For most in my profession circle, group facilitation is one of those things we are all expected to do regularly. However, fear of public speaking and the need to tap in to skill sets beyond our typical roles often lead to a sense of reluctance and imposter syndrome.
How might we create a way for people to practice hands-on group facilitation in a fun and welcoming environment, while coming away with a sense of effective group collaboration? Allow me to introduce Facilitation Quest — a game you can play in under 30 minutes and develop your facilitation abilities and understanding of group dynamics. Special thanks to Carissa, Rachelle, and Rian for their key role in ideating and delivering this with me.
Building Blocks of the Game: Participants, Game Flow, and Scenarios
First, lets get to know the participant types:
- The game guide. Think of this like the Dungeon Master in DnD. You drive the flow from character group to facilitation group and encourage both divergence and convergence. You are neutral and aim to allow the group to solve the scenario on their own, but can offer hints if truly needed. You will want a more experienced facilitator in this role.
- The character group. These participants will take on a role of a character in the scenario. Each character is associated with one of the four “players” in David Kantor’s theory. See image below for examples. Each scenario may have a different composition of characters, each with a unique role to play and goal in mind. Some scenarios, like the one I will share, might be missing roles altogether.
- The facilitation group. All remaining participants act as a sort of all-seeing elder, kind of like Gandalf. They work together to assess the structural dynamics at play, identify red flags, and offer ways to pivot the scenario through various Human-Centered Design activities. Their goal is to create the conditions for a successful scenario outcome and supporting character goals.
Game Flow
As you can see above, the game generally revolves around a cycle of the characters acting out the scenario, facilitators identifying what’s going on and thinking about what options can resolve tensions, and repeating this until the scenario comes to an ideal state, and/or all character goals have been met.
Scenarios
Scenarios are all about building an understanding of the structural dynamics in a given situation, understanding the pressures and goals of those involved, and facilitating effective methods to guide the group down an ideal path.
Getting in Character
Prior to revealing the game board, the Game Guide will want to give the character role players some time to review the scenario and think through their specific role. I made a Mural for this and shared it privately ahead of time. Miro is a good alternative.
Like in Dungeons and Dragons, you want to provide enough flexibility in the descriptions for the character group to be creative and make the role their own. The path forward is up to them. In addition, as with real life, some of our characters have underlying goals that can be unlocked. They have the power to reward the facilitation group with a badge if this goal is unlocked. See below for examples.
See the game board example below. This acts as a means to outline the scenario and a space to capture the output of the facilitation group. Remember to follow the game flow that I pointed out above and use this space to synthesize what’s being said. The first thing you’ll want the group to reflect on is, what roles are we seeing? Help them build out a visual like you see below that shows the current composition, and then have them add red flags about that before jumping in to options.
At this point, you have all the materials needed to try the game out yourself. But it doesn’t end there…
- Try creating alternative scenarios, either fiction or based on real situations. All you need is a scenario and a general understanding of the “players” involved.
- You can make smaller groups so that people get more practice as a solo facilitator vs. having the group to fall back on
- You can create scenarios specifically geared at using certain design methods that your team might need to facilitate in an upcoming workshop, so they can practice ahead of time
- How else do you think you can use it? I’d love to hear.
Here’s a Mural template with all the components and guidance you should need to get started.
In conclusion, this game will teach you how to identify group dynamics, allow you to practice facilitation in a low-risk and lighthearted way, and learn how to quickly identify Human-Centered Design methods that will create improved group dynamics and guide your group down a more desirable path.
Happy questing, adventurers.