How can you use breakout rooms to enhance the facilitation process in online and hybrid settings?

Breakout rooms enhance online and hybrid facilitation by promoting engagement, personalization, collaborative learning, diverse perspectives, manageable discussions, time management, skill development, feedback, reducing overwhelm, hybrid inclusion, and structured breaks. They create smaller, more interactive groups, improving the overall learning or meeting experience.

Breakout rooms mean that participants are often responsible for self-facilitating their time together without being skilled facilitators. The meeting facilitator can support the breakout session participants by developing clear instructions and activity process for what should be done during the breakouts. This could include a time-saving tips for how the group can quickly decide how they will begin the activity (e.g. offering an instruction such as "Choose who most recently had a birthday") or space-sharing tips such as "each person should take up to 3 minutes to respond to the prompt."

Often it is the people who are extroverts or love talking take the lead. This may leave some people in the group feeling excluded. What can help in such situations is active facilitation by saying in the room (virtual / physical) .. "let's get in some voices we haven't heard yet". This helps in allowing everyone to contribute actively.

Things to consider: -plan for smaller breakout teams (so everyone has a chance to talk rather than larger breakout groups where one or a few people monopolizing the convo -consider giving the group 1-2 min to process and think about what’s being asked before putting them into the breakout group to collect their thoughts and be prepared to engage -assign each group to complete one part of the activity or answer one question vs each breakout having to cover multiple steps or questions -as the facilitator, hop into breakout rooms during designated time to check in and see if they have questions and are on track before coming back to the bigger group -create a shared Google or Jamboard doc that is accessible to record thoughts/ideas

To maximize their effectiveness, it's essential to actively facilitate breakout sessions. Begin by providing crystal-clear directions and expectations (questions to answer, roles of participants) to participants verbally, on the screen, and in the chat. Keep participants on track by offering time cues at regular intervals, such as countdowns or progress updates. Before sending participants to breakout rooms, communicate your plan for the debriefing process upon their return—whether it involves each group sharing key takeaways or summarizing the main points. Lastly, be prepared to jump into breakout rooms. You can check for understanding, answer questions, offer support, or facilitate discussions when necessary.

Getting the balance right between 'death by feedback' and total silence is a real art! Great facilitators think carefully about *both*: 1)the questions they ask groups to take into breakout rooms, & 2) how they will draw comments & observations from the groups on their return to the main room. It's also helpful to guide groups on what to feedback - be specific, ask for 2 comments/things, their *most* important piece of advice for others, what specific action they recommend. To avoid repetition - ask groups to add to other groups' feedback rather than repeat it - what *else* did you discuss/decide? To make sure all groups get time, set a time limit or ask for their first/most important comment & then move on. You can always circle back

One tactic that works well for me is posting a prompt question in the chat right before opening the breakouts. In this way, as soon as they join their groups, they know what needs to be discussed and less time is wasted with small talk. This is great for more dynamic and larger sessions.

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Be spontaneous. Don't be afraid of creating multiple breakout sessions in a single meeting. Need to break the ice between participants? Post a prompt question in the chat and pair people one-on-one for 2 minutes. The session is getting abstract? Open breakouts and tell participants to make it more practical. Need to increase connection? Start a breakout room and ask participants to share a personal story related to the theme.