Hello Friends,
Greetings from Greece 🇬🇷where I am on vacation with my family, including my mom and 14-year old niece who I haven’t seen in person since before the pandemic 😊.
Greece has been battling forest fires. It looks like some fires have been contained, but many people have been evacuated from their homes, and precious forest has been lost.
🙌Many thanks for reading The Quest. A special shoutout to Gillian in Kingston, Julia (somewhere in Europe!), Romy in Galicia, René in Utrecht, Lux in New Jersey, Connie in Toronto, Monica in Barcelona, and Michaele and Barry in Bracebridge.
If you are joining for the first time, welcome to our exploration of creativity, facilitation, and learning.
I’ll be slowing the pace down over the summer to once every two weeks.
Hopefully, this will give you a chance to catch up on the last edition ✨Essential Summer Reading for Facilitators and all past editions.
This week’s edition is all about 🌟How to set your breakout groups up for success🔎
👉10 Tips That Will Transform Your Virtual Breakout Groups
👉How to Host a Cocktail Party on Zoom
👉The 4 Magic Group Sizes
Plus: Breakthrough Facilitation course updates & more. (You can register here to join the waiting list and be the first to receive news on how to join cohort 1 this October).
Let’s dive right in!
🌊You are in your facilitation flow.
You have just shared some incredible insights with your group.
You toggle between Zoom gallery view screens to see how the group is reacting.
You see people nodding.
The chat is on fire.
Perfect time for a breakout group.
The session appears to be going well. Or is it?
You send people off into small groups. You are hanging out solo in the mainspace catching your breath.
You glance at the breakout group screen. And you notice that a few people have switched off their cameras and mics.
😳
You start to wonder…
Were the instructions clear?
Is everyone participating?
Or are people checking out?
You realize that you are in a complete breakout blackout.
A few minutes ago things were peachy. Now you are reeling in a spiral of uncertainty.
You realize that have no idea how things are going in the breakouts. You start to panic.
You stare at the remaining time. It seems like an eternity before you will have contact with your group again.
🤷Should you pop into a group to check? But you don’t have time to check in on every group. Is that even the right thing to do?
And then they are back.
One face appears on the screen. Another. More faces appear in rapid succession. A few comments in the chat. The usual suspects share their reflections with the group. The session marches on.
But the experience has left you wondering…
Are your breakout groups as good as they could be?
Breakout groups can make or break a session.
Virtual breakout groups have transformed the way we connect and learn online. Many of us (including yours truly!) now depend on breakout groups to boost engagement.
Done well, breakout groups can create golden opportunities for connection and collaboration.
They can power community-building and fuel peer-to-peer learning.
But breakouts can also be extremely dull and even problematic.
Sometimes a little awkward. They can be the perfect excuse for people to check out. And they can also be problematic if group norms and agreements are broken.
As the facilitator, it’s your job to set your breakout groups up for success. How?
That’s our Quest for this week.
​
🌟10 Tips That Will Transform Your Virtual Breakout Groups ​
A blog I wrote with concrete tips on setting your breakout groups up for success.
Here’s the good news. It’s not as hard as you may think.
Check out the tweet thread here👇
Read the full blog post here.
How do you set your breakout groups up for success?
​How to Host a Cocktail Party on Zoom (and have better classes, conferences and meetings, too)​
Just after the pandemic hit I came across an article by Toronto-based facilitator Misha Glouberman. It had Zoom + Cocktail Party in the title so I decided to read on. I’ve been thinking about it ever since.
At that time most of us were just getting the hang of setting up breakout groups online.
But Glouberman was way ahead of the curve. He was exploring how to use Zoom groups to enable people to move around between rooms based on their interests. You got it – open space online!
And the best part is that he explains in detail how to do it.
Read the full article here.​
How have you stretched the limits of breakout groups?
​
​The 4 Magic Group Sizes​
What’s the best size for a breakout group? Good question!
In this fascinating article, Utrecht-based facilitator René Nauheimer writes about choosing the right size for meaningful experiences.
He charts group sizes on a continuum between intimacy and energy. And then walks us through why different groups are suited for different purposes.
Packed with interesting examples and research, it’s the most elightening piece on group sizes that I have come across.
Read the full article here.
🚀Course update!
I’ve been working on launching a new 4-week Cohort-based Course called Breakthrough Facilitation.
I’ve been working through everything from assembling a team, to marketing, tech stack, curriculum development and more.
I am thrilled to introduce the Breakthrough Facilitation Course Management team: Brussels-based Marie Dubost, and Nairobi-based Lilian Warutere. They will bring a huge amount of experience in cohort-based courses and community engagement.💪💪
If you are determined to brush up on your virtual facilitation skills I invite you to check out the course page and join the waitlist:
👉You’ll receive the latest course updates. 👉You’ll get guest speaker announcements. 👉And you’ll be the first to get the registration link when it goes live in September.
There are 30 spaces for cohort 1. Thanks to the 30 Quest members who have already joined the waitlist!
Questions? Please feel free to reach out to me with any questions by hitting reply to this email.
🙌Special props to my OnDeck Course Creator friends who have given me lots of golden advice including Andrew Barry, Merott, Julia Saxena, Dom Zijlstra, Jen Vermet, Charlotte Crowther, Mark Cheng, and others.
P.S. If you want to learn more about online cohort-based courses (CBCs) these are the folks to follow: Andrew Barry, Julia Saxena, Merott, Aarushi Singhania, Tiago Forte, Will Mannon, and Wes Kao.​
💌Thanks for reading The Quest
I always love hearing your feedback and suggestions. Just hit reply to share your thoughts and ideas. Visit my website for ways we can work together here.
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See you in 2 weeks!
