Methods and Tools to help you to design and facilitate a Meeting
Opening Practices
(1) Check-in:
Check-ins help hub members transition into the session, become present to the space and the intention of the gathering, and connect with one another. They provide a space for each member to share something. It is often useful to allow people a few minutes of stillness before checking in. The check-in itself can take many forms. Generally, the check-in is guided by a question. You can adapt the check-in to suit the size and character of your group, as well as the time available for your session. Here are some examples:
How am I showing up today?
A hope I have for today's session is...
Something I would like to share with you as we begin our time together is...
One word that describes how I am entering into today's session is...
(2) Intention-setting
Intention-setting is a powerful tool, especially at the beginning of the Ubuntu.Lab journey, but experience learns that it is valuable to come back to the individual and collective intentions during the journey, as a reminder but also to allow the intention to evolve.
Create a moment, for participants, to clarify and share their intention for Ubuntu.Lab: why did they join? What do they hope to explore, learn, develop, experience....?
You could repeat that at the beginning of each meeting, asking for people's intention for that specific session.
Closing Practices
(3) Check-out
Check-outs can be short or long. Some examples of questions or sentences to guide a check-out are:
How am I leaving the hub today?
An insight or learning that I gained today is...
Something from today that will stay with me after I leave is...
Check-outs can take place in the whole group or in smaller groups. If the check-out is done in smaller groups, it is still a good idea to come together as a whole community and ask for a few comments related to the check-out question. Gathering together in this way helps to support the sense of community and bring closure to a session.
Talking Stick and Circle Practice
(4) The talking stick
-also called a speaker's staff, a talking piece, or listening piece - is an instrument from tribal democracy used by many tribes. In the past, the talking stick was passed around a group or used only by leaders as a symbol of their authority and right to speak in public.
(5) Circle practice
In circle practice it is often used to slow down the conversation, in order to improve the quality of deep listening and intentional speaking. Principles are simple:
Sit in a circle.
Use an object as a talking piece. This can be a branch, an apple, a stone, a marker
You can put the stick in the middle of the circle on the floor.
The facilitator explains the rules and speaks the question.
The person that wants to share first takes the stick and talks as long as they need, while keeping the stick in their hands. The group listens with care. When finished, the stick goes back in the middle or is passed on. (you can pass the stick on to the next if you're not ready or don't want to speak)
It is OK if there is some silence.
No need to respond to anything that was said before, you can speak to the question from whatever emerge. Speak with intention. Less is more.
Not everyone needs to speak!
This is a slow process. However, if facilitated with warmth and discipline it is a good way to create a real dialogue.
Music
You could use music to create a good atmosphere during the session.
Dialogue Practices: Art of Hosting methodologies
More info on artofhosting.org
Circle Practice -Adaptable to a variety of groups, issues, and time frames. Circle can be the process used for the duration of a gathering, particularly if the group is relatively small and time for deep reflection is a primary aim. Circle can also be used as a means for “checking in” and “checking out” or for making decisions together, particularly decisions based on consensus.
Appreciative Inquiry -Useful when a different perspective is needed, or when we wish to begin a new process from a fresh, positive vantage point. It can help move a group that is stuck in “what is” toward “what could be”. Appreciative Inquiry can be used with individuals, partners, small groups, or large organizations.
World Café -Process used to foster interaction and dialogue with both large and small groups. Particularly effective in surfacing the collective wisdom of large groups of diverse people. Very flexible and adapts to many different purposes – information sharing, relationship building, deep reflection exploration and action planning.http://www.theworldcafe.com/tools-store/hosting-tool-kit/. Drawing on seven integrated design principles, the World Café methodology is a simple, effective, and flexible format for hosting large group dialogue. World Café can be modified to meet a wide variety of needs. Specifics of context, numbers, purpose, location, and other circumstances are factored into each event’s unique invitation, design, and question choice. More about purpose, process and instructions:http://www.theworldcafe.com
Open Space -Useful in many contexts, including strategic direction-setting, envisioning the future, conflict resolution, morale building, consultation with stakeholders, community planning, collaboration and deep learning about issues and perspectives.http://www.openspaceworld.com/users_guide.htm
Facilitation Resources:
http://www.chriscorrigan.com/parkinglot/facilitation-resources/
Chris Corrigan collected all his resources in one place
Visual Harvesting
No notes are taken. Instead we use visualization to interpret what is happening in the room, what is seen and said but also to surface the unseen and the unheard.
Its a tool that stimulates and increase the group involvement and commitment.
It is about capturing the essence of a conversation/dialogue/debate in a simple yet understandable image.
When the visual is co-created, It boost the interaction between the participants.
it helps surface, capture, mirror and make sense of the potential, the process, and progress.
it helps remembering key aspects of a session and take the conversation forward.
Material needed:
Markers
Pen
Post it notes
Flip charts
....