A lovely way of framing what Daniel believes the secret of good facilitation to be overall. Nothing too complicated, just simple practices intentionally and honestly observed.

Mike works hard to greet people as personally and actively as he can at the beginning of sessions. One practice he describes is asking people how to pronounce their name, or if he's pronounced it correctly. Another tip for good connection is to use mindfulness practice, like observing a minute's silence at the start of a session, to close-out on what came before and to create a clean slate to connect with what's coming.

Safety and comfortable connection comes from smaller groups, so be intentional about smaller group sizes when making use of breakouts. It's guidance that's reminiscent of the generative conversation that unfolds when using the Liberating Structures 1-2-4-All principle. Another nice idea here was to assign 'captains' of breakout groups, someone that will perhaps take notes — or be primed to share back what was discussed. Or, ask the group to nominate a captain.

Daniel describes his chest being 'tight with fear', ahead of a breakout conversation where the instruction isn't clearly set. As facilitators we should not assume that our session participants will be clear on what the purpose of a breakout is. Use on screen prompts, check for understanding or otherwise provide really clear details of what we want groups to do when they're breaking out. After a year in lockdown, most of us know the feeling of being in breakout group with awkward silence. Let's not go there again!

Mike talks about the power of 'passing the mic', assigning roles among the group so participants are stepping up and stepping in to support the flow of a session. Daniel describes this as 'giving jobs away', so you can focus on the things you know you need to get done. An added benefit is that being given something to do gives workshop participants a sense of purpose and co-creation.