3.6. Delivery Team Checklists#

These are the checklists that the Foundation run before every session. They are specific to how the Foundation run courses and are a collection of lessons learned. We’ve included it with the flight plans so you can get some idea of what we do and can decide if you want to do something similar.

3.6.1. Abbreviations#

BOR = breakout rooms, Fx = facilitator, Px = producer

Attention

These checklists are very BCF-specific. Whilst we hope it is useful, you may want to adapt this to your own needs and then delete this warning.

The Better Conversations Community is a place where you can discuss and learn from others how you use this checklist to reinforce the relevance of the course to your wider context. If you aren’t already a member you can join here https://bettercourses.org/community/signup-from-flightplans

3.6.2. Notes#

For facilitators:

  • For a 2-breakout session, aim for teaching model at ~10 minutes, and breakouts at ~20 and ~40 minutes as concentration levels will start to drop after 20 minutes. We chunk the time to keep people engaged.

  • Minimise the number of things to remember – most people can only remember 3-4 things in their working memory.

  • Keep instructions and language as simple as you can.

  • The questions that will be asked are usually put into the chat by the producer.

  • Extend the breakout timings when you have a group of three

  • Unpack from each group rather than each person if time is tight. As a rule, allow 1 minute for each person who talks (2 minutes if they are chatty).

  • Start on time. The first 5 minutes and last 5 minutes are designed to allow people to be late/leave early.

  • Bank as much time as possible in the first 30 minutes.

For producers

  • Breakouts for threes will need longer – check with facilitator if three- person groups are expected and what they want to do about timings.

  • When running with 2 facilitators, the Foundation will often put a Facilitator into a breakout to avoid having a 3-person breakout

  • When running a very small course, still put people into a breakout, with a Facilitator if necessary. There’s something important about going into the breakout, having an experience, and then returning to the main room to unpack

  • Breakout rooms specification is consistent:

    • Assign manually (create them as soon as possible)

    • Do not allow people to choose room

    • Automatically move participants to breakouts

    • Automatically close rooms

    • Lasting however long is needed

    • Notify when time is up

    • 10 second countdown timer for return

  • Set yourself a halfway timer on your (e.g. on your watch for 2 minutes) so you can send the timing reminder exactly on time

  • Broadcast message halfway through which is “Halfway through, you have X minutes left”

Content to be pasted into the chat is given in the time plan.

For more information on Breakout Rooms in Better Conversations, see here https://betterconversations.foundation/l/zoombor