Introduction
BatMo is for entry level and experienced trainers, facilitators and educators in the Nonviolent Action, People Power, Civil Resistance field looking for training resources, modules and activities.
Beautiful Action Trainer Modules BATMo! is a toolkit for Nonviolent Action Trainers and Facilitators by Beautiful Trouble. Beautiful Trouble equip social movements with an ever-growing suite of strategic tools and training to help grassroots movements be more creative, effective, and irresistible.
The BATMo trainer modules pull together curated best-in-class resources, including the Beautiful Trouble toolkit + other global resources to help Nonviolent Action trainers quickly produce agendas and identify training activities for their context.
The resources are available to use under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 License. The Commons Library have adapted the resources to be presented with a link to each module and a list of training activities. See the BATMo website for the full modules.
There are:
- 7 Nonviolent Action Modules
- 4 Process Modules
- BATMo Card deck
- Watch Video: Intro to Beautiful Trouble Resources – BATMo!
Each module lists specific activities, and those activities have full directions on how to facilitate them.
Each Module + Activity has its own “prompt card” that can be downloaded and printed to help you during a workshop.
Watch Video
Training Modules
Find all the BATMo modules on the Beautiful Trouble website.
Below is a brief snapshot of each module and the accompanying training activities list.
Module 1
Learning from History Sharing Nonviolent Action Stories
Review nonviolent action history with a group to help them place their strategic choices within a broader history of social movements and powerfully ground the practice of nonviolent action.
Training Activities List
Exercise | What it is | Time | Energy Level |
Timeline Wall activity | A collaborative, knowledge-driven, written exercise for situating our present movements within the historical trajectory of nonviolent resistance. | 15-45 min | Low- Moderate |
Documentary & Discussion activity | Use these short video segments with actual footage of historic nonviolent resistance movements to spark discussions and learn lessons from past strategy, tactics and campaigns for current campaigns. | 45 min or longer | Low |
Museum of People Power activity | An active and engaging way to collaboratively share knowledge about nonviolent action history and jump start a physical connection to people power. | 15-30 min | High |
Disobedient Images activity | Use historical images to jump start discussion on how good things we take for granted in our lives today was actually the outcome of struggle and of disobedience campaigns. | 20-45 min | Low- Moderate |
Ideal Community activity | This exercise offers a shared physical experience of people power and provides a framework for the discussion of nonviolent action and conflict transformation. | 40-60 min | High |
Module 2
Finding Common Ground: Setting Vision and Principles
Tools to help nonviolent action groups set their campaign or organization’s vision & values or principles to guide more effective planning and implementation of activities.
Training Activities List
Exercise | Snapshot | Time | Energy Level |
Breaking News | A collaborative activity using a media frame to help participants look into the future and imagine what the movement wants to achieve. | 20- 40 min | Moderate |
Future Workshop: Imagining and designing our dream village | A collective visioning activity with drawing, for groups in political struggles to develop compelling futures worth fighting for. | 60 mins | Moderate – High |
Identifying Values + Principles | These tools help participants express and refine their personal beliefs and then come up with shared values and operational principles that will help guide their group’s work and planning. | 30-60 min | Low – Moderate |
Round Robin Purpose/Mission Writing | A round-robin writing exercise to quickly identify and state the core purpose or mission of a group. | 25-45 min | Moderate – High |
Vision Cafe – World Cafe for Vision setting | Use the World Cafe model to harness the power of collaborative dialogue around important questions that matter in service to setting a vision and identifying values for a group. | 60 – 120 mins | Moderate – High |
Module 3
Laying Groundwork for Strategic Planning: Assessment Tools for Analysis
This module focuses on how to use assessment and analysis — the process of gathering and then processing the information — as a bridge from developing your vision to developing campaign strategy scenarios.
Training Activities List
Exercise | Snapshot | Time | Energy Level |
HOW? Pillars of power | Identify the institutions that your target relies on for support so you can weaken or disrupt their power. | 40-60 minutes | Low |
HOW and WHO? Power mapping/ Stakeholder Mapping | Map the power dynamics at play to identify your primary target and design a winning campaign strategy. | 40-60 minutes | Low |
WHO? Spectrum of Allies | Locate allies and opponents along a spectrum from active opposition to active allies in order to increase your own support, as well as shift support out from under your opposition. | 45-60 min | Low |
WHAT? Analysis Tree | Use this environmental scan to help identify, organize and prioritize the patterns and problems people face. | 30-45 mins | Low |
WHY? The Onion | People & organizations are more complicated than their stated positions. By peeling back the onion on both friend & foe, we can discover potential allies and reveal powerholder’s hidden conflicts of interest. | 30- 45 Minutes | Low |
WHEN? Historic Timeline | Developing a timeline of the history of the conflict enables stakeholders to identify potential “windows of vulnerability or opportunity” that could escalate or resolve conflict in the future. | 45-60 min | Moderate – High |
WHERE? Connectors and Dividers | Examine connectors and dividers that exist within a society to anticipate how actions may create further divisions or build a greater sense of connection across the lines of conflict. | 40-60 min | Low |
Module 4
Crafting a Strategic Plan: Integrating Analysis into Campaign Design and Planning
This chapter bridges the journey from strategic assessment to implementation, with activities to help a group understand the wider picture a& connect it to the concrete actions required to advance a campaign.
Training Activities List
Exercise | Snapshot | Time | Energy Level |
Ideal Community | This exercise offers a physical experience of people power and provides a framework for the discussion of nonviolent action and conflict transformation through shared experiences. | 40-60 min | High |
SWOT | Cross- reference internal & external factors in order to identify potential campaign scenarios. | 30-40 min | Moderate |
Campaign Path or Flow Chart | This exercise charts the roadmap of internal and external pathways for reaching your goal with specific and clear directions. | 75-90 min | Low – Moderate |
Theory of Change | Lay a solid foundation for a campaign by working backwards from long-term goals to identify the conditions that must be in place in order to achieve those goals, and why. | 40-45 min | Low |
SMART | Strong campaigns are built on a series of short- and medium-term SMART objectives that function as intermediary steps towards a more ambitious campaign goal. | 30 – 50 mins | Low |
Module 5
Delivering on a Strategic Plan: Using Implementation Tools
This module provides guidance for developing an implementation plan, including identifying specific tactics and the people & resources needed to achieve the goals of a campaign.
Training Activities List
Exercise | What it is | Time | Energy Level |
SMART | This methodology is a way to plan short- and medium-term objectives which increase the likelihood of a campaign’s success. | 30 – 50 mins | Low |
Calendarize | Create a comprehensive timeline/calendar that aligns with and supports your overall strategy and SMART goals to ensure that your planning becomes actionable and achievable. | 30 – 40 mins | Low |
Points of Intervention | Identify pressure points where you can take action to interrupt business as usual, and press for change. | 30-60 min | Low- Moderate |
Action Planning Card Game | Lively overview activity of action planning steps and the importance of planning overall. | 10 – 20 mins | Moderate |
Action Star | A graphic checklist of 8 key factors for planning & evaluating actions | 50-60 mins | High |
Module 6
Getting Creative: Designing Innovative Action
This module supports the use of innovative action tactics as a noticeable characteristic of successful campaigns.
Training Activities List
Exercise | What it is | Time | Energy Level |
Cardstorm! | Quickly brainstorm creative action ideas by flipping over 3 cards at a time. | 5-50 min | Moderate |
Design an Action | Build a creative action in mere minutes! | 15-60 min | Moderate – High |
Points of Intervention | Identify pressure points where you can take action to interrupt business as usual, and press for change. | 30-60 min | Low – Moderate |
Best/Worst Action | Harvest the collective experience and wisdom already in the room about what makes actions effective– or not! and derive useful lessons for designing one’s own actions. | 30-50 min | Moderate – High |
Battle of the Story | Harness the strength of stories to expose oppressive beliefs, and show how another reality is possible. | 30-90 min | Moderate |
Action Checklist | Handy checklist for what to do before, during and after an action. | 15 min to hours | Low |
Six Thinking Hats | De Bono’s six thinking hats are often used as a brainstorming tool that encourages parallel thinking on a specific issue. | 60 min | Moderate |
Module 7
Handling Conflict Creatively: Exploring Responses within and beyond the Group
Preparing and practicing your options for communicating clearly and handling conflict skilfully will help you build capacity to be more effective facilitators, organizers & activists.
Training Activities List
Exercise | What it is | Time | Energy Level |
Hassle Lines | A hassle line is a short roleplay done in a line with participants facing each other, useful for quick intense exploration of conflict behavior and intervention. | 15-45 min | High |
ACTIVE LISTENING | Explore Active listening as a critical tool for activists and organizers | 10-45 min | Low |
ACTION ROLE PLAY | Action role plays are a direct and powerful way to support group learning as well as practice or rehearse for more effective actions. | 45-60 min | High |
EARLY WARNING, EARLY RESPONSE | In-depth guided process that supports preparation and response to upcoming potential conflict scenarios with UCP (Unarmed Civilian Peacekeepers), most effective when paired with practice role plays. | 30 min-2 hours | Low – High |
Documentary & Discussion activity | Use these short video segments with actual footage of historic nonviolent resistance movements to spark discussions on handling conflict. | 45 min | Low |
Module 8
Awesome Facilitation Ideas and Encouragement for NVA Trainers
Guiding principles for trainers including:
- Political participation
- Participatory Methods
- Learning by Doing
- Public Action Learning
- Dreaming Big
- Feminist Lens
Module 9
Group Energizers: Openers and Closers
Great energizer activities are useful at different points in a training — to help a group get to know one another, reenergize if they have lost momentum, or spark people to think in new ways if stuck.
Training Activities List
Exercise | What it is | Time | Energy Level |
Opening the Space | Various ways to open a space and create a ‘container’ for our best work through land acknowledgements, grounding, or inclusive welcome activities. | 3-30 minutes | low/moderate |
Name Games | Activities to bring a group together while learning each other’s names. | 5-20 min | low to high |
Group Agreements | Participatory process for establishing ground rules that promote interaction, accountability, trust-building, and inclusivity. | 10-45 minutes | moderate |
Get To Know Each Other Activities | Engaging activities for groups to get to know each other and build cohesion. | 10-45 | low to high |
Energizers | Participatory activities that are fun, engaging, break down barriers, bring up the energy level and help to refocus participants. | 10-15 | high |
Closing the Space | Various ways to close a space and support participants in honoring the work done. | 3–30 min | low to high |
Module 10
Decision Making Tools
Strong groups benefit from good decision-making processes that help each person bring their own experience, understanding & level of motivation into their group dynamic constructively.
Training Activities List
Exercise | What it is | Time | Energy Level |
Quick Decision Tools | Several quick and flexible ways to support group decisions in a democratic way. | 2 – 10 min | low – high |
Dotocracy | An engaging way to discern and prioritize choices democratically with colorful dots or markers. | 15 – 45 min | low – high |
Cascade | An engaging way to discern and prioritize choices democratically. | 15 – 45 min | moderate – high |
Take A Position (Agree + Disagree) | Participants take up a physical position in a space based on their opinion of that topic. | 45 – 60 minutes | high |
Consensus Decision Making (Background Document) | Consensus decision making is a creative and dynamic way of reaching agreement between all members of a group. | 15 – 45 min | moderate |
Module 11
Debrief and Evaluation Tools
Debriefing and evaluation are a key step to help trainers & participants reflect, learn, share and consolidate their learning.
Training Activities List
Exercise | What it is | Time | Energy Level |
Circle Group Assessment | Fun and meaningful way to get to know each other’s experience and build vulnerability and trust in the group. Good for broad visual assessments of participants. | 5-10 min | low to high |
Spectrums | An activity that helps individuals reflect on their own positions as well as recognize the diversity within a group by literally putting their bodies on a line (as you might in a direct action.) | 15-45 min | moderate to high |
Gallery Walk | A Gallery Walk can be integrated into many different exercises as a way to help a group collect or share information, encourage group analysis, and engage the room. | 15-60 min | moderate |
Graphic Evaluation | Creative elicitive tools to provide direct feedback on training objectives, and support more insightful and useful processes and takeaways for participants and facilitators alike. | 10-60 min | low to mid |
Debrief | An engaging debrief creates opportunities for deeper understanding and lasting learning, improving comprehension, drawing out insights or lessons, and helping participants integrate what they’ve learned. | 15-60 min | low to high |
Evaluate an Action- Card Game | This Card Game based on the principles and theories in the BT Toolkit tool can be used to Test-flight an action that’s still in the works, debrief after an action, or analyse an historic action. | 10-30 min | low |
Baraza | A baraza is a large community gathering to discuss important matters, share information, and hold leaders to account. | 30-90 min | moderate to high |
Other Languages
Also available in other languages:
- لاسترتيجيات الضغط والمناصرة “المشكلات الجميلة” – Arabic
- မြန်မာ – Burmese
- Italiano – Italian
- – Russian
- Recursos para Formadores/as – Spanish
- অহিংস আন্দোলন প্রশিক্ষকের জন্য মডিউল – Bengali
Watch more videos
Explore Further
- The Art and Craft of Training Workshop Design
- The Spiral Model: A Learning Framework
- Campaign Accelerator Toolkit
- Online Training Monster Manual
- 6 tools for creative idea generation for your next campaign
- Digital tools to support effective meetings, training and conferences
- Guide for Trainers about Organizing, Narrative, Campaign and Movement Building
- Nonviolence Trainer’s Resource Manual