The hottest Facilitation Substack posts right now

And their main takeaways
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Top Business Topics

How to Run a UX Design Critique

Jakob Nielsen on UX • 75 implied HN points • 12 Mar 26
🪑 Design Facilitation
  1. Run critiques as a structured, time-boxed process: define roles, set scope and a facilitator, share context at least 24 hours before, and use silent feedback plus a note-taker to keep the meeting focused and psychologically safe.
  2. Make feedback problem-focused and evidence-based. Avoid taste-based comments, solutionizing, and bikeshedding; use formats like “I like / I wish / What if” and synthesize comments with affinity mapping to create clear issues to act on.
  3. Close the loop with prioritization, documentation, and tooling. Score issues with Impact/Effort or RICE, publish action items within 24 hours, and use AI and collaboration tools to help prep, synthesize async feedback, and learn from past crits.

Unconferences: A Better Way to Run Meetups (28/30)

psychotechnology • 8 implied HN points • 29 Nov 25
🎭️ Culture Facilitation
  1. Conversations after talks are often the most valuable part of a meetup, and turning that social time into an unconference helps people make deeper, serendipitous connections.
  2. An unconference uses a visible write-in schedule of tables and time slots so anyone can propose and run short sessions, and it naturally lets groups keep talking or form open discussion circles.
  3. It requires little prep but organizers should clearly signal time, explain and invite participation, pre-seed a few topics, and aim for about 25–40+ attendees for the format to work best.
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Great facilitation relies on making many, deliberate choices

PeopleStorming • 19 implied HN points • 25 Aug 20
🚌 Education Facilitation
  1. Great facilitation relies on making many deliberate choices to support a group effectively.
  2. Facilitators need to be conscious in their decision-making, considering the specific needs of the group they are working with, whether it's a simple or complex situation.
  3. Facilitators must constantly assess and adjust their approach, like turning buttons and dials, to ensure the group's conversation is productive and constructive.

Go Ahead, Be Bossy

David Spinks' Newsletter • 7 implied HN points • 14 Mar 23
💼 Business Facilitation
  1. In community settings, being specific and giving clear instructions is valuable for members.
  2. Facilitators should guide various aspects such as introductions, participation, and discussion management.
  3. Being bossy in a community setting is about providing direction and adding value without being overbearing.

Thinking About Thinking 🧐

PeopleStorming • 0 implied HN points • 11 Aug 20
🚌 Education Facilitation
  1. Metacognition, or thinking about thinking, is vital for the learning process. When learning something new, considering different strategies and decision-making is an example of metacognitive activity.
  2. As facilitators, understanding individuals' thought processes is crucial to guiding productive discussions. Facilitators delve deep into how participants think to facilitate positive outcomes.
  3. Good facilitation requires deliberate focus on thinking at various abstraction levels, similar to the focus needed for complex tasks like software development. Facilitators are seen as essential for guiding effective conversations.

Creating A Culture Of Learning Through Retrospectives

PeopleStorming • 0 implied HN points • 26 Mar 20
💼 Business Facilitation
  1. Retrospectives are a great way to engage a team and improve continuously by reflecting on experiences and moving towards common goals.
  2. Key questions to ask during retrospectives are: what to start doing, what to stop doing, and what to continue doing.
  3. Retrospectives are essential for successful team adaptation during challenging times and should be thoughtfully designed based on team culture and work complexity.

International Facilitation Week

PeopleStorming • 0 implied HN points • 07 Oct 19
🚌 Education Facilitation
  1. The International Association of Facilitators hosts an annual Facilitation Week to celebrate and promote the power of facilitation worldwide.
  2. Facilitation skills are believed to have the potential to make the world a better place by helping individuals feel acknowledged and valued.
  3. PeopleStorming offers valuable resources like essential facilitation tips and a meeting planner for free to enhance gatherings.

Facilitation Q&A

PeopleStorming • 0 implied HN points • 20 Oct 20
🚌 Education Facilitation
  1. Facilitation Week is a time for facilitators to celebrate and promote their craft worldwide.
  2. When dealing with quiet individuals in meetings, it's important to consider their value in listening, the source of their fear, and if there are tools to help them feel safer.
  3. Changing old school meeting cultures of large meetings and decisions by committee requires resetting the culture to one of clear accountability, having well-paced meetings with accountable facilitators, and clearly assigning decision accountability before discussions.

Control 🎮 Your Room

PeopleStorming • 0 implied HN points • 02 Feb 21
🚌 Education Facilitation
  1. Facilitators need a comprehensive toolkit and confidence in improvisation skills to adapt to different engagements.
  2. When designing workshops, facilitators can use lenses like reliability, freshness, and efficiency to choose activities that serve the ultimate purpose of the session.
  3. Efficient activities break traditional workshop phases and accomplish multiple goals at once, enhancing the flow of the session.

Consensus vs Consent 🥊

PeopleStorming • 0 implied HN points • 26 Jul 21
💼 Business Facilitation
  1. Consensus cultures seek 100% agreement, leading to decision-making traps and slow progress.
  2. Consent-based decision-making values progress over complete agreement, allowing for quicker decisions
  3. Transitioning from consensus to consent involves questioning roles and accountability within the decision-making process.