# Activity and facilitation design

## Design backward

Select a capability people can demonstrate. Specify a useful output and an activity
that creates or tests it. Teach only the concepts needed for that activity. Arrange
modules by dependency, not a fixed chapter count.

Example: shared garden care → can hand off a watering shift → practice a missed
shift → revise a rota with a backup acceptance field → check next week's coverage.

## Make the session runnable

Give the host preparation steps, materials, timing, words to introduce unfamiliar
activities, an observable end point, debrief prompts, and recovery when people get
stuck. Allocate time for arrival/check-in, interpretation, transitions, and closing.
List any optional activities separately so they do not silently exceed the schedule.

Use private reflection before a group conversation when speaking first could expose
sensitive details or let the loudest participant set everyone's answer. Permit
passing, writing, drawing, partner assistance, and private follow-up where feasible.
Do not force traumatic stories or disclosure as a trust-building exercise.

An unfamiliar worksheet needs a worked fictional row, a blank usable copy, and a
clear instruction about which parts are private and which may be shared. Avoid
fields that require participants to supply information they cannot reasonably know.

## Choose an exercise with a purpose

- Inventory: identify existing resources and gaps before recommending purchases.
- Mapping: discover links, missing connections, or access barriers.
- Scenario: test decisions when normal arrangements fail.
- Demonstration: practice a bounded skill with suitable instruction.
- Role discussion: explore possible barriers without claiming to represent a group.
- Rehearsal: observe an agreed action and revise based on what happened.

A scenario should state what is known, what has changed, available resources, and
what participants must decide. Do not solve it for participants. A rehearsal needs
observable criteria and a debrief; an agent's imagined success is not a participant test.

## Commitments and follow-through

For each action identify actor, acceptance status, next step, feasible deadline or
review trigger, dependencies, and fallback. Record an unfilled role as unfilled.
If a group action is optional, say what still works without it. Attendance is not
consent to a volunteer role or to publication of contact information.

Offer one achievable individual action and a useful shared action where appropriate.
Avoid turning a lack of time, money, or access into a moral failure. An action may be
asking for help, identifying a barrier, or choosing not to share a detail.

## Facilitation trouble spots

When discussion stalls, offer a concrete fictional example and ask participants to
adapt it. When it runs long, use the declared optional cut and preserve the closing
decision. When disagreement matters, record competing needs and an unresolved
decision rather than writing false consensus. Do not appoint absent participants.

Close with what was decided, what remains open, accepted next steps, how absent
members can catch up, and when the group will revisit the result.