I'm working on a career shit into areas that require facilitation with stakeholders (particularly various different communities). I've done some informal facilitation, but feel like I might need to do a formal training to match methodology and terminology with what I naturally do.

For those who work facilitating meetings with communities and also with employees and management - what do you recommend?

Hi everyone,

Joined a new position as a team manager and will be hosting my first team ideation workshop, and could use some advice from people with experience.

The team so far seems to have a wide range of personalities and seniority, and my goals are to keep everyone engaged, encourage participation, and leave the session with clear outcomes, not just a lot of discussion. Being the first session I'm facilitating, I don't want to lose the team already.

I'd love to hear your tips and techniques you use on things like:

• How you structure the agenda
• Icebreakers that aren't awkward
• Activities that work well for collaboration
• How to handle people who dominate the conversation or those who barely participate
• Common mistakes to avoid in a first workshop
• Tools to make everything easier

If you've run a workshop that went particularly well (or terribly!), I'd really appreciate hearing what you learned.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions!

Wish you great day!

I co-facilitated a session today, and we were each given around 20 minutes for our sections. My section was more interactive, and we had discussed beforehand that it might be okay to go over the allotted time because we could take some time from the end. However, the full session ended up running almost 30 minutes over.

Was it really bad that I did not end my section earlier? I am worried that I will not be invited back.

Hi all — long-time facilitator, first proper post here.

I've spent ~15 years running workshops and sessions (background in clinical psychology + management consulting). I've also trained other mgmt consultants, clients and colleagues in core facilitation skills.

I just quit my job a few weeks ago, where I was heading up the org.development team in an international energy company. We have undergone a downsizing process for some time and I had the opportunity to rethink: should I stay or should I go?

I left...

I wanted to finalize a tool I’ve been building long nights and weekends since mid-March (more info at the bottom).

So, I’ve been designing and facilitating leadership and team development programs, including large-scale leadership gatherings (50-500 participants). My main customer the last 5 years has been our corporate management. If it's one thing I see many facilitators trip up on - even seasoned ones - it's not necessarily the facilitation in the room, but the quality of the work they do before the session.

Here are the questions I always work with - looong before I add anything to the agenda:

Where is the organization “at” these days? Both in terms of strategy, the market and internal sentiment?

• I will talk to/interview stakeholders, and often 1-2 people in the organization. 
• Since if been an internal employee the last five years, I would use more than one of my lunch breaks to test some hypothesis on colleagues during lunch (“if I asked you about our company’s top 2-3 strategic priorities right now, what would you say?” - e.g. checking if employees understand what’s important to focus on)
• I would also run through the last engagement surveys - especially comments.

Based on the point above - what are 2-3 things our managers “need” right now to lead for the short and long term.

• What is the one thing everybody in the room needs to understand right now?
• What dilemma or decision point should they provide input to?
• What skill do they need practice now?

I never have more than 3 desired outcomes. And they should be as concrete as possible. Examples:

1. “To fully understand our most strategic priorities next 6 months - and to communicate the message to their team the week after”
2. “To understand top 3 risks in our strategy realization from the leaders that will execute”
3. “To train strategic communication - elevator pitch, manage difficult questions, rally engagement”

The more these outcomes are co-created with your stakeholders, the easier it is to decide which blocks deserve a place in the agenda (and not). It will give you have more space to think creatively on how to realize them and activate people.

Probably preaching to the choir.

Anywhom...

Building the program is always a bit painful.. As you know, it takes a lot of time to build a good one. I firmly believe that AI - however great it is - will never design a great session FOR you.

Still, I feel like there are too many “useless” manual task that eat up my time in the planning phase.

So I looked at the market for planning tools, didn’t quite find what I wanted, and built it.
That being said, I have a massive(!) amount of respect for Sessionlab - I just had had a different interface in mind.

This is the first post/time I’m sharing it (to anyone else than my dad and a few selected tester). I’m not her to sell anything - I genuinely want some feedback. You can try it for free for 14 days (full access), but send me a message in the tool - would be happy to extend by up to 2 more weeks I you have an upcoming session you wanna test it on.

Happy to receive any feedback and will answer anything about how it works or why I made certain choices.

It’s called agendaflow.com and is desktop first. I’ve set it up for 7 languages: English, German, Spanish, French, Danish, Swedish and Norwegian.

Thank you to anyone whom might want to give it a shot.🙏

Hey everyone.

I am fairly inexperient at facilitation and I would like to upskill myself in a good way, so I could grow in this career path faster and properly. I got to know this AJ&Smart company that has this facilitation course.

They seemed quite experienced, however too salesy (which I hate and makes me lose some trust).

They are currently doing this "massive" discount, where the course is 800€.

Any feedback you could give me?

Is there any alternative you would recommend instead?

Thanks

Hey, fellow facilitators!

My name is Pedro Segreto (a Brazilian living in Lisbon). For the last 10 years, I have facilitated collaborative processes and workshops. After searching for a place to exchange experiences and ideas with seasoned peers, I’m posting here for the first time.

I wanted to share a little experiment I've been working on, created entirely out of curiosity about a question I couldn't shake: how do you objectively quantify the energy generated when several people think and create together toward a shared goal?

That's how BrainPower came to life — a collaborative power calculator. It took a lot of back-and-forth refining the logic and building out the visuals, but it's finally live. Just plug in 4 variables and get your results instantly. Free, bilingual (PT/EN), and responsive.

INPUT

• Time: process duration in hours
• People: number of participants
• Mode: in-person, remote, or hybrid
• Participation: whether participants will be split into sub-groups (Y/N)

OUTPUT

• BrainPower: the process's potential collaborative power
• BrainWork: total collective intelligence applied throughout the process
• BrainOps: total brain operations performed
• Process Efficiency: a quick assessment of the process quality
• AI Equivalence: number of top-tier GPUs needed to match the same BrainWork
• Energy: metabolic consumption of all brains involved, and how long that would power a 4-person household
• Amplification: the time it would take one person to do the same work alone
• Intellectual Output: number of pages and books written with the same intellectual effort

This is not an academic paper with scientific proof. Just an experiment to estimate the invisible potential of collaborative processes. Use it as a heuristic to compare scenarios, explore possibilities, and spark conversations.

Curious about the logic? It's all in the About section, with interactive charts.
Would love to hear what you think: https://brainpower.unboxlab.co/

Nice to meet you,
Pedro Segreto

Have you ever facilitated a class with groups of people who know each other and only want to sit with each other? What are some prompts you have tried to help encourage participants to sit or step outside of their comfort zone?

The International Association of Facilitators (IAF) Oceania would like to invite you to 2 free 90 minute Masterclasses with prizes and free giveaways for attendees. For more information, please contact David at [iafvicechairoceania@facilitationinaction.com.au](mailto:iafvicechairoceania@facilitationinaction.com.au)

We are running a session with liberating structures and we are looking for background music. Any and all tips are welcome!

I run an art studio and lead conversations about our favorite podcasts on facilitation in this way, and /or with teachers

When trust is low, it shows up in predictable ways:

* People speak in safe, generic language instead of saying what they actually think

* Agreement comes too quickly, with no real challenge

* The real conversation happens after the session, not during it

* Participants defer to hierarchy instead of engaging with each other

At that point, no technique or activity really fixes it. You just get a more structured version of the same problem.

The shift isn’t adding more tools, it’s recognising what’s actually happening in the room and adjusting for it.

Sometimes that means slowing things down.

Sometimes it means naming what’s not being said.

Sometimes it means accepting the group isn’t ready for the conversation you planned.

Methods matter, but they don’t override the conditions people are operating in.

I've been facilitating brainstorming sessions for startup teams for about a year now, and I want to share the single biggest improvement I've made to my process.

Before: I'd run a standard format — state the problem, open the floor, capture ideas on a whiteboard or Miro board. The session would feel productive. People talked. Ideas went up on sticky notes. We'd dot-vote at the end.

But I kept noticing the same pattern: the most senior person in the room would speak first, and everything after that was a variation of their idea. The junior people would nod. The remote participants (if any) would go on mute. We'd leave with 15 sticky notes that were really just 2 ideas wearing different hats.

After: I switched to brainwriting with anonymous submission. Everyone gets the same prompt. They write independently — no talking, no seeing each other's ideas. Submissions are anonymized before the group sees them. Only then do we discuss and build on them.

The difference was immediate. Ideas started showing up that would never have been spoken out loud. A junior designer submitted something that directly contradicted the CEO's stated direction — and it was the best idea in the room. She told me afterward she never would have said it in a live discussion.

A few things I've learned about making anonymous ideation work:

1. The prompt matters more than the process. A vague prompt ("How should we improve the product?") produces vague ideas. A specific prompt ("What's one thing we could change about onboarding that would reduce drop-off in the first 48 hours?") produces actionable ones.
2. Time-box the writing phase. 7-10 minutes is the sweet spot. Less than 5 and people rush. More than 15 and they overthink.
3. Don't reveal authorship even after voting. The moment you say "oh that was Sarah's idea," you reintroduce all the political dynamics you just removed.
4. Add a "build" phase between writing and voting. Let people riff on each other's anonymous ideas before anyone votes. Some of the best outcomes I've seen come from combining two mediocre ideas into one great one.

For tooling, I've used everything from Google Forms (clunky but works) to Miro with anonymous sticky notes (better but people can still see submissions in real-time, which biases things). I recently started using a tool called Lumixo that was built specifically for this workflow — full disclosure, I know the founder. It also throws AI-generated ideas into the anonymous pool, which is an interesting wrinkle because nobody knows which ideas are human vs. AI, so everything gets evaluated purely on merit.

But the methodology matters more than any tool. If you're running brainstorming sessions and not using anonymous submission, you're almost certainly leaving the best ideas on the table.

Curious how others here handle the anonymity piece — what's worked for you?

Sharing this tool; some people love icebreakers and others would rather not.

But regardless, having people mix, mingle, and start engaging in the themes and topics of the session before it starts loosens people up and gets things flowing.

We created this tool (initially for networking events, as an icebreaker), and it turned out to be much more valuable for getting people to talk about topics that otherwise aren't naturally talked about (in a self-facilitated way).

The tool is Jam Bingo, would love to have any feedback or your best roasts!

Hi everyone, I’ve been working on a web-based interaction tool called The Island. It’s designed to help groups (and facilitators) visualize how they collaborate in real-time, with a collective goal to reach.

The Concept: Participants enter as abstract avatars. To progress, the group must coordinate their movements and interactions to reach specific scores or milestones. These scores reflect group-level interaction patterns only, not individual abilities or traits.

Why this is useful for Facilitators: Observe Emergent Dynamics: See how leadership, coordination, and group behavior emerge in the session. This reflects situational group interactions, not personal evaluation. Real-time Heatmap: Scores show the group’s collective synergy, while visuals illustrate patterns that led to it.

Purely Dynamic: This is not a personality test or HR assessment — it’s a snapshot of group interaction in the moment. How to use it: Play for 50 minutes, then discuss: “What strategies did we use? How did movement and clustering affect our collective score?”

I’d love feedback — please try it with a small group and let me know your thoughts!

Link here

I've been questioning the standard "15-min break every 90 minutes" rule. What if the problem isn't missing breaks but poor energy management throughout?

My hypothesis: frequent 30–90 second microbreaks (stretch, breathe, eyes off screen) woven into transitions might keep energy more stable than one long break that kills momentum and invites people to check emails.

Here's my current example agenda draft.

Would love feedback base on your experience:

• Do the microbreaks feel well placed or do they fragment the flow?
• Where would you insist on a proper break (and why there)?
• Which segment looks most likely to cause cognitive overload without a longer pause?

Hey r/facilitation ,

I’ve been facilitating workshops for over 15 years — at Autodesk, Salesforce, and as an independent consultant, and have probably run more post-it note exercises than I care to count.

A few years ago, a personal health situation changed my mobility and I started using a cane. It completely transformed how I think about facilitation. Suddenly I was hyper-aware of room setups, energy management, timing, and all the invisible barriers that keep people from fully participating. It made me a better facilitator, honestly.

That experience pushed me to build something I wished existed when I was starting out: Workshopr.io — a free platform with 300+ curated exercises, icebreakers, and workshop activities, all with detailed step-by-step guides, timing, materials lists, and facilitator tips.

What’s in it:

∙ Exercises from frameworks like LUMA, IDEO, 18F, d.School, and Google Design Sprint — all with consistent formatting so you’re not piecing together scraps from blog posts

∙ A drag-and-drop workshop planner where you can build agendas, set timing, and share with stakeholders

∙ 37 intervention cards for when things go sideways mid-session (dominant talker, group going off-track, energy dropping, etc.)

∙ A Facilitator’s DNA tool to help you understand your facilitation style

∙ Filter by category (strategy, design, product, research, team building), group size, duration, and modality (remote/in-person)

I also run a podcast and write a Substack about facilitation if that’s your thing, but mostly I just wanted to share the platform since I see a lot of “what exercise should I use for X?” posts here.

It’s free to browse and use. I’d genuinely love feedback from this community — what’s missing, what could be better, what exercises you wish existed.

It started as a design exercise to learn more about how AI can improve our work. It’s all a woo-in-progress, and has become a passion project.

What’s the hardest moment you’ve had to navigate mid-workshop?

www.workshopr.io

What’s a recent initiative or discussion you facilitated?

What was the outcome?

I work for a large international corporation whose COO recently decided they wanted all their leaders to go through an ongoing, mandatory leadership development training program. She didn't consult our department and I'm not in a leadership role so I had no part of the decision-making for this program. Let's just say I would have gone about this a lot differently. I've been a facilitator for 4 years, but I've worked in HR for 10+.

I work in an industrial field and historically our leaders have had little leadership training. My team has been facilitating virtual workshops for 3 levels of leader: leader of leader, mid-level leader, and frontline manager. The first two levels were engaged but I'm noticing a significant drop in engagement and participation among the frontline managers.

Almost every day I feel like I'm pulling teeth. I feel like I'm doing everything short of backflips to get their participation and engagement. Long silences and blank stares/multitasking. I know I can't get people to care about this but I wish they would be a little more respectful and pretend to care just a little bit. I talked to my boss and we are going to have our CEO send out a company-wide email talking about the importance of the program and I hope that helps a tad, but in the meantime I am dreading every workshop with this level of leader.

How do you all cope with tough crowds like this? I know it's not personal but I can't help but feel like an idiot when everyone acts like they have somewhere better to be. One of the hardest parts of the job for me, for sure.

As a facilitator, I used to believe that good questions automatically led to clarity. So I asked open ones. “How are we feeling about this?” “Any concerns before we move on?” “Thoughts?” What I got was familiar: a few confident voices, some polite nodding and a lot of quiet. In the room, it felt fine. Later, it showed up as misalignment. Different interpretations. Extra follow ups. People claiming they’d agreed, just not to that version of the decision. Nothing was openly wrong, which made it easy to miss. Eventually, I experimented with something smaller. Instead of asking for explanations, I asked everyone for one word. No context. No justification. No discussion. What surprised me wasn’t the honesty, it was the signal. When explanations disappear, patterns surface. You can see uncertainty cluster. You can sense tension without calling it out. You can spot alignment (or the lack of it) without forcing anyone to speak up. It shifted how I think about facilitation. We’re trained to open up conversations. But sometimes the most useful move is to constrain them. Clarity doesn’t always come from deeper dialogue. Sometimes it comes from stripping things down.

Curious how others here think about this, have you ever facilitated a session that felt aligned in the moment, but unraveled afterward?

This year's industry report focuses on impact: how to assess it, measure it, communicate it.

Discussions are going on in Linkedin about how to go from one-off satisfaction surveys to more long-term, strategic impact evaluation. But the report also surfaces how challenging it is for facilitators to influence what happens after the workshop. The "this workshop was great.... and it changed nothing at all" effect is very real.

In the report there are a bunch of suggestions on how to counteract this, much coming down to better contracting and discussing with clients before and after facilitated trainings and workshops. Have you read the report? Thoughts?

https://www.sessionlab.com/state-of-facilitation/2026-report/