinking processes of Eliyahu M. Goldratt's Theory of Constraints. A common objective (A) requires two n
Created by Alberto Brandolini, Event Storming is a collaborative modelling workshop that brings together developers and domain experts to explore a complex business domain at speed. Participants model a system or busines
This activity encourages participants to identify and explore positive reactions to everyday annoyances. It highlights how shifting our perspective can lead to constructive responses to frustrating situations.
Evidence-Based Decision Making is a three-hour team process for reaching a proposed decision on a complex problem by working through four steps: ask, acquire, appraise and aggregate. Teams turn a practitioner's account o
A structured conversation technique from BDD (Behaviour-Driven Development) that clarifies user stories by mapping out acceptance rules and concrete examples before development begins. A Three Amigos session (developer,
This quick activity gets participants engaged while they explore what makes a task exciting. It encourages teamwork and communication as they work together to solve a word puzzle.
Exciting Sponge is a quick storytelling game in which each person picks up a dull everyday object and invents an exaggerated story to convince the group that it is extraordinary. Anyone without an object to hand describe
The Experience Canvas is a one-page canvas that a project team fills in together to state which problem it is solving, for whom, with what solution, and how it will know the work succeeded. It comes from the Atlassian Te
An Expert Panel is a moderated session in which several specialists from different fields present their views on an issue, question each other, take questions from participants and arrive at conclusions or recommendation
Exploration Days are set-aside working time, typically a day or a 24-hour block, in which employees drop their regular work to learn and experiment on ideas of their own choosing and show the results at the end. The name
This exercise helps participants identify their core values through a quick and instinctual process. It encourages them to focus on their genuine feelings rather than overthinking their choices, fostering meaningful refl
This method focuses on understanding and enhancing client-centricity within an organization. Participants will collaboratively reflect on their experiences as clients to uncover insights that define a client-focused appr
Facilitating with Constraints is a method that uses defined boundaries to spark creativity and focus in problem-solving. It is particularly useful when dealing with complex issues like budget planning, meeting design, or
The Facilitator Passport is a one-page self-assessment on which a facilitator records their experience, rates their own facilitation knowledge, skills and attitudes, and sets personal learning goals. It is a template and
Fair Team Meeting Scheduling is a one-hour workshop from the Atlassian Team Playbook in which a distributed team writes its own rules for when meetings may and may not be scheduled. The team maps where time zones and per
A rapid peer feedback technique where participants rotate through giving and receiving structured feedback in short timed rounds. Each round is focused and brief (3–5 minutes). The carousel format ensures everyone receiv
The Feedback Map method helps participants provide clear, specific feedback by visualizing their interactions over a set period. Team members create a visual representation of their connections, which serves as a foundat
Feedback Mingle allows participants to give and receive constructive feedback in a supportive environment. This activity often serves as a closing exercise, promoting team cohesion and positive energy among members.
The Feedback Wrap is a five-part structure for giving constructive feedback, spoken or written, published by Management 3.0 as an alternative to the compliment sandwich. The giver describes their own context, lists obser
This method helps teams build trust and openness through structured feedback. Participants share their strongest impressions of each other, promoting self-awareness and insight within the group.
This exercise encourages participants to share constructive feedback in a structured way, promoting trust and openness within the group. By focusing on appreciation and desired actions, it fosters stronger relationships
This method encourages team members to provide constructive feedback to enhance trust and communication. Participants reflect on behaviors or actions that should start, stop, and continue, fostering self-awareness and op
FFEACH is a charades relay in which teams race through a facilitator's list of items, with one member at a time fetching the next item and miming it for the team without speaking. The name abbreviates the three categorie
Finger Rules help structure discussions by using hand gestures to indicate participants' opinions and requests. This method ensures that everyone can contribute efficiently and that their points are clearly understood.
The Fishbowl method fosters active listening and observation among participants by dividing them into 'players' and 'observers'. It's ideal for situations where stakeholders need to understand different perspectives with
A quick consensus-checking technique where participants indicate their level of support for a proposal by showing 1 to 5 fingers simultaneously. Five fingers = full support, one finger = strong opposition with a blocking
This method uses five envelopes labeled with positive emotions: hopeful, joyful, peaceful, playful, and thankful. Participants explore these emotions to cultivate a more positive mindset and enhance group dynamics.
This activity helps groups generate ideas for achieving shared goals across teams or departments. It emphasizes collaboration to create high-performance teams that work toward common objectives.
The Five-Fingered Consensus is a quick and effective method to gauge the level of agreement within a group on a particular topic. It is particularly useful in large groups or breakout sessions where time is limited.
Flip It is a problem-solving method that encourages participants to transform negative perspectives into positive outcomes by reframing concerns as opportunities. Use this technique to shift mindset and generate actionab
A Focus Group is a moderated group interview in which a small, fairly similar set of people discuss a topic along a prepared set of open questions, so that their attitudes, concerns and reasoning become visible to the re
Force Field Analysis is a structured method for evaluating the factors that drive or hinder a proposed change within an organization. This method is ideal for teams looking to comprehensively assess the feasibility of a
Forced Ranking is a prioritisation exercise in which a group turns an unordered list into one strictly ordered list: each participant gives every item a unique rank against a stated criterion, ties are not allowed, and t
Forum Theatre is a participatory theatre form in which a short scene shows a problem that ends badly for its main character, and is then replayed so that audience members can stop the action, take that character's place
The Four Actions Framework, also known as the ERRC Grid (Eliminate, Reduce, Raise, Create), is a structured creative tool developed by W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne as a companion to the Blue Ocean Strategy Canvas. Whi
A retrospective framework using four prompts: Liked (what went well), Learned (new insights or skills gained), Lacked (what was missing or insufficient), and Longed For (what the team wished they had). It balances positi
The Four-Step Sketch is a method that guides participants to develop ideas in a structured way. It focuses on reviewing information, sketching initial designs, exploring various options, and refining a detailed solution.
The 'Friend or Foe?' method helps teams map out and analyze stakeholder relationships and their influence on a project. It is particularly useful for understanding the dynamics within an organization and identifying pote
This exercise promotes communication and relationship building within teams. Participants work in pairs to create paper airplanes while sharing personal insights, culminating in a playful flying contest to guess whose pl
Fun Facts is a get-to-know-you guessing game in which each participant anonymously contributes one little-known fact about themselves and the group tries to work out which fact belongs to whom. It is a common icebreaker
Developed by Dave Snowden and Cynthia Kurtz, Future Backwards is a strategic narrative tool that helps groups explore their past, present, and possible futures. Participants map the path that led to the current state (hi
Future Folktales is a storytelling-based futures workshop in which participants start from a folktale that shaped them as children, move one of its characters into a scene in a desirable future, and then write the tale o
Future Search is a large-group planning conference, developed by Marvin Weisbord and Sandra Janoff, that brings a cross-section of everyone with a stake in an issue into one room for about three days. Working in mixed an
Future Trends is a workshop from the Hyper Island toolbox in which a group names the trends likely to change its business over the next three years, votes on the most significant ones and works out how the organisation c
The Future Workshop method enables participants to envision their ideal future without constraints. It encourages creativity and frees the imagination, making it particularly effective with diverse groups, including youn
The Futures Wheel was invented by Jerome Glenn in 1971 as a structured brainstorming technique for mapping the second- and third-order consequences of a trend, event, or decision. It begins with a central prompt placed i
A facilitation technique where outputs, ideas, or prompts are displayed on the walls like a gallery exhibition. Participants circulate at their own pace, reading, adding sticky note comments, and dot-voting on items. It
Gamestormin' for the Unions in D.C. is a strategic workshop designed to invigorate union teams using a combination of visual thinking and innovative game techniques. Ideal for groups looking to shift from good to great,
The Gamestorming Card Deck App is a digital tool designed to enhance innovation and problem-solving through playful exercises. It provides a collection of games and activities to facilitate creative thinking in meetings
Gamestorming for Distributed Teams adapts traditional gamestorming techniques for remote teams, using digital tools to facilitate collaboration. This method is ideal for teams spread across different locations that want
The Gamestorming Photo Submission method encourages individuals to contribute to a collaborative platform by submitting photos of games in action. This method is ideal for engaging participants in a creative exercise tha
Geared Up is a call-and-response energiser for partners standing in two concentric circles, in which each number the facilitator calls triggers a specific action. The group learns five numbered commands and then has to c
A Gemba Walk is a lean management practice of going to the place where the work is actually done, to understand the current situation through direct observation and questions before deciding anything. Gemba is Japanese f
The Generative Relationships STAR method helps groups diagnose and improve their relational dynamics, fostering more effective collaboration. Using the STAR compass, participants assess their team across four attributes:
This activity encourages quick introductions among participants while reducing initial awkwardness. It gets everyone talking and helps build connections from the start of the session.
Getting Unstuck is a self-paced audio walk from the Stanford d.school in which a recorded guide sends people outdoors and prompts them to look at their surroundings in ways that loosen and reframe a challenge they are st
Engage participants in a lively online activity where they respond to prompts with creative GIFs. This energiser fosters teamwork, creativity, and a bit of friendly competition.
Goals, Signals, Measures is a 90-minute workshop from the Atlassian Team Playbook that defines what success looks like before a project starts. The team agrees up to three outcome goals, names the signals that would show
The Golden Circle is a strategic communication and purpose framework developed by Simon Sinek, popularized by his 2009 TED Talk 'Start With Why.' It proposes that great leaders and organizations think, act, and communica
Developed by Sam Kaner, this tool maps participant support for a proposal on a seven-point spectrum from 'Whole-hearted endorsement' to 'Block'. Unlike binary yes/no votes, it reveals the texture of group opinion — enabl
The Graphic Gameplan is a visual planning tool designed to transform ideas into actionable steps. It helps teams break down projects into manageable tasks, fostering clarity and consensus on the path forward.
Graphic Jam is a visualization exercise aimed at transforming abstract concepts into visual representations. It's ideal for warming up creative thinking and can be used to spark innovation in areas like logo and presenta
The real-time visual capture of a group's ideas, conversations, and insights using drawing, text, and visual metaphor on a large shared surface. A skilled graphic recorder makes the invisible visible — synthesising compl
Gratitude Journaling is a guided session in which participants write about what they are grateful for and choose a form of gratitude writing they can keep up as a habit. This session design is by Natalie van Ommen for th
This activity energizes participants and helps them connect by exploring what they have in common. Use it to facilitate networking and improve group dynamics at the start of a session.
The most widely used coaching framework, developed by Sir John Whitmore. GROW is a structured conversation model with four phases: Goal (what do you want to achieve?), Reality (what is happening now?), Options (what coul
This energiser helps remote teams learn about each other's workspaces in a fun and interactive way. Participants will share photos of their work setups and try to guess whose desk is whose while enjoying some light-heart
Guided Journaling is a self-reflection exercise from Otto Scharmer's Theory U in which a facilitator reads out a fixed series of questions and participants write their answers immediately and privately. The questions fol
The Happiness Door is a quick feedback wall, usually the exit door of the room, marked with a visible satisfaction scale on which participants post a sticky note at the level that matches how they feel. Jurgen Appelo cre
A collective sense-making practice used to capture and consolidate the key insights, decisions, commitments, and questions emerging from a group session. Unlike simple note-taking, harvesting is participatory — the group
Each participant introduces themselves following the traditional Hawaiian order: place (where you're from), family (genealogy/roots), and self (who you are). This format recognises that identity is collective and context
Headlines is a short synthesis routine in which each participant writes one newspaper-style headline that captures the most important point of the topic just discussed. It comes from the Visible Thinking work of Project
This activity encourages participants to envision the success of a project two decades into the future. By creating a compelling headline and visual representation, teams can establish a bold vision that informs their cu
Heard, Seen, Respected (HSR) is a method designed to enhance empathy and listening skills within a group. It encourages participants to share personal stories about not feeling heard, seen, or respected, fostering an env
Heart, Hand, Mind is a structured approach to evaluate an issue from emotional, practical, and logical perspectives. Use this method to gain a holistic understanding of a product, decision, or strategy by examining its e
The Helium Stick activity promotes teamwork and communication among participants. In this engaging exercise, participants must work together to lower a lightweight stick using only their fingertips, which often leads to
Participants engage in a light-hearted game where the goal is to keep a straight face. One group pretends to be 'kittens,' while the other group, 'puppies,' works to get them to smile. The last kitten standing wins the r
Help Me Understand facilitates open communication between employees and leadership by allowing team members to express their questions about a topic or change. This method helps reveal common concerns and enables leaders
Helping Heuristics is a method designed to improve participants' understanding of their interaction patterns and enhance their ability to offer and receive help effectively. By engaging in structured role-playing exercis
Here, There, Everywhere is a reflective exercise designed to help participants identify and apply key takeaways from a session. It encourages individuals to consider how they can implement new insights in their work or p
The Hero's Journey Agenda is a dynamic way to outline a meeting or workshop agenda, inspired by the classic narrative structure. By casting the agenda as an adventure, this method engages participants and sets an anticip
The Heuristic Ideation Technique is a structured approach to idea generation using a matrix to explore new combinations of attributes. This method encourages participants to think creatively by mixing and matching differ
Hierarchical Card Sorting (HCS) is a sorting interview that shows how a person or small group categorises and values a set of real cases, such as projects, partners or locations, by splitting the cards again and again in
High Five Me is a team introduction exercise in which each person draws the outline of their hand and writes one self-description per finger: strengths, bad habits, what annoys them, what they value and what makes them f
A Hill Chart is a status picture in which each piece of work is a dot on a hill: the uphill side stands for figuring things out, the downhill side for executing what is now understood. It comes from Shape Up, Ryan Singer
The History Map method is a powerful tool for organizations to reflect on their past and use it to guide future strategies. It involves creating a visual timeline of significant events, changes, and milestones, which hel
Homepage Bingo is an engaging ideation exercise where participants design a product or service homepage by ranking features as if arranging a bingo card. This method encourages quick decision-making and prioritization of
A simple opening exercise where participants write their hopes (what they want to achieve or experience) and fears (what they worry about) for the session or project ahead. Displayed publicly, the collection creates a sh
Hoshin Kanri (literally 'compass needle management' or 'direction management') is a Japanese strategic management methodology developed in the 1960s and refined at Toyota, Bridgestone, and other leading manufacturers bef
A visual retrospective using a hot air balloon metaphor. The balloon represents the team, hot air (flames) represents what energises and propels the team upward, sandbags represent what is weighing the team down, clouds
A reframing technique popularised by IDEO and the Stanford d.school that transforms problem statements and observations into open-ended ideation prompts. Each 'How Might We...' question is specific enough to provide dire
The How-Now-Wow Matrix is a convergence tool that helps teams evaluate and prioritize ideas by assessing their originality and ease of implementation. This method is ideal after an ideation session to categorize ideas in
Use the HoWoRiCha framework to examine complex topics through the lenses of Hopes, Worries, Risks, and Chances. This method fosters connection among participants, helping to build understanding and reduce uncertainty abo
An energetic ice breaker where participants circulate and find people who match descriptions in a Bingo grid (e.g. 'has lived in more than two countries', 'speaks three languages', 'has a pet'). The goal is to get a pers
Participants write a short four-stanza personal poem using four prompts rooted in childhood memory — neighbourhood sights and sounds, family food, family sayings, and important people from the past. Sharing these poems b
A fun icebreaker where participants try to make each other smile without breaking character. One person in the middle says a playful phrase to another, who must resist smiling. This game fosters a relaxed atmosphere and
I Notice, I Wonder, It Reminds Me Of is a three-prompt observation routine from naturalist John Muir Laws, in which people look closely at one object or scene and say aloud what they notice, then what they wonder, then w
I Spy is the traditional guessing game adapted for video calls: one person picks something visible in any participant's camera background, gives a single clue, and the others guess what it is. The online and hybrid versi
This activity encourages participants to reflect on their changing perspectives after a learning experience. It helps identify key insights and growth in opinions or attitudes related to the subject matter.
ICE Scoring is a lightweight prioritisation framework popularised by growth practitioner Sean Ellis, creator of the 'growth hacking' concept, as a fast tool for scoring and ranking experiments and initiatives. ICE stands
The Iceberg Model is a systems-thinking tool that looks below a visible event through four levels: the event itself, the patterns it belongs to over time, the structures that produce those patterns, and the mental models
This method helps groups work together to generate and develop creative ideas. It is adaptable for various contexts, focusing on fostering teamwork and open-mindedness during the ideation process.
IDOARRT is a straightforward framework for structuring meetings effectively. It helps facilitators clarify the purpose, expected outcomes, and roles at the start to ensure everyone understands the meeting's direction and
If Then is a short paired improvisation warm-up in which one partner starts a sentence with "If..." and the other finishes it at once with "then...". It trains people to listen to the whole offer before responding and to
A Japanese concept meaning 'reason for being'. The Ikigai framework maps four overlapping dimensions: What you love, What you're good at, What the world needs, and What you can be paid for. The intersection of all four i
Imagining the Future is a one-hour individual visioning sequence run in a group: a breathing exercise, a metaphorical story heard with eyes closed, seven minutes of freewriting, a more deliberate second draft and a closi
The Impact & Effort Matrix is a decision-making tool that helps teams evaluate and prioritize ideas based on their potential impact and the effort required to implement them. It is especially useful for balancing short-t
An Impact Journey is a journey map with a matrix added underneath, in which a team notes for every step of a service experience its likely positive and negative effects on areas such as the environment, society and the e
Created by Gojko Adzic, Impact Mapping is a strategic planning technique that builds a mind-map connecting business goals to deliverables through actors and impacts. Structure: Goal (why are we doing this?) → Actors (who
Impromptu Networking is a dynamic method to quickly build connections and surface challenges within a group. Use this at the start of a session to encourage participation and set the stage for collaborative problem-solvi
Impromptu Speed Networking is a dynamic method to energize participants and foster connections, ideal for transitions in a workshop. It allows everyone to engage with the topic, ensuring each participant has a voice in t
Improv Cards is a storytelling warm-up built on a deck of 55 picture cards published by Management 3.0: each person draws a few random images and improvises a short story that links them. The publisher leaves the rules o
Improv Prototyping is a dynamic method where participants act out potential solutions to complex problems. It encourages creativity and collaboration by having diverse groups dramatize scenarios to innovate and refine id
This method leverages the power of games to foster collaboration and break down hierarchical barriers in the workplace. Use it to introduce game mechanics that encourage innovative thinking and enhance team dynamics.
In-Room Buddy is a role assignment for hybrid meetings in which each remote participant is paired with a person physically in the room who acts as their representative there. The pair keep a private line open for the who
The Innovation Ambition Matrix is a strategic tool designed to help teams map out their innovation initiatives across three levels: core, adjacent, and transformational. Use this method to clarify project ambitions, alig
The Innovation Generator is a structured ideation method designed to help teams identify and address customer needs by leveraging existing or potential inventions. By exploring the intersection of customer problems and c
Innovation Portfolio Mapping is a group exercise in which a leadership or innovation team plots every running innovation project on a grid of strategic objectives against type of innovation. The template published by Boa
Inside-Outside Presence is an embodied attention exercise in which participants practise staying aware of their own body while remaining engaged with other people and the surroundings. Developed by Ulrike Scholtes for th
Integrated~Autonomy helps groups balance the dual needs of integration and autonomy, facilitating strategic thinking and collaboration. This method is particularly useful for organizations facing conflicts between the ne
Integrative Decision-Making is the fixed sequence of rounds that Holacracy uses in governance meetings to decide on a proposal about roles and policies. A proposer brings a tension and a proposal to resolve it; the propo
Participants take on different professional roles to work collaboratively on a fictional case. This method encourages diverse perspectives and helps team members formulate shared goals and solutions.
Participants are challenged to defend a disciplinary perspective that is not their own. This exercise encourages critical thinking and helps students learn to evaluate arguments effectively.
Inviting Non-Human Stakeholders is a perspective-taking exercise in which participants take the role of a non-human entity connected to a real case, such as an animal, a tree, a river or a mountain, and are interviewed f
Developed by Kaoru Ishikawa, this diagram visualises the causes of a problem in a structured fishbone shape. The problem (effect) sits at the right, with major cause categories branching off like fish bones. The most com
This method helps participants break down a complex and ambiguous issue into clearer, manageable components. It allows the group to understand the various elements of a situation and prioritize their focus for discussion
Issue Cards are a custom deck in which each card carries a single prompt about the topic at hand, such as an insight, a picture, a keyword or a short description. Documented in the Service Design Tools collection, the ca
An Issue Tree is a diagram that breaks a large problem or question into smaller parts that do not overlap and together cover the whole. The technique comes from management-consulting practice and is closely tied to the M
A Jane's Walk is a free, volunteer-led walk through a neighbourhood that works as a moving conversation and not as a guided tour. Anyone can lead one: the leader shares local stories and observations and invites walkers
A Jeffersonian Dinner is a dinner for a small group built around one shared conversation on a question announced in advance, with no side conversations. A moderator keeps the whole table in a single discussion and makes
A cooperative learning structure developed by Elliot Aronson. Participants start in 'home groups' then split into 'expert groups' — each expert group studies a different topic or material. Experts then return to their ho
Job or Joy is a relationship-building exercise designed to explore team members' likes and dislikes both in and outside of work. By mapping activities onto a four-quadrant chart, participants gain insights into what brin
Jobs to Be Done (JTBD) is a strategic framework developed by Clayton Christensen that reframes how you think about customers: instead of demographics, you focus on the 'job' a customer is 'hiring' a product or service to
Developed by psychologists Joseph Luft and Harry Ingham in 1955, the Johari Window is a model for exploring self-awareness and interpersonal communication. A 2x2 grid maps what is known/unknown to self and to others: Ope
This method helps groups clarify their main ideas when they are bogged down in details or lack a clear vision. By creating a fictional newspaper front page, participants can focus on the most essential stories and insigh
JourneyFolio is a structured framework for creating a personal narrative that goes beyond a traditional resume. It allows participants to visually document their life achievements, skills, and unique experiences using a
Jump In Jump Out is a circle energiser in which the group jumps in, out, left or right on the leader's command while saying the command aloud. Later rounds split saying from doing: people must say the opposite of the com
This icebreaker fosters connections and lightens the mood in a group. Participants share personal truths and one lie, encouraging interaction and laughter throughout your meeting.
A visual workflow management system that maps work items through defined stages (columns) with explicit limits on how much work can be in progress at once (WIP limits). Kanban makes bottlenecks visible, reduces context-s
Developed by Noriaki Kano, this model classifies product features by how they affect customer satisfaction. Features fall into five categories: Must-Be (expected, cause dissatisfaction if absent), One-Dimensional (more =
This activity helps participants observe the physiological effects of stress by taking their pulse. By becoming aware of their heart rate, they can better understand how stress influences their body in real-time.
A structured conversation format created by David Gurteen that brings people together to have a meaningful conversation about a topic that matters. Unlike World Café, Knowledge Café has no table hosts — everyone moves fr
Kudo Cards are a peer-to-peer recognition practice from Jurgen Appelo's Management 3.0: anyone can write a short card thanking a colleague for a specific contribution and put it in a box or on a wall. At a regular moment
A Labyrinth Walk is a silent walking meditation in which each person follows the single winding path of a labyrinth to its centre and back out again. The practice is ancient; its modern revival is associated with Lauren
The Ladder of Inference is a model of the mental steps between observing something and acting on it, used in groups to trace a contested conclusion back to the data it rests on. It was developed by the organisational the
Participants create and practice a brief pitch that summarizes what they do, designed to leave a lasting impression. This exercise enhances communication skills and prepares individuals to concisely explain their roles a
This activity allows participants to share leadership wisdom by channeling the insights of their personal role models. It fosters an understanding of different approaches to leadership through collective discussion and r
This activity helps participants apply abstract leadership principles to practical workplace behaviors. By working in teams, they translate these principles into real-life applications, fostering better understanding and
This activity helps participants identify essential leadership skills, attributes, and attitudes through a self-assessment framework. The visual aid of a pizza allows individuals to reflect on their strengths and areas f
The Lean Canvas is a one-page business model tool created by Ash Maurya, published in his 2012 book 'Running Lean'. It is an adaptation of Alexander Osterwalder's Business Model Canvas, explicitly redesigned for the real
A structured but agenda-less meeting format developed by Jim Benson and Jeremy Lightsmith. Participants propose topics, vote on them democratically, and discuss the highest-priority topics in timeboxed slots. A simple Ka
A Learning Circle, in the Atlassian Team Playbook format, is a recurring session in which one or more team members present something they have researched or learned, followed by questions and a facilitated group discussi
The Learning Matrix is a reflective exercise designed to evaluate past projects by identifying strengths, areas for improvement, new ideas, and appreciated team contributions. It encourages a balanced view of past work w
This activity involves teams collaborating to build a LEGO structure while managing secret individual assignments. It highlights communication, leadership dynamics, and problem-solving skills among participants.
A facilitation methodology developed by LEGO Group and academics. Participants build 3D LEGO models in response to questions about strategy, identity, systems, or challenges, then use their models as metaphors to explain
This method helps teams create a shared vision for the future by imagining their ideal scenario five years from now. By writing letters from this future perspective, team members clarify their goals and expectations toge
This exercise encourages participants to reflect on their learnings by writing a letter to their future selves. It emphasizes setting actionable goals and personal insights to promote accountability and future reflection
A Liberating Structures String is a purposefully designed sequence of two or more Liberating Structures methods, where the output of each step feeds into the next. Rather than using a single method, the String creates a
A Liberating Structure that uses creative destruction to help groups stop perpetuating counterproductive behaviours. Named after the Russian innovation methodology, LS TRIZ inverts the problem: 'What would we do if we wa
The Lightning Decision Jam helps teams quickly identify and address challenges by encouraging structured thinking and focused discussion. This method streamlines problem-solving to prevent aimless conversations and ensur
Lightning Demos are quick presentations where team members share existing products or services that inspire their design ideas. This method helps spark creativity and provides useful reference points for future brainstor
Participants must arrange themselves in a line based on specific criteria without speaking. This activity enhances non-verbal communication skills and fosters teamwork.
A Live Doc Meeting is a meeting run from one shared, editable agenda document: questions and proposals are written into a numbered list before the call, handled strictly in that order, and answered and noted inline by th
A real-world testing environment where new solutions, services, or processes are tested with real users in their natural context, rather than in controlled lab settings. Originating in European innovation policy, Living
Participants draw a logo or image that represents their vision, idea, or project. The visual constraint forces distillation of complex concepts to their essential nature, increases investment in shared work, and gives th
The Long Table is a public conversation format staged as a dinner party in which conversation is the only course. It was created by the artist and academic Lois Weaver of Split Britches in the early 2000s, inspired by Ma
This energiser helps participants experience the challenge of unlearning by following rapid directional prompts. It’s a simple activity requiring no materials and encourages everyone to engage physically and mentally.
A structured brainstorming technique developed by Yasuo Matsumura. Start with a central theme in the middle of a 3x3 grid. Generate 8 related ideas in the surrounding cells. Each of those 8 ideas then becomes the centre
Loving-kindness meditation is a guided practice in which participants silently offer a short set of good wishes, for safety, health, happiness and ease, first to themselves, then to someone they love, then to a neutral p
Low-Tech Social Network helps participants introduce themselves and visualize their connections by creating a large, interactive network mural. Ideal for large events, this method fosters relationship-building and uncove
A simple retrospective format that invites participants to surface emotions from a recent period or project. By categorising experiences as Mad (frustrating), Sad (disappointing), or Glad (positive), teams open honest co
Mad Tea is a Liberating Structure in which participants complete a rapid series of open sentences about a shared challenge, each with a new partner. In the room, people stand in two concentric circles of facing pairs and
The Magic Box is a fun ice-breaking activity that helps participants share something personal while connecting to the workshop's theme. Each participant picks an object randomly and explains its significance, deepening i
Magical Gifts is a short closing exercise in pairs in which one person answers a reflective prompt and the partner responds by handing over an imaginary gift that fits what they heard. The receiver accepts the gift and a
Make A World is an engaging method that encourages participants to visualize and construct a three-dimensional representation of a desired future state. It is particularly effective for brainstorming and aligning on a sh
Making Courageous Decisions is a pair-based exercise in which each person names something meaningful they have been putting off, is listened to in complete silence, hears back what the listener heard, saw and felt, and t
Manage What You Measure is a strategic workshop method designed to link customer behaviors with high-level organizational objectives. It helps teams identify which customer actions most significantly impact company goals
This method helps participants recognize and manage various behaviors during meetings. Through role-playing exercises, individuals can explore both constructive and destructive behaviors to improve future interactions.
Map the Problem Space is a Stanford d.school activity in which you chart how a topic shows up on six layers: data, technologies, products, experiences, systems and implications. It comes from Sarah Stein Greenberg's book
Mapping Business Models is a strategic method using the Business Model Canvas to visualize and analyze a company's current or potential business models. This approach fosters a shared understanding and can lead to strate
Mapping Design Operations is a strategic exercise aimed at visualizing and understanding the role of Design Ops within an organization. It helps teams either map existing operations or conceptualize a new Design Ops fram
Mapping Organizational Culture is a strategic method used to assess and visually represent the current cultural dynamics within an organization. It helps identify behaviors, outcomes, and the enablers or blockers that im
Participants are divided into teams to construct the tallest free-standing structure using limited materials. This activity promotes teamwork, communication, and creative problem-solving skills.
Mash-Up Innovation is a collaborative technique where participants generate new ideas by combining different concepts. They brainstorm across various categories, such as technologies, human needs, and existing services,
Mash-Ups is an ideation technique from the IDEO.org Design Kit that borrows a quality from a well-known brand or service in another field and applies it to your own design challenge. The team names the quality it wants,
Match & Out is a rhythm-and-chance elimination game in which everyone keeps a shared pat-and-clap beat and then shows one of three hand gestures; anyone whose gesture matches the leader's is out. Because elimination depe
The McKinsey 7-S Framework is a powerful organizational alignment model developed in the late 1970s by consultants Tom Peters, Robert Waterman, and Julien Philips at McKinsey & Company. It maps an organization across sev
Meddlers is a tabletop game from Jurgen Appelo's Management 3.0 in which small groups build an organisational structure out of hexagonal tiles and tokens and discuss the trade-offs as they go. A tile stands for a team or
Meeting Games explores the implicit and explicit games that occur within workplace meetings, highlighting how understanding these dynamics can improve communication and productivity. It's useful for identifying unspoken
Memory Wall is a collaborative exercise designed to foster appreciation and camaraderie within a team by visually sharing positive memories. It is ideal for acknowledging contributions and celebrating team achievements.
The Merrill Covey Matrix is a prioritization tool designed to help teams assess the urgency and importance of tasks, thereby enhancing efficiency and focus. This method is particularly useful for structuring to-do lists
Metaphor Work is a facilitation technique that uses images, stories, and analogies to help groups engage with complex, sensitive, or emotionally charged material indirectly. When participants describe a situation as 'a s
Min Specs is a strategic method used to streamline processes by identifying the essential rules that must be followed to achieve success. It helps groups eliminate unnecessary constraints, fostering innovation while main
A mind map visually organizes ideas and concepts, allowing you to explore relationships and structure information. This method helps in brainstorming and clarifying thoughts by connecting related themes.
MindSpin is a dynamic and energetic brainstorming method that encourages individual and group contributions. Participants generate a wide range of ideas quickly by writing them on index cards and physically engaging with
Minefield is a trust and communication exercise in which a blindfolded person crosses an area scattered with objects, guided only by the spoken directions of a sighted partner who stays outside the boundary. Partners the
A mingle is a simultaneous-interaction format in which everyone stands, moves around inside a marked space and repeats one short task with each person they meet. The facilitator changes what the group gets out of it by c
The Miracle Question is a solution-focused facilitation technique that invites participants to imagine a future in which the problem has already been solved — without analysing how that happened. Developed by Steve de Sh
A structured approach to facilitating collaborative work sessions entirely in a digital whiteboard environment. Rather than replicating in-person workshops online, a Digital Whiteboard Sprint is designed from the ground
The Mirror Walk is a silent outdoor exercise in pairs in which one partner, eyes closed, is led by the other to touch, smell and listen to the surroundings and is invited at chosen moments to open their eyes and look at
Moderated usability testing is a research session in which a moderator watches one participant at a time attempt realistic tasks with a prototype or live service while saying aloud what they are thinking. It shows whethe
Mood Board is a creative method used to visually capture the essence and feel of an idea. It's ideal for early project phases to inspire and align teams with a shared vision. Participants create a collage using various v
The Morphological Box is a systematic ideation method in which a problem is split into independent attributes, possible values are listed for each attribute in a table, and whole solutions are built by combining one valu
A prioritisation framework dividing requirements or tasks into four categories: Must Have (non-negotiable), Should Have (important but not critical), Could Have (nice to have if time/resources allow), and Won't Have this
Developed by Jurgen Appelo, this Management 3.0 exercise uses ten motivation cards — Curiosity, Freedom, Goal, Honor, Mastery, Order, Power, Relatedness, Status, Acceptance — to help individuals and teams understand what
My User Manual is a team exercise in which each member writes a short guide to working with them: how they prefer to communicate, when they work best, how they like to receive feedback and what tends to frustrate them. T
Conduct a workshop where team members use the Myers-Briggs personality model to explore their own traits and improve interpersonal relationships. This process fosters better understanding within the team, enhancing both
This activity helps participants memorize each other's names in a fun and engaging way, perfect for the beginning of a workshop or meeting. It's a light-hearted exercise that encourages laughter and fosters a friendly at
Names Stock Market is a noisy trading game for learning names, in which everyone writes their first name on five cards, the cards are shuffled and dealt, and players swap cards blind until someone holds five with the sam
The 'Navigate your market opportunities' method helps teams identify, evaluate, and prioritize potential markets for their innovations. It is a strategic tool that encourages broad thinking beyond current customer bases
Near and Far is an engaging warm-up activity designed to foster connections among participants while exploring themes of corporate culture and dynamics. It encourages movement and interaction, making it ideal for varied
Never Have I Ever is a work-appropriate version of the traditional party game: a statement beginning 'Never have I ever...' is read out and everyone who has in fact done the thing gives a visible signal. The game has no
New Metaphors is a card-based workshop for reframing a complex issue by inventing new metaphors for it. Groups first name the metaphors already in use for the issue and what those metaphors assume, then pair randomly cho
A simple daily mood-tracking practice where each team member marks their mood at the end of each day on a shared calendar using coloured stickers or emojis. Over time, patterns emerge: chronically red Fridays, post-relea
The Nine Whys method helps groups uncover the core purpose of their work by repeatedly asking 'Why?' up to nine times. This technique clarifies motivations and aligns the team around a shared purpose, providing a foundat
A structured brainstorming technique that solicits anonymous written contributions from all participants before any discussion. By collecting and randomly redistributing cards, it ensures every voice is heard equally — w
Developed by Marshall Rosenberg, Non-Violent Communication (NVC) is a communication framework for expressing needs and resolving conflict compassionately. It has four components: Observations (what I actually observed, w
The North Star Metric (NSM) Workshop is a structured session for identifying, validating, and operationalising the single metric that best captures the core value a product delivers to its customers — and that predicts t
This method helps participants experience the contrast between learning styles. They will understand the challenges of using a weak learning style and the advantages of utilizing a stronger one.
The NUF Test is a decision-making tool used to evaluate ideas based on how New, Useful, and Feasible they are. This method is ideal for quickly assessing the viability of ideas generated during brainstorming sessions.
The NVC Team Check-in is a structured team maintenance session in which members write and read out appreciations, then frustrations and requests, using the four elements of Nonviolent Communication, and only afterwards d
Object Brainstorm leverages tangible items to spark creativity and generate innovative ideas. By interacting with physical objects, participants can explore new possibilities and associations, making it a powerful tool f
Object Metaphor is a check-in activity in which each participant chooses a physical object from a varied collection and uses it as a metaphor for themselves, their role or a topic. The version described here follows the
An Offering Map is a diagram of what a service provides to its users, breaking the overall value proposition down into clusters of features. The Service Design Tools collection, which credits Daniela Sangiorgi's 2004 doc
OGSM (Objectives, Goals, Strategies, Measures) is a one-page strategic planning framework originally developed by Procter & Gamble and widely used in large organizations for aligning strategy across levels. It forces tea
A lightweight weekly or bi-weekly ritual where teams briefly review progress on their Key Results, update confidence levels, surface blockers, and decide if course corrections are needed. Check-ins prevent OKRs from beco
A structured facilitated session for a team or organisation to define their Objectives and Key Results for the upcoming quarter or year. Well-run OKR sessions produce ambitious but achievable objectives, measurable key r
A structured workshop for setting Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) — a goal-setting framework popularised by Intel and Google. An Objective is qualitative, inspiring, and directional ('Become the go-to tool for enterpri
This method gathers feedback in a concise manner, allowing each participant to share their thoughts during a single breath, typically lasting around 20-25 seconds. It helps maintain focus and energy during closing discus
One Up, One Down is a find-the-hidden-rule puzzle in which the leader points at people and labels each one "one up, one down", "two up" or "two down", and the group has to work out what the labels refer to. It is a tradi
A simple opening ritual where each participant shares a single word that captures how they are feeling or what they are bringing to the session. The constraint of one word prevents lengthy monologues while still giving e
Participants collaboratively construct a sentence by contributing one word at a time related to a chosen topic. This approach encourages creativity, fosters group bonding, and provides a relaxed atmosphere for sharing id
A facilitation micro-skill and deliberate practice: crafting and using open questions that generate exploration rather than close down thinking. Open questions begin with What, How, Who, Where, When — never Why (which ca
This activity uses a literary extract to enhance communication skills through role play. Participants will practice using open questions, fostering active listening and observation skills in a collaborative setting.
Open Space Technology (OST) is a self-organising large-group facilitation method developed by Harrison Owen in the 1980s after he observed that the most valuable conversations at conferences happened during coffee breaks
Developed by the Institute of Cultural Affairs (ICA), the ORID method structures a conversation through four levels: Objective (observable facts), Reflective (emotional responses), Interpretive (meaning and implications)
The group collaboratively develops a shared motto or slogan short enough to fit on a bumper sticker. The motto should capture the group's core values, ultimate goal, and motivating spirit — and serve as a rallying point
The Pain-Gain Map is a strategic tool used to explore the motivations and decisions of a key individual, such as a customer or organizational leader. By mapping out this person's challenges and aspirations, teams can bet
A paired walk helps build trust and mutual understanding while preparing for difficult conversations. It energizes participants and creates a relaxed atmosphere, making it ideal for conflict resolution discussions. Ensur
Panarchy is a strategic method that helps participants understand the complex interdependencies within systems to foster innovation and change. It allows groups to visualize how different system levels interact, identify
Pancakes vs Waffles is a quick debate game in which a group must agree which of two things stays in the world and which disappears for good, starting with pancakes and waffles. The winner then faces a new challenger name
Paper Cranes is a collective making challenge in which table groups fold as many origami cranes as they can towards a shared target within a time limit, then string them together into one hanging installation. The exerci
The Paper Plate Challenge is a campaign-planning exercise in which each person lays a path of paper plates across the floor, with every plate naming one concrete outcome on the way from today to the campaign goal. It was
A facilitation tool for capturing off-topic ideas, questions, or tangents without derailing the main discussion. A designated area — the 'parking lot' — is visible to all. Items parked there are acknowledged as valid but
This activity helps participants identify ways to manage disruptive behaviors during training. Teams will analyze different types of disruptive participants and collaboratively develop strategies to handle them.
Party Invitations is a creative ideation exercise where participants design a metaphorical invitation for a product or service, imagining it as a party. This method is ideal for enhancing the onboarding process by genera
This activity engages participants in a fun way to demonstrate teamwork and strategy through observation and communication. Teams will try to determine the location of a stone being passed between members, fostering inte
Pecha Kucha is a presentation method that encourages teams to collaboratively generate ideas using visual storytelling. Each group creates a series of images paired with their narrative, presenting their story succinctly
A Peer Assist is a structured meeting held before or early in a piece of work, in which a team invites people from elsewhere who have done something similar to share what they learned. The method comes from BP, where it
A structured peer learning format where a small group of practitioners support each other's professional development through structured consultation rounds. One person brings a real challenge (the 'client'), others take
A design research tool for creating realistic, composite representations of key user groups based on research data. A persona includes a name, photo, background, goals, frustrations, behaviours, and quotes. Good personas
Personal Kanban is a visual tool for organizing tasks to enhance efficiency and productivity. It's ideal for individuals or teams looking to manage their workload in a clear and structured manner.
A Personal Map is a mind map about a person: the name sits in the centre and branches such as home, education, work, hobbies, family, friends, goals and values spread out from it, each extended with concrete details. The
This exercise helps participants identify and share their strengths and weaknesses with one another before starting a group project. Establishing this understanding fosters better collaboration and conflict resolution am
This workshop provides a structured approach for participants to evaluate their personal growth using the SWOB framework: Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Barriers. Participants will identify key areas for their
An adaptation of the classic SWOT framework for personal or professional development. Applied to an individual rather than an organisation: Strengths (what am I naturally good at?), Weaknesses (where do I hold myself bac
A structured environmental scanning tool for analysing the macro-level factors affecting an organisation or project. PESTLE stands for: Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Legal, Environmental. It ensures teams c
Participants select an image from a collection that resonates with how they feel, what they expect from the session, or their current state. They then briefly explain their choice. The visual element bypasses verbal defe
Photovoice is a participatory method in which community members photograph their own lives on an agreed theme and then discuss the pictures as a group to identify shared strengths, concerns and messages for decision-make
The Pie Chart Agenda is a quick and flexible method for structuring a meeting by visually organizing time allocation for each topic. Ideal for ad hoc meetings, it helps teams focus on key issues within time constraints.
A consensus-based estimation technique used by agile teams. Each team member uses a deck of cards with Fibonacci-sequence numbers to estimate the effort or complexity of a user story. Simultaneous card reveal prevents an
Playback Theatre is an improvised theatre form in which people from the audience tell true moments from their own lives and then watch a small ensemble act them out on the spot with movement, dialogue and music. It was f
Playing Card Mixers is a way of forming random groups with a standard deck of cards: each person receives one card and regroups on the facilitator's call by suit, value, colour or odd and even. Because one card carries s
Plus/Delta is a feedback method designed to generate constructive insights by focusing on what went well and what could be improved. It encourages participants to reflect on positive aspects and propose changes for futur
A structured problem framing technique from the Stanford d.school design thinking process. A POV statement combines a user archetype, their need, and an unexpected insight into a single reframeable sentence: '[User] need
Polis is an open-source online tool and process for finding out what a large group thinks in its own words: participants write short statements and vote agree, disagree or pass on the statements of others. The system sor
Pop-up rules are explicit rules that a host sets for one gathering only, designed to change how people behave with each other while it lasts. The idea comes from Priya Parker's book The Art of Gathering (2018), where she
Introduced by Michael E. Porter in his 1979 Harvard Business Review article, Porter's Five Forces is the gold standard for analysing the competitive intensity and attractiveness of an industry. The framework examines fiv
Portrait Gallery is an energetic opening exercise in which participants draw portraits of one another collaboratively: artists rotate past a line of models and each adds a few seconds of drawing to the same sheet, so tha
Positive-Negative is a quick shared-storytelling game in which pairs or small groups build a made-up story one turn at a time, alternating between something going wrong and something going right. The alternating-story me
Post The Path is a facilitation method designed to diagnose a group's understanding of a process by mapping it visually. It helps uncover areas of confusion and differing perceptions without creating a new process.
Post-it Prophecies is a small welcome or closing ritual in which the facilitator writes a short message for every participant, folds each one into a closed sticky-note parcel and leaves it for people to open. The format
Post-Up is a silent brainstorming technique where participants write ideas on sticky notes to encourage individual thought before group discussion. It's ideal for generating a wide range of ideas quickly and ensuring eac
The Poster Session method encourages participants to condense their ideas into visual summaries, fostering quick understanding and engagement. It's ideal for large groups to present diverse ideas without lengthy explanat
Power Mapping is a campaign-strategy exercise that places every relevant person and organisation on a grid of how much power they hold over a specific outcome and how strongly they support or oppose it. Talking through e
Powerpoint Karaoke is an engaging game where participants present slides they have never seen before. This fun and spontaneous activity fosters communication skills and team bonding.
A PowerPoint Party is a social event in which each participant prepares and presents a short, deliberately light-hearted slide deck on a topic they care about or find funny. It is a social trend with no known originator
The Premortem, developed by psychologist Gary Klein and popularised by Daniel Kahneman in 'Thinking, Fast and Slow', is a structured technique for identifying failure risks before a project or decision begins — not after
This method helps participants explore and define effective feedback principles through discussion and collaboration. By sharing experiences, they identify characteristics of constructive and less effective feedback, fos
A lightweight prioritisation technique that gives each participant a fixed number of 'priority votes' (total items ÷ 3 or 4) to place on a visible list. Unlike voting, participants can stack all their votes on one item o
Pro Action Café is a conversation format in which participants who bring a real project or question host a table, and the other participants rotate through three rounds to help them move from question to next steps. It c
The Pro/Con List is a classic decision-making tool that helps individuals or groups weigh the positive and negative aspects of a decision. It's particularly useful when clarity is needed to resolve complex issues by visu
This method helps participants define a problem or opportunity and brainstorm potential solutions. It encourages a shift in perspective to view challenges as chances for innovation.
Product Pinocchio is a creative exercise that personifies a product or service to explore and develop its features. By imagining the product as a living character, teams can uncover innovative ideas that enhance the prod
The Productive Thinking Model is a six-step creative problem-solving framework published by Tim Hurson in his book Think Better (2007). It moves from understanding the situation and defining success, through finding the
Project Jeopardy transforms mundane project status reports into an engaging and interactive game. This method encourages active participation and ensures that everyone is attentive and informed about the project's progre
This method helps teams assess their ongoing project to identify necessary improvements for better collaboration. It encourages open discussion about what is working well and what might need adjustment.
This method helps individuals and teams outline the framework, goals, and initial steps for their project. Participants will answer a series of focused questions, capturing the insights in a shareable digital format.
A Project Poster is a one-page living document that a team fills in together at the start of a project, moving through three parts: the problem space, the assumptions that still need validating, and the proposed solution
The Promises & Potential Map is a two-by-two worksheet for placing each of an organisation's offerings and ideas by who it is for, existing or new users, and how new it is, an existing or a new offering. It comes from th
A Promptathon is a time-boxed peer-learning event modelled on the hackathon, in which small teams write, test and refine prompts for generative AI tools to solve set challenges. The aim is less to find a winning prompt t
Prune The Future uses the metaphor of a tree to help groups visualize and shape future possibilities. It is particularly useful in strategic planning sessions where incremental changes and future growth need to be mapped
Psychiatrist is a traditional deduction game in which one volunteer leaves the room while the rest of the group secretly agrees on a rule that will shape all of their answers. The volunteer returns and questions people o
The Psychological Safety Ladder Canvas is a team assessment tool created by Gustavo Razzetti of Fearless Culture in 2021 that treats psychological safety as a ladder with three levels: belonging, diversity of thought and
Purpose-To-Practice (P2P) is a structured approach to collaboratively design initiatives by defining five key elements: purpose, principles, participants, structure, and practices. Use this method to engage stakeholders
Push Catch is a circle reaction game in which players must do the opposite of the command they hear. A person in the centre throws a soft ball to someone while calling 'push' or 'catch'; the receiver has to catch it on '
Quaker Conversation is a structured method designed to ensure all voices in a group are heard equally, preventing dominant personalities from overshadowing quieter members. It is particularly useful for gathering diverse
Question Balloons is a dynamic feedback method that allows participants to 'float' questions during a session, providing a visual and interactive way to manage inquiries. This technique helps maintain engagement and ensu
This fun improvisation game helps participants engage creatively and energizes the group. It can serve as an icebreaker and generate laughter while promoting quick thinking.
This opening activity engages participants in recognizing change by making quick, personal modifications. It connects the theme of change to personal experience, making the topic more relatable.
This activity helps participants explore qualities that enable adaptability and resilience in times of change. By reflecting on individuals who handle change well or struggle with it, participants can identify key factor
This activity helps participants connect and share insights by discussing meaningful quotes. It encourages conversation and fosters a sense of familiarity within the group.
A RACI Matrix clarifies roles and responsibilities within a project by identifying who is Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, and Informed for each task. This structured approach helps reduce ambiguity and ensures every
Rainstorm is a large-group sound energiser in which the facilitator conducts the room through a storm made with body percussion: rubbing hands, snapping fingers, clapping, slapping thighs and a collective jump for the th
Random Coffee is a standing programme that pairs colleagues at random, on a fixed rhythm, for a short informal conversation with no agenda. People opt in, a bot or an organiser draws the pairs, and each pair arranges its
A lateral thinking technique developed by Edward de Bono. A random, unrelated word is introduced into a brainstorming session to break habitual thinking patterns. Participants are forced to make unexpected connections be
The practice of building quick, cheap, tangible representations of ideas to test assumptions and generate feedback before investing in development. Rapid prototyping embraces imperfection deliberately — the goal is to fa
This exercise helps participants gather insights from people outside their group, enhancing brainstorming and creative processes. It's ideal for developing new products, strategies, or obtaining valuable feedback.
Red Light, Yellow Light is a critical-reading routine in which participants go through a source and mark the points where a claim may not be trustworthy: red for strong warning signs, yellow for milder ones. It comes fro
Red:Green Cards is a feedback method designed to facilitate quick and clear communication of approval or disagreement in large group settings. Participants use colored cards to visually express their stance on a topic, e
This method enables individuals to break down complex experiences, identify successes, and learn from failures. It provides a structured process for self-reflection that can be adapted to various contexts.
Reframing is a facilitation technique that offers a new interpretive frame for a behaviour, situation, or concern — revealing its hidden logic or positive function. Resistance becomes a protective signal; perfectionism b
A reflective exercise that helps participants understand how everyday actions make deposits or withdrawals from the 'relationship bank accounts' they hold with colleagues. Through a series of scenarios, participants scor
This method helps groups generate ideas quickly in a digital format, allowing for individual contributions and collective voting. It transforms ideas into actionable 'how might we' statements, facilitating a clear direct
This fun improv activity enhances your team's pitching abilities in a remote setting. Participants will practice their creativity and presentation skills while engaging with unusual objects showcased in a slide deck.
Use the sailboat metaphor to help teams identify what drives them forward and what holds them back. Participants visualize their organization's challenges and strengths, leading to constructive discussions about improvem
This quick energizer invites participants to engage and observe one another, fostering connection in a virtual setting. It's a lighthearted way to improve focus and interaction during online sessions.
The Resilience Plan is a structured exercise in which people work out what helped them through a past setback and reuse those resources to plan for a difficulty they face now. What helped is sorted into four boxes, the F
Resource Orientation is a solution-focused facilitation approach that deliberately redirects attention from problems to existing strengths, capabilities, and exceptions. Rather than asking 'What's wrong and why?', it ask
Restorative Dialogue, in the form described here, is a structured follow-up conversation held some time after a group discussion overheated or a remark hurt people. Everyone anonymously records what they felt, what they
A retrospective dialogue sheet is a large printed sheet, about A1 in size, covered with questions, quotes, pictures and writing space, which a team of three to eight gathers around and works through without a facilitator
A short ritual created by Norm Kerth that is read aloud at the start of any retrospective. The Prime Directive states: 'Regardless of what we discover, we understand and truly believe that everyone did the best job they
The Revenue Model Flowchart is a decision-tree tool from Board of Innovation that leads a team, through a series of simple questions about its offer, to a handful of numbered start-up cases whose revenue models it can st
RICE Scoring is a quantitative prioritisation framework developed by Sean McBride at Intercom and published in 2016. It was created to solve a specific and common problem in product management: important decisions about
A soft systems methodology tool developed by Peter Checkland. A Rich Picture is an informal, hand-drawn illustration of a complex situation — including people, processes, structures, conflicts, relationships, and feeling
Ritual Reset is a team session that lists every recurring ritual the team has, such as meetings, reviews, social events and regular practices, judges how well each one works and decides which to keep, change or drop. It
River of Life is a visual storytelling method in which each person draws their life, or the story of a project or team, as a river with bends, tributaries, rapids, rocks and calm stretches. The drawings are shared and th
This energizer turns the classic game of Rock, Paper, Scissors into a lively tournament. Players cheer for their winning partners, creating a fun atmosphere as they compete in escalating rounds until a champion is declar
Participants are assigned specific discussion roles (e.g. spokesperson, devil's advocate, notetaker) via cards, then switch roles partway through. The structure balances participation — drawing out quieter members and re
Role on the Wall is a technique in which a group draws a large outline of a person, puts it on the wall and fills it in to build a shared picture of a character. Observable facts go around the outside of the figure, and
A learning and exploration technique where participants take on assigned roles and act out scenarios. Role playing develops empathy, communication skills, and behavioural flexibility by letting people experience situatio
Roles and Responsibilities is a team workshop in which each member writes down what they believe their own responsibilities are and what they think every other role is responsible for, and the two views are then compared
This method helps participants express their feelings in a fun, visual way using the metaphor of a rollercoaster. It's an effective way to gauge the emotional state of the group at the start of a meeting, creating a shar
The simplest possible group voting technique: thumbs up (yes), thumbs sideways (neutral/can live with it), or thumbs down (no/block). Named after the Roman gladiatorial arena gesture, it's used for rapid, simultaneous po
A simple reflection tool using a plant metaphor. Roses represent positives and successes, Thorns represent challenges and pain points, and Buds represent emerging opportunities or ideas not yet fully developed. It works
This method facilitates idea sharing and feedback among breakout groups. Each group reviews another's work sequentially, ensuring everyone provides and receives constructive feedback, leading to enhanced collaboration an
A structured turn-taking technique where each person contributes once before anyone contributes a second time. It ensures every voice is heard, prevents dominant voices from crowding out quieter participants, and creates
The SAFE-BOLD Framework is a strategic tool used to create compelling pitches by evaluating ideas across four dimensions: Scale, Risk, Innovativeness, and Difficulty. It's designed to help teams craft pitches that not on
A visual retrospective technique using the metaphor of a sailboat at sea. The boat represents the team, wind represents what drives progress, anchors represent what slows the team down, rocks represent upcoming risks, an
Scaling Questions is a solution-focused facilitation technique that uses a simple 1–10 scale to make subjective, intangible experiences concrete and discussable. Instead of debating abstract positions, participants locat
A structured creativity checklist where each letter prompts a different angle of attack on an existing product, service, or process: Substitute, Combine, Adapt, Modify/Magnify, Put to other uses, Eliminate, Reverse/Rearr
A strategic planning method developed at Royal Dutch Shell that helps organisations prepare for multiple possible futures. Rather than predicting the future, scenario planning constructs three to four plausible, distinct
Scenario Planning 2x2 is a strategy workshop method for exploring uncertainty. A team chooses two critical uncertainties, uses them as the axes of a 2x2 matrix, and develops four plausible future scenarios. The goal is n
Scenario Slider is a problem-solving exercise designed to test ideas by modeling them under various extreme scenarios using predefined variables. It is particularly useful after generating ideas to explore different impl
The Scoping Canvas is a one-page template from Board of Innovation with eight boxes that a team fills in at the start of an innovation project to agree what the project is about. Seven boxes cover the reasons for the cha
Scrummen helps teams track tasks across multiple projects by categorizing them into 'To Do,' 'In Process,' and 'Done.' This method fosters collaborative work by breaking down large assignments into manageable chunks and
One participant acts as a 'sculptor' who positions other group members into a static scene that represents a situation or dynamic. The resulting human tableau is then interpreted and discussed by the observers, revealing
A Seasonal Calendar is a participatory chart on which a group plots how several things rise and fall over a recurring cycle, usually the twelve months of a year. It comes out of Participatory Rural Appraisal practice, wh
See, Think, Wonder is a three-question thinking routine in which a group looks closely at an object, image or data set and answers in order: what do you see, what do you think about that, and what does it make you wonder
Selective Hearing is a structured listening technique in which each listener is given one lens, why, how or what, and during a presentation writes down only the statements that belong to that lens. The exercise is publis
A Sensing Journey is a field visit in which small groups leave their usual setting to meet people and places that show their challenge from other angles, especially the edges of the system and voices that are rarely hear
A service design tool that maps the full delivery of a service — from the customer's visible experience (frontstage) to the invisible backstage processes, systems, and support that enable it. Service blueprints reveal th
A Service Safari is a field research activity in which team members go out and use a service themselves, as customers, and record what the experience is like step by step. They note every interaction and how it felt, wat
Seven Words illustrates how the emphasis on different words can change the meaning of a sentence. Facilitators use this technique to demonstrate the impact of word stress and invite participants to explore interpretation
Shadowing is a field assignment in which one person accompanies someone else through half a day to a full day of their work purely to observe, ideally a stranger from an unfamiliar area. A closing interview with that per
Shake Down is a quick and active energizer where participants shake each limb to release energy and improve focus. This physical activity engages the entire group and helps to create a lively atmosphere.
Shared Problem Definition is a role-play in which four to six people each represent a different professional or organisation in a multi-actor project and work step by step from their separate views of the issue to one jo
Shift and Share enables participants to discover and discuss innovative ideas quickly by connecting them with various presenters. This method eliminates lengthy presentations and fosters informal exchanges around valuabl
Show and Tell is a method that encourages participants to share personal artifacts that symbolize their perspectives on a given topic. This technique is ideal for gaining deeper insights into stakeholder views and foster
Show Me Your Values is a workshop method designed to uncover the perceived values within an organization or initiative. Participants use images from magazines to visually represent these values and share related personal
Signal Cards are a deck of short fictional news items from the future, each turning one trend or emerging behaviour into a concrete event that a group can react to. They are used as provocations in ideation and scenario
Participants explore a topic together in complete silence — writing, drawing, connecting ideas with lines, and building on each other's contributions on a shared sheet of poster paper. The silence levels hierarchy, inclu
A Silent Meeting is a meeting built around a document that everyone reads in silence at the table instead of beforehand. People comment in the document while they read and reply to each other's comments, and a facilitato
A non-verbal group sorting exercise where participants collaboratively arrange items — ideas, priorities, options — in order of importance or sequence, without speaking. The silence removes dominant voices from the proce
Simple Ethnography allows participants to uncover innovative solutions by observing and engaging with individuals who have firsthand experience with the challenge at hand. This method helps to identify hidden routines an
Situation-Behavior-Impact (SBI) is a three-part structure for giving feedback: name the specific situation, describe the behaviour you observed, and state the impact it had. The model comes from the Center for Creative L
The Six Paths Framework is a Blue Ocean Strategy tool developed by W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne to help organisations systematically reconstruct the boundaries of their industry and discover uncontested market space.
Created by Edward de Bono, this framework directs the group to wear six metaphorical 'thinking hats', each representing a different mode of thinking. White = facts and data; Red = emotions and gut feeling; Black = critic
Inspired by Hemingway's legendary six-word story ('For sale: baby shoes, never worn'), this exercise asks participants to capture something meaningful — their team's challenge, their vision, their user's experience — in
A Skill Swap is a recurring series of short peer-teaching sessions in which team members take turns teaching one another a practical skill, whether professional, everyday or simply fun. It is a common peer-learning pract
A discussion format that deliberately slides the group structure up and down — from individual reflection to pairs, fours, and whole-group discussion, then back down again. The accordion-like movement ensures both deep i
This activity energizes participants while helping them learn about each other in a fun way. Participants will engage in movement and interaction, making it a playful addition to any gathering.
SOAR Analysis is a strategic planning framework developed by Jacqueline Stavros and colleagues in the early 2000s as an appreciative inquiry-based alternative to SWOT. Where SWOT dedicates half its frame to weaknesses an
A diagnostic method for visualising informal communication, collaboration, and influence networks within an organisation or community — revealing the hidden structure that sits beneath the formal org chart. Who actually
Social Network Webbing helps groups visualize and enhance their existing network of relationships. This method uncovers hidden resources and identifies opportunities for stronger connections, fostering a self-organizing,
This exercise demonstrates how emotions can spread amongst group members, both negatively and positively. Participants will simulate the transmission of negative expressions to experience the impact of emotions on group
Socio-Spatial Mapping is a site-visit exercise for understanding a public space in which one pair maps what they observe and another pair maps what users of the space tell them, each on a transparent sheet laid over the
A physical mapping technique from psychodrama where people position themselves in space to reveal social and relational structures within a group. Unlike surveys, the physical positioning makes connections visible to eve
Socratic Questioning is a disciplined way of examining a statement, belief or proposal by asking a sequence of probing questions instead of supplying answers. The practice goes back to Socrates as portrayed in Plato's di
A Socratic Seminar is a structured group discussion of a shared text in which the leader asks open questions and the participants do the thinking, building on each other's readings instead of debating. The format takes i
This activity encourages participants to engage in conversations while practicing active listening skills. It promotes fun and interaction, helping to build community among group members.
Sound Ball is an energizing icebreaker that enhances teamwork and encourages spontaneity. Participants stand in a circle and throw an imaginary ball while making sounds, helping them focus on listening and engaging with
A Soundwalk is a silent walk whose only purpose is to listen to the surroundings. The term comes from the World Soundscape Project around R. Murray Schafer in Vancouver in the 1970s, and the practice was set out by compo
Sparring is a short structured peer-review session in which one person brings unfinished work and a small group gives candid, usable feedback on it. It is a play from the Atlassian Team Playbook: the presenter says what
A physical polling technique where participants position themselves along a line in the room based on their degree of agreement with a statement. One end = strongly agree, the other = strongly disagree. Similar to Conste
Spectrum Mapping is a method used to visualize the range of perspectives within a group on a specific topic by organizing them into a continuum. It allows participants to express their views non-verbally, fostering an in
The Spectrum of Allies is a strategy map shaped like a half-circle with five wedges: active support, passive support, neutral, passive opposition and active opposition. A group places specific people and organisations in
The Speed Boat method helps teams identify obstacles that hinder progress towards a goal or the development of a product or service. By using a metaphorical boat with anchors, participants can visually represent and disc
A visual retrospective using a racing car metaphor. The car represents the team — the engine is what drives them forward (strengths and energisers), the parachute is what slows them down (impediments), the road is the pa
Spiral Journal is a quiet individual warm-up in which people slowly draw a tight spiral to settle their attention, then write responses to four prompts in the four quarters of a folded sheet and share what stands out. It
This activity boosts group energy by encouraging creative thinking and engagement. It works well after intense work sessions and provides a playful break.
This technique helps participants reinforce their understanding of a presentation by summarizing key points for different audience types. It encourages collaboration and deeper comprehension of the material presented.
The Scrum ceremony that kicks off each sprint. The team selects items from the top of the product backlog, commits to a sprint goal, and creates a sprint backlog of tasks to achieve it. Effective sprint planning produces
The Sprint Retrospective is the Scrum event that closes each Sprint, in which the Scrum Team inspects how the Sprint went with regard to individuals, interactions, processes, tools and its Definition of Done, and decides
A Scrum ceremony held at the end of each Sprint where the team demonstrates the working increment to stakeholders and collects feedback. Unlike a status report, the Sprint Review is a collaborative working session — stak
Engage participants in a lively, interactive game that boosts energy and relieves tension. This activity is great for revitalizing the group after a long session or a break.
SQUID, or Sequential Question and Insight Diagram, helps groups map out and navigate complex information spaces by capturing questions and answers on sticky notes. This method is ideal for exploring topics thoroughly and
A strategic tool for identifying, categorising, and planning engagement with all people and groups affected by or influential in a project or change. The classic format is a 2x2 matrix with axes of Power (influence over
Participants engage in a dialogue while assuming the perspectives of various stakeholders with conflicting interests. This method deepens understanding of different positions related to societal problems, enhancing empat
Staple Yourself to Something is a process-mapping game in which a group picks one object, such as an order, a support ticket or an idea, and follows it step by step from start to finish, drawing what happens to it as a v
A five-pointed retrospective framework introduced by Patrick Kua. Each point of the starfish asks a distinct question: Keep Doing (what's working well), More Of (increase something positive), Less Of (reduce something un
Start, Stop, Continue is a straightforward feedback method that helps teams evaluate their actions and develop clear next steps. It's effective for reflecting on processes or planning future initiatives.
The Status Center method transforms traditional status meetings by adopting engaging TV broadcast formats. This approach uses short, dynamic segments to deliver updates, making meetings more interactive and enjoyable.
STEEP Analysis is an environmental scanning framework that examines five macro-level forces shaping the context in which an organisation operates: Social, Technological, Economic, Environmental, and Political. It is clos
Step Inside is a perspective-taking routine in which participants imagine themselves as a person or thing connected to a topic and describe, from the inside, what it can perceive, what it might know or believe and what i
The Sticky Decision is the five-step routine a design sprint team uses to choose which solution sketch to prototype: art museum, heat map, speed critique, straw poll and supervote. It comes from the book 'Sprint' by Jake
This engaging activity encourages participants to share their fears and uncertainties related to the program theme. By articulating these thoughts, the group fosters openness and begins addressing concerns together.
Story Around the Circle is a group activity in which people build one story aloud, each person adding a short piece in turn around the circle. The story can be told purely for fun or given a theme, such as the team five
Story Circles is a small-group listening format in which each person tells a short personal story on a given prompt without interruption, after which every listener gives the teller a very brief 'flashback' of what staye
Developed by Jeff Patton, a User Story Map arranges user stories spatially to reveal the full scope of a product or feature and enable intelligent slicing. The horizontal axis represents the user's journey (activities an
Story of Change is a one-page framework for building the narrative behind an organisational change, so that people first agree there is a problem and can see their own part in what follows. It was published by NOBL Colle
A Story Slam is an open-mic event in which volunteers tell true, personal stories on a shared theme, live and without notes, each within about five minutes. The format was made popular by The Moth, the New York storytell
Story Swap is a paired icebreaker in which each person holds a picture card they have not looked at and shows it to a partner, who tells a short story or memory the image brings up. The activity was published by Mark Col
Storyboard is a versatile method for visualizing and narrating an ideal future scenario through sequential images and text. It is particularly effective for visioning exercises, allowing participants to creatively explor
A Strategic Roadmap workshop translates high-level strategy into a time-phased plan that shows how the organization will move from its current state to its desired future. Unlike product roadmaps, a strategic roadmap spa
The Strategy Map is a visual management tool developed by Robert Kaplan and David Norton as an extension of the Balanced Scorecard, introduced in their 2004 book 'Strategy Maps: Converting Intangible Assets into Tangible
This exercise helps participants recognize their strengths and achievements, which enhances self-esteem and trust within a team. It fosters deeper connections among team members and builds camaraderie through shared expe
This activity enables team members to recognize and share their individual strengths while enhancing team engagement. Participants will learn how to structure their contributions based on strengths highlighted by their p
This activity helps team members identify and understand their strengths and weaknesses. Participants reflect on their qualities and share them with others, fostering better collaboration within the team.
This energizer emphasizes the value of communication, teamwork, and feedback through a simple and engaging activity. Participants will quickly learn to work together under pressure while passing a stress ball in a circle
The Stuck Exercise is an embodied practice in which a person gives physical shape to a situation where they feel stuck, then lets the body move without planning until it settles into a second shape. It is the core practi
This energiser boosts creativity and teamwork by having participants visualize their unique contributions as superheroes. By drawing and sharing their superpowers, team members gain insight into each other's strengths, f
SWOT Analysis is a strategic tool used to identify and evaluate the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats related to an organization or project. It is ideal for assessing the current positioning and future po
Sync Claps is an engaging activity designed to enhance focus and alignment within a group. Participants form a circle and pass a clap around, gradually increasing speed and complexity to foster connection and attentivene
Synesthesia is a creative ideation exercise that encourages participants to explore ideas through the lens of the five senses. This method helps uncover new perspectives and insights by engaging participants in sensory r
Systemic Constellations (Aufstellungen) is a somatic and spatial facilitation method in which participants physically position themselves — or objects and symbols — to represent the relationships, dynamics, and tensions
A lightweight relative estimation technique where backlog items are sized using T-shirt sizes (XS through XL) instead of story points or hours. It removes the false precision of numeric estimation, encourages discussion
Engage your team with a fun and light-hearted activity where they share insights about themselves through their footwear. This energiser promotes connection and conversation, making it a great addition to your session.
Talking Chips is a method designed to manage group discussions by ensuring balanced participation. Each participant uses a 'chip' as a token to speak, promoting equal opportunity to contribute and curbing dominant voices
An ancient practice adapted for contemporary facilitation: only the person holding a physical object (the 'talking stick') may speak. Everyone else listens. The stick passes around the circle. It slows the conversation,
Talking with Pixies is a role-based structure for a person at a crossroads: in a group of four, one person describes a goal they feel stuck on, an interviewer draws out what they do to advance and to undermine it, and tw
A structured alignment tool developed by Alex Ivanov that helps teams get on the same page about purpose, roles, goals, values, and working rules. Modelled on the Business Model Canvas, it makes team dynamics explicit an
The Team Charter method helps participants reflect on their strengths and weaknesses. This awareness fosters better collaboration and allows team members to support each other effectively during group work.
The Team Decision Matrix is a card-based exercise from Management 3.0 in which a team agrees, for each type of decision it faces, which decision rule it will use. The five options are one person decides, the majority dec
Popularised by Spotify, the Team Health Check is a regular ritual where teams self-assess across key dimensions of healthy team functioning (e.g. 'Suitable Process', 'Teamwork', 'Delivering Value', 'Morale', 'Learning').
This method focuses on improving interpersonal relationships within professional settings. Participants identify ways to support each other, fostering collaboration and understanding.
This method helps teams examine their collaborative processes by reflecting individually and collectively. It encourages open dialogue and honest assessments to identify strengths and areas for improvement in teamwork.
This method facilitates trust and openness among team members through structured storytelling. Participants reflect on personal experiences, sharing insights from their past to strengthen relationships in the team.
Temperature Check helps visualise the feelings and opinions within a group. This activity encourages everyone to express their sentiments, making sure all voices are visible and acknowledged.
This activity helps participants practice persuasive communication by analyzing what others appreciate and applying that understanding. They will create convincing arguments for gifts that the recipient would not want, r
The Thankfulness Tree activity encourages participants to reflect on what they are grateful for, creating a visual representation in the space. This method helps build connections among participants and can serve as a cl
The 4E Model is a board-based serious game in which groups work through a complex societal question in four quadrants: Explore, Engage, Elaborate and Evaluate. It was developed by Maria Garcia Alvarez at Windesheim Honou
The 5 Whys method helps teams uncover the root cause of a problem by repeatedly asking 'why?' This technique encourages deeper analysis and understanding, leading to more sustainable solutions.
The Anti-Problem is a problem-solving game in which small teams work on the exact opposite of the problem the group is stuck on, for example how to make sure customers never buy instead of how to sell more. It was publis
The Blind Side is a facilitation method designed to reveal and address blind spots within a team or organization. By categorizing knowledge into knowns and unknowns, participants can uncover hidden insights and areas for
The Inspiration Walk is an audio-guided solo walk of about 15 minutes, created at the Stanford d.school by Tania Anaissie, Erik Olesund, Seamus Yu Harte, Leticia Britos Cavagnaro and Hannah Joy Root. Each participant goe
This method utilizes six essential questions to develop and explore ideas comprehensively. By addressing who, what, when, where, why, and how, participants dive deep into their topic, encouraging diverse viewpoints and t
The Milling is a silent, moving practice from Joanna Macy's Work That Reconnects in which people walk through an open space and, at the guide's cue, stop in front of one person at a time for a series of wordless encounte
The Pitch is a role-playing exercise that simulates a pitch to venture capitalists. It encourages participants to focus on the feasibility and viability of their ideas by distilling them into compelling pitches.
The Repeating Question is a paired walk-and-talk for practising attention, in which one person answers a single open question for five minutes while the partner only listens and may do nothing except repeat the question,
The Superhero in Me is a drawing-based self-awareness exercise in which each participant turns their strengths, weaknesses and challenges into three characters: a superhero, a sidekick and a nemesis. It was written up by
This method encourages participants to envision their desired future by creating fictional objects. By using imaginative items and storytelling, groups can generate rich discussions that pave the way for effective vision
The Volcano of Change is a visual scanning exercise in which a group sorts the issues it sees around a topic onto a volcano poster with four stages: dormant, active, erupting and extinct. It was written up by Judith van
Theory U is a change and leadership framework developed by Otto Scharmer at MIT. It describes a U-shaped process of profound learning and transformation: moving down the left side through Co-Initiating and Co-Sensing (su
A structured discussion technique from educational practice. Participants first think individually about a question (Think), then discuss with a partner (Pair), then share insights with the larger group (Share). It ensur
This activity helps participants reflect on a past experience and extract key lessons. It encourages structured sharing that focuses on meaningful takeaways from previous sessions.
This Is a What? is a traditional circle game in which an object is passed from person to person with a fixed call-and-response script. Each new receiver asks 'A what?', and that question has to travel back along the circ
Developed by McKinsey consultants Mehrdad Baghai, Stephen Coley, and David White in their 1999 book 'The Alchemy of Growth', the Three Horizons Framework helps organisations manage the tension between exploiting current
Three Horizons Mapping is a futures method in which a group charts a system as three overlapping curves over time: the current way of doing things that is losing its fit (Horizon 1), the future the group wants to see eme
A retrospective technique that reconstructs the shared history of a team or project on a visual timeline. Participants add events, milestones, emotions, and learnings at the points when they happened. This builds a colle
The Toilet Paper Icebreaker is a traditional getting-to-know-you activity in which a toilet roll is passed around and everyone tears off as much as they think they will need, without being told why. Only afterwards does
Touch Blue is a fun energizer that gets participants moving and sharing. Facilitators call out attributes, and participants find objects that match, all while fostering connection and engagement.
In this activity, participants collaborate to build a tower using wooden blocks and a crane. They must communicate effectively and plan together to accomplish the task while following specific rules, which fosters teamwo
Trading Cards is an interactive icebreaker that allows participants to express unique aspects of their personalities in a creative way. This method is ideal for warming up a group by encouraging personal expression and s
Participants use colour-coded cards (red = no/stop, yellow = maybe/slow down, green = yes/go) to respond to ideas, proposals, or statements simultaneously. The visual display of cards makes the group's collective positio
A Transect Walk is a planned walk across an area together with people who know it well, used as a mobile interview to observe how the place is used and to hear about it on the spot. It comes from Participatory Rural Appr
The Transition Model Canvas is a one-page canvas for analysing a socio-technical transition, such as the shift from fossil-fuel to zero-emission mobility. It was developed by Frank van Rijnsoever and Jip Leendertse at th
This interactive simulation helps participants explore the importance of setting clear performance goals. Throughout six rounds, participants experience different types of goal statements and their emotional impacts, enh
Troika Consulting is a peer-to-peer coaching method that helps participants gain insights into their challenges by receiving advice from colleagues. It fosters mutual support and trust within a group, making it ideal for
This activity helps team members assess their individual trust levels towards each other. It emphasizes actions that can enhance trust in workplace relationships, fostering better collaboration and communication.
This activity helps participants express and explore their views on trust in the workplace. Through the use of Trust Cards, individuals can reflect on factors that contribute to or undermine trust among colleagues and in
The Truth Mandala is a whole-group ritual from Joanna Macy's Work That Reconnects for voicing pain about the state of the world. The group sits in a close circle around four symbolic objects, and one person at a time may
A classic ice breaker where each participant shares three statements about themselves — two true, one false. The group votes on which statement is the lie. It's low-pressure, generates laughter, and reveals surprising pe
A structured consensus process where participants independently generate ideas on Post-it notes, rotate their pads to build on each other's thinking, then collaboratively cluster and label the results into a shared typol
The Uncertainty Map is a team exercise for laying out what is unknown about a challenge and deciding how to deal with each unknown. Teams write down uncertainties of three kinds, place them on a map that runs from clear
Uncommon Commonalities is a get-to-know-you game in which small teams list things that every member of the team has in common, and only the items no other team has listed count. Because shared items are struck off when t
Unintended Consequences is an ideation exercise in which small groups list existing technologies or businesses, name the side effects those have caused without meaning to, and turn each side effect into a possible new bu
An Unofficial Start is a low-key activity, puzzle or prompt placed in the room before the announced start time so that early arrivals have something to do and someone to talk to. The term comes from Mark Collard of playm
A structured one-on-one conversation with a user, customer, or stakeholder designed to surface needs, behaviours, mental models, and pain points that cannot be discovered through analytics or surveys alone. The core tech
A visual map of a user's experience with a product, service, or process over time. It traces each step of the user's interaction — their actions, thoughts, emotions, pain points, and opportunities — from initial awarenes
A user story is a small piece of functionality described from the user's point of view on a card, which a team and its customer or product owner talk through and agree on. The practice comes from Extreme Programming, whe
The Users Experience Fishbowl is a dynamic method for sharing practical experiences between those with direct insights and a broader audience. It uses a dual-circle setup to facilitate open dialogues, allowing participan
Value Chain Analysis, developed by Michael Porter in 'Competitive Advantage' (1985), is a strategic framework for examining all the activities a company performs to deliver a product or service, and identifying where val
The Value Map method helps teams visually prioritize features or elements by plotting them on a matrix based on group preferences. It is particularly useful for understanding what aspects of a product, service, or plan a
Also by Alexander Osterwalder, this canvas zooms into two blocks of the BMC: the Customer Profile (jobs-to-be-done, pains, gains) and the Value Map (products/services, pain relievers, gain creators). The goal is to achie
Value Stories is a Management 3.0 practice by Jurgen Appelo for defining team or organisational values from real behaviour instead of slogans. People collect stories that show the team at its best, pick from a long list
The Video Card Family Game is a collaborative design technique that leverages video clips from ethnographic fieldwork to co-create products or services. It involves analyzing key frames of participants’ activities to gen
Virtual Bingo engages participants by highlighting common virtual meeting distractions. As participants mark their cards for occurrences during the session, it fosters awareness and encourages focus on the content.
Host a lively virtual scavenger hunt to boost team spirit and creativity. Participants work together to find items or complete tasks based on a creative list, fostering collaboration and fun in a remote setting.
The Visual Agenda method enhances engagement and focus in meetings by transforming the agenda into a creative visual display. This approach is particularly effective for meetings involving cross-disciplinary teams or whe
The Visual Glossary method helps teams establish a shared vocabulary by visually defining key terms. This approach is ideal for groups dealing with complex jargon or technical language that can lead to misunderstandings.
Visual Narratives is a half-day creativity challenge in which teams build a physical installation from personal objects to tell a shared story about a theme. It was developed by Fleur Boelen and Michèle Gerbrands with co
VUCA (Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, Ambiguity) is a framework originally developed by the US Army War College to describe the post-Cold War world, and subsequently adopted in business strategy to characterize chal
Walk & Stop is a movement and listening energiser in which a group follows simple spoken commands whose meanings are then swapped. It begins with 'walk' and 'stop', reverses them, adds a second pair such as 'name' and 'c
This brainstorming method encourages participants to generate ideas while physically moving. It creates a dynamic atmosphere where individuals can silently contribute to and build on each other's thoughts, making it suit
This method encourages participants to collaboratively explore open questions and generate diverse ideas. It shifts the responsibility for generating answers from the facilitator to the group, leveraging collective insig
Wardley Mapping was developed by Simon Wardley, a former CEO who built the technique while trying to understand why IT strategy was so difficult to make well. Published as open-source material starting around 2005 and re
A facilitation stance rather than a structured activity — the 'Warm Demander' holds two things simultaneously: genuine care for participants and high expectations of their contribution and thinking. Originally from educa
The Weather Check-in is an opening round in which each person describes how they are right now as a kind of weather, such as sunny, foggy or a storm passing through. The metaphor lets people name their mood without havin
A quick emotional temperature check where participants pass a patterned ball and choose a patch that represents their current emotional 'weather'. Low-pressure and tactile, it works especially well with groups that don't
Welcome to My World is a team game in which pairs from different roles each draw how they imagine the other person's workflow, without asking any questions, and then compare the drawings with reality. It was published in
The Wellbeing North Star method helps teams identify areas of improvement by evaluating what they like and dislike about different aspects of a project or situation. This approach encourages collaborative problem-solving
Werewolf is a social deduction game that sets a small informed minority, the werewolves, against an uninformed majority, the villagers. In alternating night and day phases the werewolves secretly remove a villager, and t
Participants take turns miming actions while others guess what they are doing. This activity encourages creativity and pushes participants slightly out of their comfort zones in a fun way.
What I Need From You (WINFY) is designed to improve communication and collaboration across different functions or disciplines by clarifying and responding to specific needs. Participants articulate their core needs and r
A knowledge game is a structured form of play designed to foster learning and creativity through defined rules, goals, and boundaries. It transforms a simple activity into a collaborative and strategic exploration of ide
This method helps groups reflect on a shared experience by progressing through three stages: What happened, why it's important, and what actions should follow. It's designed to encourage understanding and coordinated act
A self-assessment tool used in coaching and personal development. A circle is divided into 8 segments representing key life areas (e.g. Career, Finances, Health, Relationships, Personal Growth, Fun/Recreation, Physical E
The Wheel of Power/Privilege is a diagram and reflection exercise in which people locate themselves on a wheel whose segments are dimensions of social identity, such as citizenship, gender, wealth, language and ability,
Where in the World? is a short team game in which the group is shown a random street-level scene and has to work out together where on earth it is, using clues such as road markings, the language on signs and the vegetat
This engaging exercise encourages participants to reflect on their roles and feelings regarding a specific topic in the group context. It serves as an effective opener for meetings by prompting personal insights and shar
Who is the Artist? is a get-to-know-you activity in which everyone anonymously draws something that tells a fact or story from their life, using no words. The drawings are shown one at a time, the group guesses who made
Who's the Leader? is a guessing game in which a group secretly copies one person's changing movements while an observer tries to work out who is leading. It is a traditional children's and drama game with no single known
This matrix helps clarify who is accountable for specific tasks and when they will be completed. Participants can outline their commitments, ensuring everyone understands their responsibilities and deadlines.
The Whole Product Game helps teams identify unique selling points by examining a product through various customer expectation lenses. It is particularly useful for discovering ways to differentiate a product in competiti
A Liberating Structure that surfaces the adaptive challenges and paradoxes that undermine conventional strategic thinking. A Wicked Question holds two apparently contradictory truths simultaneously: 'How is it that we mu
Wikiracing is a browser game in which players start on the same Wikipedia article and race to reach a named target article by clicking only the links inside the articles. The winner is the first to arrive or the player w
Wise Crowds is a facilitation method that leverages collective intelligence and peer support to address individual challenges. Participants take turns acting as a 'client', presenting a personal challenge to a group of '
The Wizard of Oz method is a role-play exercise where participants simulate a machine-human interaction to test or develop ideas. One person plays the user, while another acts as the 'wizard' controlling the machine behi
A Work Expo is an exhibition a team builds about its own work to make its purpose and values visible. The practice comes from Jurgen Appelo's Management 3.0: photos, customer messages, awards, products and other artefact
A collaborative process for establishing explicit agreements about how a team will work together. Unlike imposed rules, working agreements are co-created by the team, which increases buy-in and accountability. They cover
World Café is a structured conversational process for engaging large groups in meaningful dialogue. It mimics the informal atmosphere of café conversations to foster open discussion and idea sharing. This method is ideal
A liberating ideation technique that inverts the usual brainstorming prompt. Instead of 'How might we solve this?', participants are asked 'How might we make this as bad as possible?' or 'What is the worst idea you can t
Year of the Coin is a story-sharing icebreaker that uses the year stamped on a coin as a random prompt. Each person receives a coin and tells the group something they experienced in that year, or something they know abou
This activity invites participants to envision their future by sharing positive outcomes from a recent event. Through prompts, they creatively explore how their experiences shape their paths forward, making it perfect fo
In this activity, participants draw a coat of arms that represents their leadership philosophy and values. Through sharing and discussion, participants reflect on what they believe is essential in their leadership practi
Participants craft a brief personal motto or epitaph that captures their core value. The exercise surfaces inner motivations, helps team members understand what drives each person, and builds community through authentic
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Try it freeMethod descriptions are original content by Workshop Weaver, based on established facilitation practices. Some methods are attributed to their original authors — see individual method pages for details. Liberating Structures methods are shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.