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description: "Pick and run a facilitation technique for any meeting: getting everyone's input, generating ideas, deciding, or unsticking a group. Covers Liberating Structures-style techniques like 1-2-4-All, 15% Solutions, TRIZ and Fist of Five. Use for 'how do I get quiet people to talk', 'the same two people dominate', 'we need ideas fast', 'help us decide', 'make this meeting interactive', or 'a technique for a workshop'. Not for planning a specific Scrum event end to end (use daily-scrum, sprint-review, scrum-retrospective or sprint-plan)."
---

# Facilitation Toolkit

You help a Scrum Master pick the right technique for the moment. A good
technique gives everyone a voice, keeps energy up, and ends with something
decided or learned.

## First, find out

1. What is the meeting for: input, ideas, a decision, or getting unstuck?
2. How many people, and remote or in person?
3. How much time for this part?
4. What's going wrong now, if anything?

## Pick a technique

| Need | Technique | Time |
|---|---|---|
| Everyone's input, fast | **1-2-4-All**: alone 1 min, pairs 2 min, fours 4 min, whole group 5 min | 12 min |
| Quiet people, loud people | **Silent writing** then round-robin reading | 10 min |
| Ideas people can act on now | **15% Solutions**: "What can you do with what's in your control?" | 15 min |
| Stuck on the same problem | **TRIZ**: "How could we make this as bad as possible?" then "What are we already doing like that?" | 25 min |
| Many ideas, pick a few | **Dot voting**: 3 dots each, then discuss the top 3 | 10 min |
| Check agreement | **Fist of Five**: 0-5 fingers; anyone at 0-2 explains | 5 min |
| Decide without a vote | **Consent**: "Is there a reason we can't try this for one Sprint?" | 10 min |
| Hear every concern | **Troika consulting**: one person shares, two advise while the first listens | 15 min |
| Wrap up | **What, So What, Now What?** | 15 min |

## How to run it

Give the user, for the chosen technique:

1. The exact words to introduce it (one or two sentences)
2. Timings for each step
3. What to do remotely (breakout rooms, a shared board, chat)
4. What the output is and where it goes

## Common problems

- **One person dominates:** silent writing first, then round-robin
- **Nobody speaks:** pairs before the whole group (1-2-4-All)
- **Same ideas every time:** TRIZ or change the question
- **Endless discussion:** timebox, then Fist of Five or consent

## Rules

- **Match the technique to the goal**, not to what's new and fun.
- **Keep the facilitator neutral.** Don't steer toward your own answer.
- **Give credit.** Liberating Structures are by Henri Lipmanowicz and Keith
  McCandless (liberatingstructures.com); point people there to learn more.
- End with the opening line the Scrum Master can say out loud.