ThemeDesigning the journey
CardCard 26 of 60
Questions5 to explore
StepDesign the journey

Activity Types

Will there be a variety of tasks and exercises?

Variety in activity types keeps the group's attention, gives different kinds of thinkers a chance to contribute, and stops the day feeling like one long meeting.

Activity types are the different modes of working a group can be in: generating ideas, making choices, building something, reflecting, discussing, moving, listening, playing. Most of the weak workshops people remember are dominated by one type, usually talking, while everything else is squeezed out.

A well-designed workshop moves through several types across the day. Divergent activities (brainstorming, free writing, ideation) create material. Convergent activities (voting, sorting, selecting) process it. Making activities (sketching, prototyping, mapping) produce something tangible. Reflective activities (journaling, discussion, debrief) draw out meaning. When you plan, ask whether the day gives the group enough variety to stay genuinely engaged.

Different people contribute differently in different modes. Someone who says little in a plenary discussion may produce the most on a sticky note round. Building variety into the design is also an inclusion move.

Easy to missCheck the balance explicitly: count up how many activities are talk-based versus making-based versus physical or solo, and make sure at least three different types appear across the day.

How experienced facilitators handle it

The same building block, handled by people who have run a lot of workshops. Patterns and illustrations to react to, not rules to follow.

Name the type for each slot

Experienced facilitators note the activity type next to each slot in the plan: generate, converge, make, debrief, energize. If the list is mostly one type, they redesign before the day.

Match type to moment

They match the activity type to the group's state at that point. Generative work needs energy and openness; convergent work needs enough material already on the table. Getting the type wrong at the wrong moment is hard to recover from.

Use making to unlock talking

When a group is stuck in abstract discussion, they shift to a making activity, sketching or mapping, and the conversation that follows the making is usually better than the one that preceded it.

Questions to plan around

Use these on your own or in a group. There are no right answers, only better conversations.

How many distinct activity types appear across the day, and is there real variety?
Where in the day will the group generate new ideas, and where will they process or narrow them?
Are there activities that let people contribute in different ways, not only through speaking?
Does the activity type at each point in the journey match the group's likely state and energy?
Have you included at least one activity where people make or build something tangible?

Watch for

Letting discussion dominate the whole day. A room full of people talking has the appearance of a workshop but rarely the outputs.
Designing variety without checking whether the transitions between types feel natural. A sudden switch from heavy analytical work to a physical game can jar if it is not bridged well.
Assuming that the facilitator finds natural what the participants find awkward. Some types (role play, physical energizers) need more explicit setup and permission to work.