Julia Slay

One of the biggest facilitation challenges I grapple with is how to gather and synthesise insights from break out conversations when working with larger groups (e.g. working with a group of 30 who have gone into 5 x 6 person groups). Specifically, I wonder how to do this in a way which avoids each group saying a version of the same thing, while I watch people’s eyes glaze over by the time group number 2 of 6 are talking. It can be time consuming and energy draining, and I have not often seen it yield useful / additional insights for the groups. One hunch I have is that there is just no substitute for being in the conversation – and, there are some specific challenges to get around on top of this, which are: 

📍 Hearing other people talk about what they talked about is inherently less interesting than being in the conversation yourself

📍 It is really hard (and quite a skill) to effectively summarise a conversation and convey the most interesting points

📍 Sometimes you have all been talking about pretty much the same thing so it IS repetative.

BUT (and there is a but). I have tried to play around with a few other methods to get around the standard ‘each group feeds back’.

🌱 The 1, 2, 4 all method from Liberating Structures gets around this a bit by encouraging groups to pair up with other groups and share insights along the way. I can see this working as a 1, 2, 4, 8 all, for example. With just two or three groups left at the end to share headlines.

🌱 Asking people to share back just one sentence, and any actions or next steps to focus their feedback.

🌱 Doing a ‘carousel’, whereby each break out group has a flip chart and one person is responsible for writing down the headlines from the conversation. Then the flip charts are placed around the room, and people can circulate to read / find out what other groups covered. Ideally the writer stays by their flip chat to explain / expand on any points, but this does mean they don’t benefit as much from the activity!

🌱 Share back ‘bingo’, where as groups speak other raise their hand to indicate if they covered a similar topic, and then as each subsequent group goes they only add new or additional insights.

🌱Getting a recording app to transcribe the whole conversation ( I haven’t done this before, and wonder if people would have concerns about it? Perhaps this is one which is v subject specific) 

🌱Forgetting about group feedback altogether, and ending break out group activities with a moment for individuals to write their own reflections / takeaways and add them onto a wall / flipchart for the group to read later / in their own time.

I have also seen other facilitators use methods such as ‘fishbowls’ and process reviews to focus more on supporting participants to reflect on the process they have gone through, not just the content of the discussions. These are two methods I am going to try using in the near future – and will share thoughts once I have done so!