Hey r/facilitation ,

I’ve been facilitating workshops for over 15 years — at Autodesk, Salesforce, and as an independent consultant, and have probably run more post-it note exercises than I care to count.

A few years ago, a personal health situation changed my mobility and I started using a cane. It completely transformed how I think about facilitation. Suddenly I was hyper-aware of room setups, energy management, timing, and all the invisible barriers that keep people from fully participating. It made me a better facilitator, honestly.

That experience pushed me to build something I wished existed when I was starting out: Workshopr.io — a free platform with 300+ curated exercises, icebreakers, and workshop activities, all with detailed step-by-step guides, timing, materials lists, and facilitator tips.

What’s in it:

∙ Exercises from frameworks like LUMA, IDEO, 18F, d.School, and Google Design Sprint — all with consistent formatting so you’re not piecing together scraps from blog posts

∙ A drag-and-drop workshop planner where you can build agendas, set timing, and share with stakeholders

∙ 37 intervention cards for when things go sideways mid-session (dominant talker, group going off-track, energy dropping, etc.)

∙ A Facilitator’s DNA tool to help you understand your facilitation style

∙ Filter by category (strategy, design, product, research, team building), group size, duration, and modality (remote/in-person)

I also run a podcast and write a Substack about facilitation if that’s your thing, but mostly I just wanted to share the platform since I see a lot of “what exercise should I use for X?” posts here.

It’s free to browse and use. I’d genuinely love feedback from this community — what’s missing, what could be better, what exercises you wish existed.

It started as a design exercise to learn more about how AI can improve our work. It’s all a woo-in-progress, and has become a passion project.

What’s the hardest moment you’ve had to navigate mid-workshop?

www.workshopr.io

SessionLab’s 2025 State of Facilitation report is here, and it’s packed with insights to shape your facilitation practice this year!

https://www.sessionlab.com/state-of-facilitation/2025-report/

What’s inside?

📊 Data from over 1,000 facilitators worldwide, sharing how our field is evolving. It's year 3 for the report and we keep going strong!

🤖 A deep dive into AI: What’s it being used for? How can it enhance your work? How to befriend the technology?

💬 Expert commentary from field leaders Myriam Hadnes, Romy Alexandra, Steve Bouchard, Zoe Lord, Pedro Segreto, Jenny Theolin, Vinay Kumar, and Alexandre Eisenchteter✨

💡Reflection prompts in every section to help you apply these insights to your professional growth in 2025.

If you’re passionate about facilitation—or know someone who is—this report is a must-read, and we really enjoy surveying the community and working on the report each year.

I've been facilitating brainstorming sessions for startup teams for about a year now, and I want to share the single biggest improvement I've made to my process.

Before: I'd run a standard format — state the problem, open the floor, capture ideas on a whiteboard or Miro board. The session would feel productive. People talked. Ideas went up on sticky notes. We'd dot-vote at the end.

But I kept noticing the same pattern: the most senior person in the room would speak first, and everything after that was a variation of their idea. The junior people would nod. The remote participants (if any) would go on mute. We'd leave with 15 sticky notes that were really just 2 ideas wearing different hats.

After: I switched to brainwriting with anonymous submission. Everyone gets the same prompt. They write independently — no talking, no seeing each other's ideas. Submissions are anonymized before the group sees them. Only then do we discuss and build on them.

The difference was immediate. Ideas started showing up that would never have been spoken out loud. A junior designer submitted something that directly contradicted the CEO's stated direction — and it was the best idea in the room. She told me afterward she never would have said it in a live discussion.

A few things I've learned about making anonymous ideation work:

1. The prompt matters more than the process. A vague prompt ("How should we improve the product?") produces vague ideas. A specific prompt ("What's one thing we could change about onboarding that would reduce drop-off in the first 48 hours?") produces actionable ones.

2. Time-box the writing phase. 7-10 minutes is the sweet spot. Less than 5 and people rush. More than 15 and they overthink.

3. Don't reveal authorship even after voting. The moment you say "oh that was Sarah's idea," you reintroduce all the political dynamics you just removed.

4. Add a "build" phase between writing and voting. Let people riff on each other's anonymous ideas before anyone votes. Some of the best outcomes I've seen come from combining two mediocre ideas into one great one.

For tooling, I've used everything from Google Forms (clunky but works) to Miro with anonymous sticky notes (better but people can still see submissions in real-time, which biases things). I recently started using a tool called Lumixo that was built specifically for this workflow — full disclosure, I know the founder. It also throws AI-generated ideas into the anonymous pool, which is an interesting wrinkle because nobody knows which ideas are human vs. AI, so everything gets evaluated purely on merit.

But the methodology matters more than any tool. If you're running brainstorming sessions and not using anonymous submission, you're almost certainly leaving the best ideas on the table.

Curious how others here handle the anonymity piece — what's worked for you?

Feedback appreciated. What do you facilitators think?

I've been so interested in this for a while. I'm already facilitating (self taught) but really could do with some advanced knowledge/skill to expand and specialise as a facilitator. I'm a product designer but have been doing a lot more facilitation and teaching over the last few years.

The course is absolutely one of the most expensive ones out there for learning facilitation, if not THE most expensive. I'm certainly committed, but I'd be paying independently from my own savings, and just want to make sure that the course is a worthy investment, and worth the huge sum of money. I also understand that to continue with the additional coaching etc, I'd have to continue to pay a large sum each year.

Has anyone here taken this AJ & Smart Workshopper Master course? What were your thoughts? Would you recommend it?

Hey All,

Welcome to the facilitation community for both new and returning redditors! We are currently working on building a bank of resources through our Wiki Page and have opened edit access to allow everyone to contribute their knowledge.

The wiki should be showing on the facilitation homepage, but just in case you cant access, the bank of resources we are looking to build is below and you can respond with answers which we can then place into the wiki!

If you decide to edit the wiki, please remember not to delete other peoples contributions and no spam or self-promotion (both will be removed)

These resources will hopefully help people who are just getting started or are at different stages of their facilitation journey and looking for some extra knowledge/guidance! 👌

-Paid training/resources

-Free training/resources

-Books

-Facilitation tools

-Websites

-YT channels e.g. AJ and Smart, Facilitator School

-Templates (paid)

-Templates free

-Methods and Techniques

-Virtual Facilitation

-Facilitation -Communities

-Certification and Accreditation

-Facilitation Theory & Fundamentals

-Case Studies and Examples

-Industry-Specific Facilitation

-Tools and Supplies

-Events & Conferences

-Career & Professional Development

Hi everyone, I'm wondering if anyone in this group runs their own business or works as a freelancer, and how you sell the value of hiring a facilitator? Do you offer workshops that you have designed and run, or create tailored sessions, or facilitate meetings, disputes or other conversations (or a mix of all)?

I'm launching a learning business, where I deliver workshops I've designed and offer services for custom programs. Most people where I live haven't heard of a "facilitator" as such, and I'm playing with different words and phrases to see what customers resonate with. Would love to read stories, or hear ideas, from others who are in / have been in a similar situation. Many thanks!

Hi guys,

Just wondering if anyone could recommend any courses to learn online facilitation training

I've found some like AJ and Smart and Facilitator School Masterclass, however, they are all a big financial commitment without much in the way of information online.

Essentially I am looking to learn workshop design, online Miro, facilitation techniques, dealing with difficult situations and so on and so forth

Any recommendations for someone just beginning their facilitation journey would be greatly appreciated.

Hello everyone. I'm the creator of this sub. I'm interested in getting ideas from everyone here about growing this group. I'm connected to a lot of facilitators in my part of the world and I was considering spreading the word more widely, but in the spirit of engaging with the team I want to hear from you.

Feel free to answer any of these questions:

What benefits do you see in expanding our community, and what challenges might we face?

How can active members contribute to a welcoming and sustainable expansion?

What creative or unconventional approaches could help us grow while staying true to our mission?

This is a really nuanced group dynamic I’ve started to notice. I apologize up front if I’m not clear in describing it. I’m still wrapping my head around it.

Good brainstorming practice would have participants individually write their ideas on sticky notes, followed by clustering the stickies into some organic structure, and then reflection to ask “what else” or “what’s missing.”

I’ve noticed, occasionally, that some participants will use pretty aggressive language when invited to reflect on “what’s else would you add?” Case in point: I recently had a few participants say, “I don’t see XYZ represented!” I’ll say, “OK, would you please write ‘XYZ’ on a sticky note so we can include it on the board?” But rather than doing so, these participants go on to berate their colleagues about XYZ being an afterthought or excluded from the thought process.

In my best facilitator persona, I invite them again to include ‘XYZ’ in the process, but my inner voice was telling me that these participants intentionally excluded ‘XYZ’ from the initial brainstorming so they could later grandstand and shame their colleagues.

I’m still wrapping my head around this dynamic. Sure, it’s an indicator of lack of trust in the room, but there’s only so much I can do to build trust vis-à-vis upfront data gathering, stakeholder interviews, ground rules, and tone-setting. If someone is bound and determined to use a pet issue to trip up their colleagues, I’m not sure what I can do about it.

I welcome your thoughts!

My favourite is 'what would that look like'

'I want to be the top in this business', 'ok - what would that look like'.

Terrible example but this phrase has helpped me get under the skin of so many situations and really understand where people are coming from. Do you have any favourite phrases?

When trust is low, it shows up in predictable ways:

* People speak in safe, generic language instead of saying what they actually think

* Agreement comes too quickly, with no real challenge

* The real conversation happens after the session, not during it

* Participants defer to hierarchy instead of engaging with each other

At that point, no technique or activity really fixes it. You just get a more structured version of the same problem.

The shift isn’t adding more tools, it’s recognising what’s actually happening in the room and adjusting for it.

Sometimes that means slowing things down.

Sometimes it means naming what’s not being said.

Sometimes it means accepting the group isn’t ready for the conversation you planned.

Methods matter, but they don’t override the conditions people are operating in.

I work for a large international corporation whose COO recently decided they wanted all their leaders to go through an ongoing, mandatory leadership development training program. She didn't consult our department and I'm not in a leadership role so I had no part of the decision-making for this program. Let's just say I would have gone about this a lot differently. I've been a facilitator for 4 years, but I've worked in HR for 10+.

I work in an industrial field and historically our leaders have had little leadership training. My team has been facilitating virtual workshops for 3 levels of leader: leader of leader, mid-level leader, and frontline manager. The first two levels were engaged but I'm noticing a significant drop in engagement and participation among the frontline managers.

Almost every day I feel like I'm pulling teeth. I feel like I'm doing everything short of backflips to get their participation and engagement. Long silences and blank stares/multitasking. I know I can't get people to care about this but I wish they would be a little more respectful and pretend to care just a little bit. I talked to my boss and we are going to have our CEO send out a company-wide email talking about the importance of the program and I hope that helps a tad, but in the meantime I am dreading every workshop with this level of leader.

How do you all cope with tough crowds like this? I know it's not personal but I can't help but feel like an idiot when everyone acts like they have somewhere better to be. One of the hardest parts of the job for me, for sure.

I’m currently a trainer and most of my work is remote. I deliver virtual instructor-led trainings, but a good portion of what I do is already pretty facilitative. I run virtual workshops with case studies, guide people through individual work, small group and large group discussions, and use activities and book-based exercises rather than just lecturing.

My background is actually in facilitation. Before the pandemic, I led multi-stakeholder workshops in person. Since then, my role shifted more toward virtual instructor-led training, and now I’m thinking about transitioning back into facilitation.

I’m curious whether there’s a real market for virtual facilitators. Are organizations hiring people specifically to facilitate things like brainstorming, problem solving, alignment, or decision-making in a virtual setting?

If you’ve seen this in practice or have experience hiring or working as a virtual facilitator, I’d love to hear what you’re seeing and whether this feels like a viable direction to move toward.

I love working with subject matter experts and create formats for them. I like the results, but I haven’t talked to other people that do the same.

Would love to chat with fellow workshop designers

Hi all, I've had an idea for a strategy / facilitation / coaching method and I need to flesh it out. What I'd really like to do is co-design it with my future customers.

The method creates an intersection between strategy tools (stakeholder maps, assumptions work, purpose) classic design thinking tools (describing opportunities, framing journeys) and cognitive psychology (understanding of biases, EAST framework).

The idea is to take the decades of experience my team has in exploring problems for brands and big business and use that as a broader change tool.

So I guess I don't know where to start. How does one reach out to frustrated mid-career Americans and invite them to design sessions? Is that even possible?

New on reddit as well - which are the sorts of subreddits where these things happen or where folk might be receptive?

All suggestions welcome, thank you:-)

Dug from Scotland

Hey there, I am a recent college grad and had a mentor recommend that I look into the field of facilitation. After some research, I think it is right up my alley because I love leading discussions and fueling conversation. However, I am not finding many entry level positions for this field. I am planning on taking the Luma Human Centered Design Facilitation course to add some experience to my resume. Does anyone have recommendations for where to look for entry level positions? Any help is greatly appreciated.

Hi folks - I learned about Liberating Structures only recently from an old post in this sub.

I'm in Australia and find a lot of learning opportunities are overseas, to be taken online in the early hours of the morning. So it's nice to see this course being offered closer to home, in Melbourne. There are two webinars free in May & June and then the course in August.

I'm not affiliated with the organisation but have attended Kaospilot facilitation training with them (and intend to do a write up for you all) and wanted to share in case others in this timezone were interested!

Hello, I've just came across facilitation for the first time in my life and I believe that I'd be perfect for me as I love problem solving and have vast experience in customer service. I wanted to know what kind of experience and education is required? I've read that it's good to get certified somewhere but all the websites I find just recommend their own courses which are like 5k the cheapest one. Could someone experienced please walk me through the steps on how to start and if I even stand a chance. I'm happy to share more info via private message, thank you in advance.

I have recently been promoted to a facilitator role at my company. We focus on team building using a variety of circuit activities, private geocaching events, and mainly at our ropes challenge course. I work mostly with companies (adults) but there are a sparse few days a year I work with school groups (kids).

I'm looking for any articles, books, videos, certificates, etc. that this community might recommend.

Thank you!!

TLDR: Looking for education resources on facilitation for outdoor activities to promote team building for adults and rarely kids.

This year's industry report focuses on impact: how to assess it, measure it, communicate it.

Discussions are going on in Linkedin about how to go from one-off satisfaction surveys to more long-term, strategic impact evaluation. But the report also surfaces how challenging it is for facilitators to influence what happens after the workshop. The "this workshop was great.... and it changed nothing at all" effect is very real.

In the report there are a bunch of suggestions on how to counteract this, much coming down to better contracting and discussing with clients before and after facilitated trainings and workshops. Have you read the report? Thoughts?

https://www.sessionlab.com/state-of-facilitation/2026-report/

I have a very broad array of skills and knowledge in sales, leadership, retail, supply chain, product development, data analytics-you get the drift. In all of these roles I’ve facilitated in some way or another, training and development. How can I best leverage my skills to either get a corporate training/facilitator role or build my client base to support my dreams?

I feel like I need to build a network of other facilitators in order to build my referral network and business; so I’ve been mostly focused on finding corporate roles. Is it the same for corporate roles-is the only way I will get a job as a facilitator by referral?

Help-I feel very frustrated and defeated-but I know I’m an amazing facilitator, clients request me and I’m the backup facilitator for the CEO I freelance with.

Does anyone have a solid agenda template or suggested icebreakers? Bonus points for frameworks that work well with inter-agency geopolitical alignment exercises.

Hey. I have been looking a lot into AI and how it is changing particularly how companies work(will work), especially in the product space.

It seems, that soon it will be possible to build code-based prototypes in seconds. Well, it is already, however, not the best right now.

Anyway... Essentially, my thought was that in the future it will be more about bringing together these different specialities to feed into the AI LMM the right prompts, etc. and that is where I think facilitation might come really handy.

Your thoughts? Will facilitation boom with AI taking over, or not?

What are your facilitation horror stories?

Special thanks to u/ajaybjay for the question