What’s In a Facilitator’s Survival Kit?
I have several other blog posts that are queued up, but as I left the office yesterday to come to Zurich to facilitate a 2 day stakeholder dialogue, I noticed the following – A facilitator can run an interactive and exciting event with only the following few items (with flipcharts in the room a given):
- Markers: 1 very thick for making templates (black), 4 regular (different colours for Carousels)
- 1 small stack of meta-plan cards (different shapes and colours for note taking, ideas generation, question gathering, time keeping, room signposting…)
- 1 Roll of masking tape (the obvious)
- 1 deck of playing cards (Pick a card: for dividing groups, selecting speakers, identifying rotation order)
- Selection of sticky dots (different colours for voting, prioritisation, designating teams and tables)
- 1 whistle (train whistle of preference: to get people’s attention, to change rounds, to start action)
- 1 ball (for self-facilitation of reflection, for teambuilding games, for stress relief)
Have facilitators survival kit, will travel. It can take almost any last minute agenda change in style…
I always include batteries for any remote-controls, spare bulbs for overhead and multimedia projectors, a small first-aid kit for papercuts, a sealed box of tylenol, which usually remains sealed, post-it notes, and a rubber-chicken stress ball, which I have seen trainers toss around the room during intros.
Hi and thanks for this addition! I am sure that most of the time one might not need the batteries for example, but if you do and you don't have them, it is a disaster! Thanks for adding to the list!