Checking-in on your hive

Activity concept

One important thing throughout the event is to understand how participants experience the process in which they are taking part. This should include both emotional and physical state. It's worth doing this periodically, but your questions will differ depending on the phase of the event. These can and should be planned, especially around moments when you know participants might be tired or overwhelmed (e.g., after lunch, during content-heavy sessions or after activities that focused on problems, obstacles and challenges). However, you should always have a couple of check-in activities ready to use whenever you notice signs of tiredness, confusion, stress or any other similar ones. Such check-ins should be connected to concrete interventions, like, e.g., energisers. 

Stage: Opening, Looking after participants

Format: In person, Online, Hybrid

Work Modality: Plenary

Location: Outdoor, Indoor

Duration: 15mins

Topic(s): Pollinators

Tools

Post-its, Pens, crayons etc..., Flipchart, Word-cloud application, Polling/survey application

Team

Facilitator / moderator

Process

Citizens join participatory events with their own expectations, ideas, even worries about how it will work out and what it will be about. At the beginning of the event, it is a good idea to understand these. One nice tool that can be used to explore expectations and fears is a metaphor of a rose, which assigns different aspects to the different parts of the flower:  

• Fears - thorns: What they worry about.
• Expectations - buds: What they expect to get from the event.
• Contributions - flower: How they think they can contribute.

For this activity, you can paste on a flipchart a picture of a thorn, a bud and a flower of a rose, leaving space next to them for participants' comments (see the picture above for an example). This will help you understand from the start several things. You will see what participants might be uneasy about, especially that not everyone finds it easy to interact in group contexts or work on a topic they never encountered before. At the same time, people come to these processes with their own expectations, that do not necessarily align with those of the organisers - something that's also good to know from the start to take into consideration - or indeed to clarify. For instance, citizens might come with the expectation of learning about pollinators. While this might be part of an event, the main point will be for citizens to share their own knowledge and reflections, and that's something that should be clarified. Finally, it's an easy way to find out what participants see as their strengths that they bring into the process. 

As you proceed with the activities, it might be good to periodically check-in to understand how people are doing in terms of energy and feelings. There is a number of tools you can use for that. The mood meter, as in the example below, is just one example. This tool is quite useful as it can provide you with a fine-grained understanding of participants' feelings and so can give you a lot of input on what they might need. If you notice too many 'tireds' out there, it might mean it's time to take a longer break or include an energizer, even if not planned. If you see people pessimistic, worried or stressed, ask follow-up questions to understand the reasons. Is it the process itself? Do they feel they are not being listened to or find certain activities too challenging? Or is it perhaps due to the content of the discussion, and the eco-anxiety that's kicking-in? Neither should be dismissed.

Another activity, which you can use online to get quick feedback, is chatterfall. You ask participants to write in the chat one word that describes how they feel right at that moment - but without sending it yet. Then, on a count of three, you invite everyone to press 'send'. The chat will be filled in an instant with the comments - and even though the names of participants are visible next to them, with so many of them the messages become largely anonymous, while giving the facilitator a chance to feel the pulse of the group.  

Compatibility

Check-ins should usually be connected to activities through which you can address possible issues identified. For instance, you can make it after the lunch break, to check the level of energy, and potentially follow it up with an energiser.