As part of my regular job, I recently received an invitation to brief a group of U.S. businesses on the "ins and outs" of the Mexican market. Since many of them had been working in the market already for 10-20 years, I questioned whether I had anything to tell them that they didn't already know. At the last minute, I turned the tables. Handing out stacks of post-its, I gave the 40 trade mission participants - alone/together - two minutes to write down as many Mexican Market Opportunities as they could, one per post-it. They then posted them on the left side of the wall. Next, I gave them two minutes to write down as many Mexican Market Challenges as they could, which they posted on the right side of the wall. This exercise served as a successful icebreaker, but also resulted in a much livelier discussion than we otherwise would have had. Following the briefing, I took all of the post-its back to the office and put together Opportunities and Challenges word clouds, which I reviewed later that evening at a dinner with the group. While the exercise did not resonate with everyone, most found it refreshing and much more dynamic than briefings they were used to receiving. Given its success, a few weeks later, I repeated the exercise with a Mexican business association (30 participants), with similar results. What a great way to quickly gather data, while at the same time drawing out those who might not be quick to offer their views, or even contrary ones. I guess my point is that developing one's facilitation skills and practices and help us achieve goals, wherever we are. Thanks, AJ&Smart.

Watched Jonathan's "1 Hour Innovation Workshop - Lightning Decision Jam" on YouTube and was going to try to implement it tomorrow, as I have a team offsite with 36 members, a team that I inherited a few weeks ago. Was going to try to run an LDJ to address a general feeling that team members are disconnected with each other and other partners, working in silos. Was going to try 6 tables of 6. However, question is that do we start with "one" HMW, such as "How might we increase collaboration within the team and with partners/stakeholders?" Do we all work independently/jointly on the same HMW? On different HMW statements?

Hello Facilitators👋 I'm really curious about where everyone is from. I'd love to make this a mega post where we can see how diverse the Facilitator Club community is. Who knows, you might find a lot more people in your area than you thought! Once I have lots of answers on this post, I want to make a nice graph!