1.
A guide to
energy and engagement
in meetings
2017

2.
2
Five steps to create energy and engagement in meetings
Step 4: Design for the right conversations Pages 10-17
Step 3: Create energy from the beginning Pages 7-9
Step 2: Make people feel welcome Pages 5-6
Step 5: End on a high note Pages 18-21
Step 1: Make a great plan Pages 3-4

3.
Make a great plan
STEP 1
Design workshops with ownership and impact

4.
4
Step 1
Use the design star to create the plan
FORM
How? Drawing on optimal process
methods.
PARTICIPANTS
Who? Bringing the participants into
play most optimally in relation to
their preferences, relations, context
and learning styles.
ENVIRONMENT
Where and which atmosphere?
Creating the right physical and
mental environment for the session.
3
ROLES
Who has which roles? Designing
the process with focus on the most
important stakeholders’ role in the
process and the actual session.
5
2
PURPOSE
Why and what is
delivered?
1
4

5.
Make people feel welcome
Ensure that the atmosphere and the surroundings are in line with your learning purpose
STEP 2

6.
6
Step 2
How to make people feel welcome
Indicators of high competence
 Welcome flip on the door.
 Decorate the room with flips and posters.
 Prepare table and chairs to fit the
purpose and the number of participants.
 Prepare a “resource table”.
 Bring materials, relevant books and articles.
 Greet participants with a smile when they arrive.
Make the room “alive”
 Make name tags on the tables.
 Decorate the room with flips and posters.
 Make the participants decorate their signs
with skill symbols.
 Make them write down the most important
questions to the themes on the back
of their signs.
Make sure that the physical needs are covered
 Always water and coffee in the room.
 Fruit and other snacks during breaks.
 Check the room temperature
with the participants.
 Let in fresh air during breaks.
Use music
 Music can create an atmosphere of, for
example, energy or reflection.
 Use music during breaks and to control time
(turn up the music when a group task
is done).

7.
STEP 3
Create energy from the beginning
Use an icebreaker to get started and ease up the atmosphere

8.
8
Step 3
Ideas for introductions and icebreakers
Introduction with fun fact
Participants on the floor.
Meet three people during seven minutes and
talk about the following:
 Ultra-short presentation
 Bonus information/fun fact about yourself
During the first round, the one with the
longest hair starts.
During the second round, the one with the
smallest shoe size starts.
During the third round, the one who are
oldest starts.
The facilitator makes a sound when it is time
to find the next partner.
Morning bingo
Participants on the floor with a bingo card
each.
The numbers on the bingo card are replaced
with statements about the employees in the
organisation.
 Find a colleague you think fits the
description. If you are right, write the name
of the colleague in the box.
 Move on to the next colleague. Proceed
until you have a full bingo card – and then
shout out: “BINGO”!
 The winner goes to the stage, reads out the
correct answers and receives a price.

9.
9
Step 3
Base your design on brain-friendly learning principles
S
E
G
A
Attention has limits of only 20 minutes before needing a refresher.
To optimally activate hippocampus, the learner must pay full attention.
Making learning more social is a key to improving learning effectiveness.
Generation is the act of creating your own connections to new ideas.
Less teaching and more self-directed learning.
Insight generation is the single most important activity in learning.
Emotion directs attention and matters for making learning last.
Positivity is better than negativity in a learning experience.
Spacing leads to higher retrieval rates of new information.
Any spacing (minutes, hours, days) is better than no spacing at all.
For spacing between sessions, the ideal gap is one that includes sleep.

10.
STEP 4
Create a process where you unfold a subject and then narrow it down to specific solutions
Design for the right conversations

11.
11
Standing dialogue
Step 4
Different types of conversations and involvement
 Some people talk as they
think while others prefer to
think before they talk.
 In order to involve
everybody, you can give
the participants time for a
few minutes of individual
reflection after asking your
question.
Individual reflection Round the table (3-12) Walk and talk
Conversation with
neighbour or in a small
group (3-6)
 Take a turn round the table
where all participants
express their opinion on a
topic or a question is useful
if you want everybody’s
opinion.
 This is useful to get
everybody to hear the
opinion of all participants.
It can follow an individual
reflection.
 Be aware that the turn round
the table does not take too
long.
 Walk and talk gives new
energy to the process by
sending the participants on
a walk in small groups of 2-
3 people with a question to
discuss.
 You can ask them to bring
a pen and some paper to
note their key points.
 Standing dialogue is
especially useful if you
want to create variation
and pace in the workshop
or meeting.
 One option is to place flips
on the walls in the room,
ask participants to work on
these templates and rotate.
 Another option is to do a
brainstorm on the wall with
Post-its so everybody can
get a visual overview.
 Conversations with the
neighbour can create a
safe environment, an
option to test answers to
complex questions and
more opinions to a
question.
 If you experience that no
one in a group answers
your question, it might be
that they do not feel safe in
the group. This can take
the energy out of the
process and affect the
quality of the result.

12.
12
Step 4
Inspiration for facilitation and process methods
Purpose
 An effective way to get an answer to a question in a large group and get an
overview of the different positions on that question in the room.
Preparation/materials
 Rope or tape to mark the horseshoe on the floor or use the conference table
and define the scale from one chair at your right side all the way around to
the chair at your left side. Think creatively and use what is in the room.
Exercise
1. Ask the question that the group should deal with. Be sure that it is
understood in the same way by everyone and that everyone is able to
respond.
Define the ends of the horseshoe so the group is in no doubt about the
scale (use a rope on the floor to show the line).
2. Think and go! Give them 5-10 seconds to think about their positioning and
let them go directly to the place on the scale that represents their answer.
No one is in the wrong place.
3. Let people talk in pairs about their choice of place.
4. Ask why people placed themselves where they are. Ask what should
happen to move them to somewhere else (for example, to the desired
position, if such exists).
5. Be aware that not everyone feels comfortable with placing themselves in
“vulnerable positions”. Sometimes it seems to be adjusted in relation to the
formal or informal leader’s location. The best advice is to first create the
right learning environment without risk.
5-100
The horseshoe
Variations
 When you and the group have understood the different
positions, you can – as a facilitator – move people
around. Take, for example, one person up to the
positive/happy end of the scale. Then ask that
person/group to describe what it takes to get there all
together.
Why the shape of a horseshoe?
 Most of the time a group is asked to position
themselves in relation to a question, it is in a straight
line. The advantage of the horseshoe is that everyone
immediately has an overview of the entire group’s
answers. In addition eye contact is possible,
which makes facilitation much easier.
30
minutes

13.
13
Step 4
Inspiration for facilitation and process methods
Purpose
 To create a common understanding of the positions among the
participants and create room for both the concerns and expectations
of a change process.
 Often employees will focus on the pros now and the cons in the future
situation, whereas the leader will focus on the cons now and the pros
in the future.
Exercise
 Prepare a flip with the visualisation of the double-entry bookkeeping.
The task is to consider both the pros and cons of the current situation
(now) and the new situation (future).
1. Work with the template individually or in small groups
(3-5 people).
2. Go through the template with the entire group to collect all the
perspectives.
 The price of the change can be defined as the pros now plus the
cons in the future.
 The leader can use knowledge from this exercise to target the
communication regarding the change process.
Double-entry bookkeeping
4
30
minutes

14.
14
Step 4
Inspiration for facilitation and process methods
Purpose
 To clarify concerns and expectations regarding a subject with focus on both positive and negative
elements. Can help participants to change their perspective as they talk from a different perspective
about a change than they normally see it from.
Preparation/materials
 Draw the exercise on a flip.
Exercise
 3-4 participants interview each other with a specific focus on the positive or negative side of the
subject. After each round, feedback is given, and the roles and focus are turning.
 Make a series of questions or ask the participants to create them in small groups.
 Place participants in groups of 3-4 people around their own table and assign the three roles. One is
the interviewer, one is the respondent and 1-2 are observers.
 The task of the interviewer is to ask questions, follow up on these (can you elaborate on …,
do you have a concrete example ..., what is the most important ...).
 The respondent answers the questions as well as possible.
 The observers listen without speaking.
 After 3-5 minutes the interview is over and the observers can now share their reflections for another 5
minutes according to the feedback model (observation, perception, proposal). Now the interviewer and
the respondent are not speaking.
 After the first round “the table is turning”. This means that the participants are rotating clockwise and
getting the role of the person who was just sitting here. The first respondent has to be very positive
and find every good perspective, the next has to be very negative and pinpoint all the problems, the
third is again positive and the fourth is negative.
 The rotation continues until all participants have had the three roles.
Grou
ps of
3-4
Turning table
40
minutes

15.
15
Purpose
 To create and select ideas.
Preparation/materials
 Post-its and “like” stickers.
Exercise
 Sets the frame in plenum.
 Brainstorming in groups:
 Individual idea generation on Post-its (5 minutes).
 Sharing the ideas round the table (5 minutes).
 Individual idea generation on Post-its based on inputs (5
minutes).
 Sharing and selection in group (3 key principles + 1 outsider)
(15 minutes).
 Standing presentation and grouping of principles on wall (15
minutes).
 Voting/“likes”  selection (10 minutes).
 Wrap-up and further process on the guiding principles (5
minutes).
Step 4
Inspiration for facilitation and process methods
60
minutes
Brain-friendly or reverse brainstorming
Purpose
 To turn the problem upside down. To put every possible
resistance on an issue/change out in the open and use this
as the starting point for a solution.
Preparation/materials
 Post-its and “like” stickers.
Exercise
 Empty your brain for every idea that would really make the
project/idea impossible/crash and burn. (For example,
“how do we make sure that your team fails completely in
realising xx?”) Write them down one by one with capital
letters on paper cards and put them on a wall. Present them
to the other groups.
1. Sort the ideas. The worst in a pile of their own. (Tip: Pick
4 + 1: the 4 worst and 1 outsider that no one else will
think of.)
2. Present them to the other groups and put them on a wall.
3. Turn them around to something useful. In pairs you take
each idea and write down its “constructive opposite” on a
cardboard and place both cards on the wall.
1
0

16.
16
Step 4
Inspiration for facilitation and process methods
Purpose
 To sort a lot of ideas and rate them according
to two criteria.
Preparation/materials
 Flip with the illustration and criteria.
Exercise
 Place the ideas according to the two axes, for
instance:
 “Easy to implement the task”
 “Great effect for the target group”
Or
 Importance to customers
 Satisfaction
Some ideas can be qualified and developed, and thus
they can move up to the right upper corner.
 Remember to agree on what you mean by the criteria.
For example, what is great effect for the target group?
It pays off to be very specific when defining the criteria
so they are not up for discussion.
Sorting method: the square
Criterion:Easyto
implementthetask
Criterion: Great effect
for the target group
High
Lo
w
Lo
w
High
5
60
minutes

17.
17
Step 4
Remember specific instructions
1. Specific instructions
In order to avoid misunderstanding and confusion among the participants, it is important
to make precise exercise instructions. A precise instruction increases the motivation for
doing an exercise and ensures accuracy and learning.
A void phrases such as “So, if you could just ...” It makes the exercise to something that
must be overcome and puts you, as the facilitator, in a weak position. Use instead: “What
we are going to do now is ...”
3. Avoid
As a basic rule, the exercise instructions must always answer these questions:
 What, why, who, how, for how long and where
Always write your instructions on a flip chart or PowerPoint to avoid
confusion or uncertainty about the exercise.
As the very first thing, always tell the participants “what” and “why”. It is important
that you clearly communicate the purpose of the exercise.
Keep track of time. Let the participants know when there is 1 or 2 minutes left.
2. Basic rules

18.
STEP 5
Create a positive ending on your meeting and with a clear picture of what happens next
End on a high note

19.
19
Step 5
End on a high note
Half sentences
Purpose
 To wrap up the day and revisit key models/themes to enhance learning.
Preparation/materials
 Write half sentences on cardboards – one for each participant.
The same half sentence can be on several cardboards.
Exercise
 In groups of approximately 20 people.
 The participants stand in a common circle, draw a cardboard for the
facilitator, read the half sentence and finish it. The order can either be
voluntary or clockwise. The facilitator can pose an example to set
the level of time and content.
Inspirational questions
 My most important takeaway is …
 Tomorrow I will start to ...
 Now I am much more clear on ...
 When I meet my personal leader, I will tell him/her ...
Variation
Stand in a circle and step forward one at a time, stating the key takeaways
from the meeting.
Grou
ps of 5-20
My most important
takeaway is …
Tomorrow I will start to
...
Now I am much more
clear on ...
When I meet my
personal leader, I will tell
him/her ...
15
minutes

20.
20
Step 5
End on a high note
Purpose
 To make a fun quiz about the content to wrap up the programme in a fun
and engaging way.
Preparation/materials
 Set up an account.
 Create a learning game made from a series of multiple-choice
questions. Add videos, images and diagrams to the questions.
 Requires no setup and no player accounts, but requires devices with
Internet access.
Exercise
 A digital question-based game (quiz, discussion or survey) that is best
played in classroom-like settings or a big-scale conference.
 Players answer on their own devices (smartphone or iPad), while games
are displayed on a shared screen to unite the lesson.
Learn more on www.kahoot.itttps:www.//create.kahoot.it/#
Kahoot! – online quiz
1
0
15
minutes

21.
21
Step 5
End on a high note
Purpose
 To revisit the content of the day and remember what has been going on.
Preparation/materials
 Have knowledge of iMovie or other video edit programme.
 Ensure that there is a person to film.
 Inform people that you are filming and how it will be used.
 Remember to film small clips from the entire day (2-4 seconds).
 Hold the phone vertical for the best picture on screen.
 Clip the movie together at the end of the day, add music and show it as
the last thing.
.//create.kahoot.it/#
Movie of the workshop
1
0
15
minutes

22.
Want to know more?
Henrik Horn Andersen
+45 2338 0046
hha@implement.dk
Iben Nelson
+45 2338 0078
iben@implement.dk