AUTHOR: Malene Marie Bendixen Jacobsen, Agile Coach

Have you ever been part of or facilitated a session where the energy felt low? Where some of your participants were half asleep or struggled to stay focused? Or do you have teams that feel they are ALWAYS in meetings, indirectly saying it is boring and they would rather be coding?

You are not the only one. The problem with these sessions is that when the attendees have these feelings, the sessions are not productive, which creates the impression that it is a waste of time. As a Scrum Master, facilitator, or trainer it is our job to make our sessions interactive so that they are productive. It is not easy at all, but luckily there are multiple tools and principles to help you.

One of the principles you need to have in mind when planning your sessions is simply ‘movement’. Our bodies were not made to sit idle all day long, they are meant to MOVE. Studies show that when our body moves, it provides more oxygen to the brain which makes you function better. Even little movements such as stretching, yawning, turning, talking to someone, drawing, or standing all send extra oxygen to the brain which makes us more awake. So for you to energize your sessions you need to get the people moving ;)

This can be done in many different ways, for example:

• Ask the attendees to stand up and stretch if they have been sitting for too long
• Facilitate small group discussions
• Walk around the room while talking
• Use flipcharts, sticky notes, and other visual aids to get the participant active

These are just a few tips for making your sessions more energized. If you want to learn more, I suggest you attend the course “Training from the BACK of the room” that is filled with tools and practical exercises on how to make outstanding sessions based on brain science. After I attended the course myself, it truly changed my mind-set and my facilitation style – it is one of the best courses I have ever done involving tools for facilitation.