Meeting facilitation tips inspired by board game mechanics
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It has already been over a month since the last newsletter, Spring is here, it’s sunny in Paris! We had our first apéro drinks sitting by the Seine last weekend. I hope you’re well and have nice enough Spring weather wherever you are.
work wise, I am involved in a research project about the perception of French craft spirits. Please share the link to the online survey if you happen to know professionals in the spirits industry: https://bit.ly/icfe-spirits.
I am also actively looking for new projects and clients at the moment. Please feel free to reply if I can help you with anything, and/or forward my website to anyone you know who owns/manages a brand, or works for an agency (marketing, branding, design, data, advertising, communication, digital, etc.).
This month’s topic is wider than brand strategy. I started a board game design side project in the past week, and as I am researching specific game mechanics and systems, I have also been thinking about ways to apply or use some ideas from game design to lead and facilitate interactive workshops, meetings, or even classrooms.
For background, in case you’re not familiar, game mechanics, designate specific aspects of the way a game works. They could be elements of play (also called ludemes), or rules. These in turn are used to recognise and categorise games, like on the popular website Board Game Geek.
There are scholars at work on it, and many theories, though not a universal definition or framework so far, so an example to illustrate the point is going to be easier:
The core mechanism in Monopoly, or Candy Land, is called “roll and move,” or “roll and go.” Players roll a die and then move player tokens a number of spaces according to their roll. This is one of the reasons these games can be good for children to learn to count, though the lack of agency is also one of the reasons board game enthusiasts hate on Monopoly so much - to be fair the lack of catch-up rules might be worse.
Back to our topic; thinking of facilitating a meeting or workshop, The idea of turn order came to mind. In other words, these are mechanics and systems to determine the order of play. Traditionally, and for many games, there is some way of determining the first player, and then turns are taken in clockwise order.
However some board games feature different systems and mechanics to alter the order in which players take their turn, because there may be strategic advantages to being first or last to play, for example.
When facilitating workshops or meetings with clients or internally, brainstorming or ideation sessions, trainings, or even teaching students; who talks when, and how, can matter.
This is generally something you may already instinctively be paying attention to.
You're likely to be mindful of who speaks, who participates, perhaps you call on someone who hasn't said anything yet, or try and somewhat mitigate people who speak a lot, who might be authoritative, or who are more senior.
There can be a tendency for participants to consciously or unconsciously wait to hear what the boss thinks first, or the extraverted types might dominate the room over the more introverted people.
Here are a few suggestions to play and experiment with turn order.
Pass a ball
Playing ball is a classic from sports, playgrounds, improv comedy and theater warm-up exercises, and have made their way to training workshops.
How it works
Pass a soft ball or similar token to a participant.
The person holding the ball gets to speak next.
Once done, they pass the ball to someone who hasn’t spoken yet, and preferably not directly to their right or left.
What it does
Like all these methods to manage turn order, it mitigates effects of seniority or differences between extraverted and introverted types.
It keeps people focused and paying attention to the process.
It’s physical, which may help some people get out of their head, though it can also trigger some discomfort for others, maybe like feeling inadequate at sports in school.
Randomize things with dice or playing cards
Sophisticated custom cards are can be used in ideation workshops and training exercises, though here a simple deck of 52 cards is enough.
Dice may look a touch too random for a business setting, though it can work for some situations, and I believe determining a speaking order is one of them.
How it works
Take a deck of cards, perhaps isolating a single colour, or a couple of dice
Ask participants to pick a card or roll dice.
Highest or lowest card or die result speaks first, then others follow in descending or ascending order.
What it does
It adds a little more chance to the process, without affecting the content of the meeting or workshop.
While picking a card is random, if people choose it, the feeling of agency, of being in control is stronger than rolling a die.
It creates some structure and builds expectation for the flow of participation; everyone knows when their turn is ahead of time.
Spin a “talking stick”
A mix of a talking stick of indigenous tradition, mixed with the old teen game of “spin the bottle,” albeit no kissing involved in this variant.
How it works
Find something long you could spin, like a stick or wooden spoon.
Choose a pointing end; spin the stick.
The person it points to gets to speak next, or they can concede and spin again.
What it does
It involves a little bit of physical dexterity, which can be fun and keep people focused, like passing a ball.
It determines a speaking order with some chance involved.
It may be too gimmicky for some situations, though can work well for others where lowering stakes and pressure may improve results.
I prepared a pdf reference document you can download here for later use.
These are a just a few initial suggestions, there are many ways to spice up meeting facilitation, please feel free to share how you do it, and I might revisit the topic with other ideas in the future.
What else have I been up to?
After much consideration and time wasted, I decided to revive my old Blogger blog as a place to publish more personal stuff, take a look here: www.willemvdh.com
I finished reading the Codex Alera fantasy series by Jim Butcher.
Until I figure out if anything is up next in podcasting, I listed the episodes of the old podcast on my personal website.
The last CreativeMornings in Paris welcomed Lee Shulman who told us about The Anonymous Project, a superb project collecting and sharing beautiful old photographs, and collaborating with other photographers.
Thank you for reading,
Willem
