Like a real craftsman, each facilitator has a toolbox, a toolbox with instruments, methods and techniques to support groups in achieving their goals. Groups typically have two types of goals. First, groups bond, they form a team; develop relations, trust, culture, common ground and mutual understanding, as a basis for effective collaboration. However, ultimately, groups work together towards a joint goal. In the end, groups are mostly formed to create joint results, outcomes that require the expertise, skills, insights, experiences and creative ideas of the members of the group in order to solve complex problems. Such results often require support from stakeholders involved, and therefore they should be based on consensus and shared understanding.

To support groups in creating such outcomes, facilitators have developed and documented many different techniques for brainstorming, discussion and decision making. There are numerous libraries with such techniques. However, these techniques are typically not a one-size-fits-all solution. In most cases, facilitators adapt the tools to match the group, the task and the context in which they facilitate a collaboration process.

As a researcher, I have been looking for the essential elements of facilitation interventions. The more precise we can narrow down and document the intervention, the better we can predict their effects and, more important, their effectiveness. In this process I stumbled on a conceptual understanding of facilitation techniques in four dimensions. I compare them to pasta. Pasta can be made of different ingredients; flour, but also from potatoes, rice, and various other grains. Pasta can have different structures, spaghetti, penne, gnocchi, etc. Pasta can be processed in different ways, fresh, dried, cooked, baked in the oven, etc. Finally, pasta can be combined with other ingredients in different ways. It can be combined with a sauce, stuffed with meat or cheese, or layered like lasagna. All these aspects of pasta can be combined in many different ways, to create an endless variation of dishes. For facilitation techniques I created a similar system.

The ingredients of facilitation techniques are the type of input we work with. Many facilitation techniques are text based, when we brainstorm ideas, or share lessons learned, but we could also use sketching, model elements, numbers or stories as input for our facilitation technique. Visualization can be very powerful to support creativity, but also to develop shared understanding.
The structure of the facilitation techniques is the way we structure information. We can work in a list on a flip chart, but also in a mind-map structure, in a matrix model or in different categories. Depending on the complexity of the problem a different structure is suited to support the group in analyzing the problem and identifying a solution.

The facilitation techniques can also support different phases of information processing. We can share information, brainstorm ideas, structure or organize concepts, vote about information, revise and improve it, and make decision based on the information shared by the group. In this way, we can develop a process in which the group solved a problem in a sequence of steps.
Finally, facilitation techniques can be used in different modes of interaction. We can do some steps of a collaboration process in a plenary session, while others are better done individually, in a relay fashion, in small groups or in pairs. There are many ways to organize the interaction, and each has different impact on the quality of the results and the support for the outcomes.

With these four dimensions you can compose effective collaboration techniques that fit the task, the group, the process and the complexity of the context. With these techniques you develop the process required for the group to accomplish their task. However, you need two additional ingredients to finish your facilitation technique. First you need to formulate the question or instruction for each step. What is it the group needs to brainstorm, on what criteria do they decide, or on which topics will they need to find common ground and a shared vision. Second, you need to fill in the tools or materials to support the interactive technique. You could brainstorm ideas on yellow stickies’, but you can also type them in a shared document or chat tool. Different tools can be used to implement these facilitation techniques to support collaboration face-to-face or online.

We thank Gwendolyn for sharing this insight with us and invite you to share your opinions about this framework in the comments. If you are looking for methods you can use to build an effective collaboration check out the SessionLab Library of facilitation techniques. 

On average, only 46 out of 100 workgroups within organizations end up creating value for companies, and up to 92% of freshly created startup teams are destined to fail for various reason. A study mentioned by Harvard Business School professor Noam Wasserman suggests that 60+% of those reasons are related to problems within teams, e.g. miscommunication, unresolved conflicts, co-founder disagreements, key players leaving teams at pivotal moments and so on.

What makes it even worse is that the tools for team maintenance and leadership for various reasons are not easily available to small teams like startups and creative agencies, and are not widely used within even bigger companies.

Here is a simple question: Is there something you personally can do to make the team you work in more successful and productive? We suggest that simply put, yes.

The Team Canvas

A few months ago I and a friend of mine set up on a quest to package years of our experience into one product about leading, consulting and being part of small creative teams. We iterated on one simple template that could align team members of any small team and get them on the same page, resulting in more clarity and productivity no matter which stage of group development they were at.

We called the template Team Canvas (and picked up the format from well-established Alex Osterwalder’s Business Model Canvas) and tested our way through with multiple small teams around the world, both onsite and remote: early stage startups, creatives from advertising industry, student project groups, and innovation consultants.

The results we got were quite inspiring. Within two hours of a Team Canvas session, we managed to bring teams to a state of clarity and alignment, with their feedback ranging from ‘that was useful’ to ‘that was extremely valuable for us as a team’. Most teams could facilitate the session themselves, which meant that they could repeat such sessions without external help whenever they needed.

Who Is It For and How Does It Work

We believe these groups would benefit from The Team Canvas the most:

• Facilitators – For having an easy-to-use and logical method with ready-made visuals available for facilitation team sessions
• Team leaders – For having a simple framework that you can use with your small team for better alignment (nevertheless beyond a certain complexity you may prefer having an external facilitator)
• Startup teams at the stage of forming, pivoting or growing

Team canvas consists of 9 parts that structure your team culture conversation. They are focusing around areas of:

• Who you are;
• Where you want to arrive;
• How you work together; and
• What exactly you agree to do to get there.

Running Team Canvas Session

Running Team Canvas is fairly easy:

1. Get the latest Team Canvas template from theteamcanvas.com. It’s free and licenced under Creative Commons (Attribution-Share Alike). You can also find Team Canvas session plan with all the instructions and examples in SessionLab and easily adjust it to your needs or include it other sessions.
2. Learn how Team Canvas works and decide which template, Team Canvas Basic or Team Canvas Complete, you would rather use at your current stage of the project.
3. Use mobile-friendly facilitator’s guide to get your team ready for the session and as a step-by-step guide during the session

In case some people on your team are working remotely, we partnered with a few cool online collaboration platforms to let you arrange Team Canvas session along with skype/google hangouts call:

• Team Canvas in Mural
• Team Canvas in Miro

How can technology get you into the flow when preparing and delivering your training? How can you save time when managing your training? Technology brings plenty of opportunities for different professions, but what about the training field?

Come, see and share your experience on how digital technologies can help trainers in their work. We would like to present some tools specifically designed for trainers, and hear how are your training preparation practices supported (or not) by technology.

Therefore, we invite you to join us for an after-work meetup at the Springest office (www.springest.nl) in Amsterdam. Springest is the biggest training marketplace online and we and we are happy to have them as our hosts. The doors open from 18:30, and the program will start at 19:00. We plan to finish the official part by 20:00. Afterwards we will continue with snacks, drinks and networking.

Register on meetup.com or facebook.

In case you are interested in meeting us, but cannot attend the meet up, are still welcome to write to us and we can try to arrange a meeting. We will be in Rotterdam from 15th to 22th October.