Working in Groups: Start Here
A guide from The Commons Social Change Library with collated resources to help groups work together better.
Tag
Facilitation
Facilitation Tools and Techniques
A selection of tools and techniques – both formal and informal – for facilitating meetings, workshops and events by Rhizome.
Facilitating Meetings: A guide to making your meetings effective, inclusive and enjoyable
Introduction An in-depth guide by Seeds for Change about facilitating meetings and how to make them more effective, inclusive and enjoyable. Meetings have the potential to be inspiring! They provide a space where people come together for a common purpose – whether that’s making decisions, exploring a shared problem or providing mutual support. Ideally, everyone […]
Ending the Activist Year Well
After a big year of effort it’s important to take time for reflection, evaluation, team-building, celebration, and planning. These resources will help.
Online Training Monster Manual
Tired of making new slide decks for interactive tools? Want new ideas on participatory methods online? Looking for new games and warm-ups? The “Online Monster Manual” is a compilation of 80+ online training tools from 350 globally.
Mutual Aid Disaster Relief Workshop Facilitation Guide
Has your community experienced a disaster? Do you need to have difficult conversations and build individual and community resilience? This guide has all you need to hold a workshop.
Getting Started with Online Training and Facilitation
Tips on how to get started with online training and facilitation for remote meetings and trainings. e.g. how to read a group and increase engaging including via web cameras, text chat and shared documents.
Facilitating online meetings
Online meetings can be a lot of fun! Here are a few ideas to make your meetings exciting, educational, and effective from Daniel Hunter, 350.org.
Running Effective Campaign Debriefs
Every campaign is a learning opportunity. Make the most of this by planning for the post-campaign period and setting up debriefs. Here are some tips for campaigners and facilitators.
The Building Power Guide
The Building Power guide is for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders who want to change the world. It includes several training resources to build capacity for campaigning, such as explorations of change-making, power, strategy and leadership development.
Action group meetings
This tip sheet has been written to help you and your group work well together and achieve your objectives and highlights some group habits and actions that resilient community groups have relied on: effective meetings with an agreed agenda; clearly-defined roles; mindful decision-making; accountability; and inclusiveness.
Facilitating for Gender Balance
Men frequently participate more than women in meetings, forums and other events. This article outlines practical steps facilitators and participants can take to ensure women are heard.
The Five Fold Path of Productive Meetings
Productive meetings allow an organization to move forward, keep members engaged and give them a sense of empowerment and efficacy. There are five aspects of structure and interpersonal dynamics we must pay special attention to if we want our meetings to be truly productive: Right People; Right Container; Right Process; Right Facilitation; Right Agenda.
Nonviolence Trainer’s Resource Manual
This manual aims to contribute to the body of practical on nonviolence training, and support the work of people working to increase the power and effectiveness of grassroots social movements. While it is a method for change accessible to all, to succeed, nonviolence requires organisation, discipline, persistence in the face of repression and strategic application.
Strategic Questioning Manual: A Powerful Tool for Personal and Social Change
Strategic questioning is the skill of asking the questions that will make a difference. It is a powerful tool for personal and social change which helps people discover their own strategies and ideas for change. Strategic questioning can be valuable in campaign strategy, group consultation processes, one-to-one organising conversations, coaching and many other contexts.
Facilitation at the Frontlines
This article includes reflections and tips for ‘extreme sport’ facilitation at blockades and action camps. Includes notes about logistics, comfort of participants, timing, internal organisation within the facilitation team, holding the space, and being transparent about role and power dynamics.
Photolanguage: Communicate through images
A process guide to be used in training workshops, planning sessions and team building. Photolanguage has many uses, including to facilitate self-awareness; deepen engagement and relationships; stimulate connections between intellectual reflection and personal experience; and stimulate creativity in personal expression.
Games and energisers for your workshop
Games are great to use during a workshop. They may be scheduled into the workshop at various times or you may just toss one in when you feel that the group could benefit from playing a game. The games in this handout are separated into the categories of introductory games, name games, dynamicas (energisers) and fun ways to get people into groups.
Stages of Group Development
A handout and process guide for training workshops focused on working in groups and organisational effectiveness. The process introduces participants to Bruce Tuckman’s model of stages in group development; encourages participants to reflect on their experience of group development; and identifies and address challenges and opportunities that accompany each stage.
Diagnostic Tools for Trainers and Facilitators
Facilitators and activist educators rely on a suite of tools to diagnose the group, to learn about people’s needs and priorities, and to move the group forward. A number of tools are outlined in this resource including: One-on-one conversations; Maximise/Minimise; Ambivalence charts; Questionnaires; Sociograms; Skits, mime and tableaux; Noticings; and Evaluation.