Hey Facilitators,
Welcome to February!
Last year at Facilitator Cards, we declared February our month of “No new ideas”. The rules were that we could only continue projects that were already started, finish off tasks, and check off to-do lists of yore. It worked so well we’ve decided to do it again!
To make even more space for heads-down time for projects, we aren’t hosting any events in February! It’s the first month that’s been true in quite some time, but we do have exciting things coming your way in March (+ some early bird pricing to get in on!).
🗓 Upcoming Events
🤲 Holding Space: Generous approaches to problematic statements and conflict - March 21 @ 1 - 2:30pm ET
When we gather a group to learn, share, or work together there is always a risk that something decisive or problematic will be said and will become a make-or-break moment for the group.
How we respond as facilitators or leaders in those moments makes all the difference.
This session is about frameworks and specific actionable strategies to help you successfully move a group through those moments and come out together on the other side.
Holding Space covers:
- How mindsets unconsciously shape our strategies as facilitators
- Ways to cultivate generosity and curiosity (even in moments of conflict)
- The order of operations to use when addressing challenging comments
“Powerful way to approach difficult situations in a new and refreshing way. Loved how tangible the tools are!”
“Amazing how helpful a short workshop can be in finding strategies for something so anxiety-inducing!”
Get your ticket for Holding Space )BUTTON) https://lu.ma/holdingspacemar
Spaces are limited, secure your spot & get special early bird pricing with code EARLYBIRD today!
🦈 Become A Card Shark - March 14 @ 11am ET
Mark your calendars! Card Sharks is our bi-monthly live training where you can learn everything you wanted to know about how to use your deck of Facilitator Cards.
At Card Sharks you’ll:
- Get to know your deck (without the overwhelm)
- Learn the philosophy behind the cards
- Practice how to be more creative in your facilitations
And you’ll get time to connect with other incredible facilitators and practice stretching our creativity muscles together!
RSVP here! (BUTTON) https://lu.ma/cardsharks
(Pssst…don’t have a deck yet? Use code CARDSHARKS for 10% off!)
📸 From the Insta!
✅ Preparing for an in-person workshop? Check out the day-of checklist that we share with our contacts ahead of time!
(We’ve also got the Day-of-Checklist as a Google Doc and a Notion Page)
💭 Things to remember in unusual spaces
🥪 & remember! Don’t try to compete with lunch.
🔴 From The YouTube
Running workshops on Zoom? We’ve got some tech recommendations! Reduce screen shares, make copy/pasting a thing of the past, run live polls, and lower your tech stress!
⚡️ Stream Deck: My Digital Co-Facilitator
👏 Stream Deck + Zoom: Virtual Facilitation with ease!
👩🍳 Getting Started with mmhmm for Zoom Meetings and Virtual Facilitation!
📊 Using AhaSlides in Zoom for the First Time
💻 Plus! our Favorite ZOOM Features for Virtual Facilitators!
🃏Card Of The Month: Minute Papers ⏳📝
It’s tough to declare one card in our deck a favorite, but we can safely say that Minute Papers is one of the most versatile and quietly transformative processes we know of.
Minute Papers is a surfacing activity during which participants have a minute (or more, but we like to keep it brief) to gather their thoughts on paper. We use it before a discussion, as a quick debrief, a way to capture thoughts or emotions in response to a prompt, and it can even be a great release valve after a high-stakes conversation.
Minute Papers are great because they provide a quick moment of pause. We find that participation always increases when we pop in a Minute Paper before doing a brainstorm or asking for questions. It gives internal processors a moment to gather their thoughts, reduces groupthink, and increases the overall confidence and quality of shares from the group!
Is there anything Minute Papers can’t do?
When To Use Minute Papers
Due to its brevity, it’s easy to plug Minute Papers into any part of an agenda. Anytime you have a dense conversation that made people feel things, strong imagery, content or context, use a Minute Paper to help everyone digest.
You can use Minute Papers to:
- See how much the group already knows about the topic or subject
- Begin a session and get a read on how they’re feeling upon arrival
- Allow for solo ideation before beginning a brainstorm with the large group
- Create a moment of pause to change the energy of the room
- Collect reflections rather than doing a formal evaluation
Like all activities, overuse in one session can always diminish effectiveness.
Prompt Pro Tip
Minute Papers is focused on surfacing the emotions, thoughts, and feelings that participants are experiencing. When creating the prompt, walk participants towards bringing their own opinions to the page rather than reciting facts.
“When thinking about the conversation the group just had, what is something that for you was left unsaid?”
Why We Love It
We could seriously go on (and on) espousing how powerful this simple activity can be. It hits all of our facilitator needs! Minute Papers engages the entire group, increases participation across the board, and can even be a sneaky way to give yourself a micro-break to gather your own thoughts mid-session.
Whether you’re running a Minute Paper for the first time or always pop them into any session’s agenda 👋 we’d love to hear what you love about Minute Papers!
For more information, prompts, and powerful card combinations check out the full blog post.
Feedback Frames
We wanted to give a shout-out to another product made for facilitators by facilitators - Feedback Frames! Here’s a little info about Feedback Frames from the creator of the frames, Jason!
“Feedback Frames are a fun low-tech tool for in-person meetings. Use them to do secret “voting” along a spectrum, and get instant visual results. Participants rate statements by dropping tokens in a range of slots that are hidden by a cover, with results later revealed as a visible graph of opinions. Keeping the results secret during voting avoids the bandwagon effect and other social pressure biases. Customize the scale using free templates.”
We’ve got a special discount for our community — Get 25% off your set of Feedback Frames using the discount code: facilitator.cards-25
See them in action and order yours at FeedbackFrames.com
That’s a wrap for this month’s mailer! We hope you have a wonderful and fulfilling February and hope to see you at one of our March events!
Until next time, happy facilitating!
Meg & the Facilitator Cards Team