One of my FAVOURITE ways to open up a Workshop or Meeting?

Hey Facilitators👋

I wanted to share this exercise with you all.

I love to kick my workshops off using a very simple exercise called 'Hopes and Fears'.

This exercise is used in various contexts, such as team meetings, workshops, or group discussions. It's a great way for you as a Facilitator to set and get expectations from the participants right from the beginning!

This is how you run it 👇

1️⃣ All you need is a whiteboard and you as the facilitator will divide the board in two categories; Hopes and Fears.

2️⃣ Give each participant a sharpie and two blocks of sticky notes. Make sure the two blocks of stickies are different colours e.g. blue for hopes, yellow for fears.

3️⃣ Encourage participants to write all their hopes or positive expectations about a particular project, idea, or situation. One idea per sticky! Stick them in the 'hopes' section of the board.

4️⃣ Encourage participants to share one or two 'hopes' each.

5️⃣ Repeat the same process for the Fears.

This exercise helps team members express their feelings, align their perspectives, and build trust by understanding everyone's viewpoints before diving into solving the challenge at hand.

Try it in your workshops! It's really nice.

Let me know if you have any other nice exercises or activities that you like to use to kick off your workshops 😊

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