7. How to plan a good group session

The details of planning and preparing for engagement and dialogue

Miss Boyer’s kindergarten class, 1917

For this course’s facilitation project, we are narrowing and simplifying the scope and difficulty to provide a good first step in practicing this kind of work. This class session has two goals:

• Prepare teams with a framework for the first draft of their facilitation plan
• Connect you with a topics and resources for the next steps: other goals, more complicated gatherings, and different roles

Lecture and activities

• Warm-ups: experiencing yet another way for groups of people to quickly get into conversation or get into creative flow
• Lecture: framework for planning group sessions, with a focus on collective “What’s going on?” activities; stories and examples of detailed planning; resources for future learning and planning

Key concepts

• The qualities and characteristics of group sessions that invite engagement, build relatedness, include all voices and level power
• Considering arc and pace in your planning
• The concept of “holding space,” and what it means in practice
• The logistics and details of good session planning