Virtual Facilitator Cards Facilitation Guide

👋 Hi friend! Welcome to your new source of activities for easy, creative virtual facilitation on Zoom! Every week, we'll add 4 new activities, as well as new replies from facilitators who are testing and tweaking them. Join the free newsletter for updates.

Latest Stack

Read the detailed agenda on the Facilitator Cards Blog for facilitating this stack.

10/10/10 Analysis on Zoom

With participants leaning toward a potential option they’re supporting, pair participants up in breakout rooms. Instruct them to discuss how they would feel about their ideal option in ten minutes, ten months, and ten years. Then to do the same with other, competing options. Once back in the full group, have participants share things they heard from their partner that felt poignant.

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Minute Papers on Zoom using Google Forms

Provide a prompt, then link participants to a Google Form with a long answer text field. Instruct them to take one minute to respond to the prompt, then hit submit. If you’re planning on displaying their responses or using them later in the facilitation, let them know your intentions before they start writing.

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4 Squares on Zoom using Google Drawings

In a Google Drawing that is divided into four quadrants, have participants respond to a series of prompts through writing, drawing, listing keywords, etc. Give them enough time to complete all the prompts. State your intentions for sharing before they start.

Echoed Dialogue on Zoom

Instruct your group that you’ll be sending them into breakout rooms in pairs. Once there, given a prompt or question, one partner shares for thirty seconds. The listener then echoes word-for-word, as best they can, what the speaker said. If the echo is satisfactory, they will swap roles and repeat. If not, the original speaker reiterates and the listener tries again. You can broadcast new prompts to the breakout rooms, or call everyone back after a few minutes.

Latest Emotion Activities

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Minute Papers on Zoom using Google Forms

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Gallery Exhibit on Zoom using Google Slides

Have participants click through a virtual gallery of images, quotes, facts, or questions you’ve prepared in Google Slides.

Fill in the Gap on Zoom

Share a sentence that contains an important gap. Then instruct the group that you’ll be calling on one person to say the whole sentence with the gap filled in, before they call on another participant to do the same, until everyone has shared. Repeat with new prompts as many times as you’d like.

Strike a Pose on Zoom

Have participants set up their camera so that their upper body is in frame and ensure everyone has their Zoom view set to gallery. Deliver a prompt, count down from five, and have everyone strike a pose. Ask the group hold their pose while they view each other.

Latest Ideation Activities

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100 (Bad) Ideas on Zoom using MURAL

Open up a blank MURAL board and tell the group you’ll be filling it with as many ideas as they can think of, as fast as they can, with the goal being 100. Assign someone to be the sticky note creator (or ask for a volunteer who is a quick typist), and encourage everyone else to help with organizing. Stop when you hit your goal or run out of time.

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"I Know" vs. "I Wonder" Lists on Zoom using Google Docs

After providing a prompt to the group, open a Google Doc and screenshare it. Then generate two lists: one of the things you know as a group, and one of things the group is wondering.

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Mindmapping on Zoom using MURAL

Place a central concept that you want to explore at the center of your Mural board. Have participants use stickies to generate all the ideas, themes, and sub-categories that branch from it. Encourage them to continue to explore those sub-themes, creating more branches extending out to the edges of the board.

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4 Squares on Zoom using Google Drawings

Latest Clarification Activities

Fishbowl on Zoom

Choose a few talkers, spotlight them, and ask the rest of the group to mute their mics and turn off their cameras. Provide the group with a theme or prompt, and let the small group converse for an allotted amount of time. Swap in different talkers, repeat.

Hot Seat on Zoom

Using the spotlight function on Zoom, highlight a participant for the hot seat. Have other participants raise their hands and/or unmute to ask questions of the person in the hot seat. Swap who's in the hot seat, the given topic, or both as needed.

Echoed Dialogue on Zoom

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Case Studies on Zoom using Google Docs

Break your participants into small groups, where each will discuss a case study, answering a series of questions. Once they’ve worked through their case study, have them pick a spokesperson. Return everyone to the main session, and have the spokesperson from each group present their case.

Latest Execution Activities

10/10/10 Analysis on Zoom

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Vanishing Options on Zoom using AhaSlides

Allow participants to vote on a decision using a multiple choice AhaSlide with four or more options. After the vote, duplicate the slide, delete an option or two, then have them vote again on the new slate. Can be repeated several times.

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Dot Voting on Zoom using MURAL

With all your potential options written on sticky notes in your mural start a dot voting session, where participants will move dots to their chosen sticky. Once everyone has voted (or time is up), review the results. Repeat for additional rounds, removing stickies as you go if desired.

Red Team vs. Blue Team on Zoom

Ask some members of your group to change their names to designate them as Red Team. It will be their job to play devil’s advocates to your plans, coming up with ways to sabotage them, point out their flaws, or highlight their vulnerabilities. The rest of the group, as Blue Team, is tasked with responding to these issues.