Four strate­gies to max­i­mize people’s par­tic­i­pa­tion!

For years, the best train­ers and facil­i­ta­tors have used index cards to increase par­tic­i­pa­tion. Gen­er­ally, cards are used in two dis­tinct ways:

• to rein­force learn­ing (in train­ing) or
• to brain­storm and clus­ter themes (in facilitation.)

Let’s explore how to use this fan­tas­tic, sim­ple tool!
Using Cards to Rein­force Learn­ing: Three Activ­i­ties
In almost every work­shop, I use a card activ­ity in some form. These are won­der­ful ways to get par­tic­i­pants up and mov­ing and to stim­u­late recall.
Pur­pose of the Activ­i­ties
To allow par­tic­i­pants to imme­di­ately apply learn­ing in a par­tic­i­pa­tory fash­ion.
Mate­ri­als Needed

1. A large wall, black­board, white­board, win­dow, or other blank space.
2. Pre­pared cards, as described below.

Vari­a­tion One: Cor­rect or Incor­rect?
Instruc­tor deliv­ers a short lec­ture on the topic. S/he ver­ti­cally divides a large wall area with a strip of mask­ing tape and titles each side based on the sub­ject of his/her lec­ture. (Here are exam­ples of cat­e­gories used by my pre­vi­ous stu­dents in their own workshops:)

• legal vs. ille­gal ques­tions to ask in a job interview
• admis­si­ble vs. non-admissible evidence
• actual word­ing of poli­cies or reg­u­la­tions vs. “com­monly believed” meanings
• “symp­toms that require a vet” vs. ” symp­toms that can be taken care of at home.”

The instruc­tor sup­plies pre­pared cards, one or sev­eral per par­tic­i­pant or group. On each card is an exam­ple that fits into one of the cat­e­gories on the wall. In a time-limited period, par­tic­i­pants must read their card, decide in which cat­e­gory it belongs, and post it into the cor­rect col­umn.
Instruc­tor then facil­i­tates a dia­logue of the choices, ask­ing the class for revised place­ments where nec­es­sary.
Vari­a­tion Two: Match Terms with Def­i­n­i­tions
Fol­low­ing a short lec­ture, instruc­tor dis­trib­utes one card, face­down, to each class mem­ber. Half of the cards have “terms” taken from the les­son and half have the match­ing “def­i­n­i­tions.”
In a lim­ited amount of time, par­tic­i­pants must get up out of their chairs, move about the room, and find their matches, then read and explain or model to the rest of the class.
Vari­a­tion Three: Yes or No? (Polling)
This is a sort of kines­thetic “mini-quiz.” Each par­tic­i­pant has two cards, one yel­low (true) and one blue (false.) Instruc­tor asks ques­tions based on the les­son and peo­ple must respond by “hold­ing up their col­ors.” Instruc­tor facil­i­tates dis­cus­sion around cor­rect answers when col­ors shown are not unanimous.

Using Cards to Brain­storm and Clus­ter Themes (A Facil­i­ta­tion Tool)
Often called “All on the Wall,” this tech­nique has many vari­a­tions. The Insti­tute for Cul­tural Affairs intro­duced it to me in the mid-1980’s. It’s a great tech­nique to use with any sized group — I’ve used it suc­cess­fully with groups as small as 4, as large as 200, and have read about it being used with groups of 1,000 or more!
What I love most about this brain­storm­ing and clus­ter­ing tech­nique is that it includes the act of reflec­tion. This means that peo­ple with more intro­verted per­son­al­i­ties can par­tic­i­pate fully with ease.
Pur­pose of the Activ­ity
To facil­i­tate diver­gent thought and the clus­ter­ing of themes.
Mate­ri­als Needed

• A large wall, black­board, white­board, win­dow, or other blank space.
• Large Post-It’s, index cards with mask­ing tape, or just cut paper used with an adhe­sive wall (butcher paper sprayed with adhesive.)

Steps

1. Facil­i­ta­tor pre­pares, posts and facil­i­tates a dis­cus­sion of a rel­e­vant Focus Ques­tion. (Exam­ples: “What are our organization’s most valu­able strengths?” “What direc­tions should we go if the levy is passed?”)
2. Par­tic­i­pants reflect on the ques­tion indi­vid­u­ally, then scrib­ble a list of per­sonal responses.
3. In pairs, par­tic­i­pants share their responses. Pairs then write their responses on cards, putting only one con­cept per card. Pairs gen­er­ate as many ideas (cards) as possible.
4. Facil­i­ta­tor asks pairs to bring “their best idea” and post it on the wall. Then s/he asks for their “most cre­ative idea,” “most chal­leng­ing idea,” etc. etc. These cards go up ran­domly, with no attempt at categorization.
5. When 8–15 cards are posted, the facil­i­ta­tor asks par­tic­i­pants to view the wall of cards. S/he holds up one card and asks, “Does any other card up here seem to share this under­ly­ing them?” Facil­i­ta­tor cre­ates 5–6 pairs.
6. Par­tic­i­pant post the remain­ing cards, cat­e­go­riz­ing those with exist­ing pairs that seem to “make sense,” and post­ing the rest with­out attempt­ing to cat­e­go­rize them.
7. Facil­i­ta­tor urges par­tic­i­pants to look for cards that share themes until all cards are orga­nized into columns or clumps. New columns often must be made. The impor­tant thing is to group by “feel” for under­ly­ing themes, not nec­es­sar­ily by logic alone.
8. The facil­i­ta­tor works with the group to name the themes. S/he posts a title card on top of each of the columns or clumps. These titles should answer the focus ques­tion in insight­ful ways.

Sim­ple as they are, cards can be used in many ways to pump up par­tic­i­pa­tion inclu­sion, and learn­ing.

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Read more arti­cles about Train­ing Devel­op­ment and Facil­i­ta­tion Skills. Learn about Guila Muir’s Facil­i­ta­tion Skills Work­shops.

Guila Muir is the pre­miere trainer of train­ers, facil­i­ta­tors, and pre­sen­ters on the West Coast of the United States. Since 1994, she has helped thou­sands of pro­fes­sion­als improve their train­ing, facil­i­ta­tion, and pre­sen­ta­tion skills. Find out how she can help trans­form you from a bor­ing expert to a great pre­sen­ter: www.guilamuir.com

© 2007 Guila Muir. All rights reserved.
You may make copies of this arti­cle and dis­trib­ute in any media so long as you change noth­ing, credit the author, and include this copy­right notice and web address.

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