ThemeDesign the session
CardCard 56 of 63
Questions5 to explore

Ways of Working

Individually, breakout groups & everyone

Whether people work alone, in small breakout groups, or all together is one of the most consequential choices in a remote session design.

Ways of working describes the social mode of an activity: solo (individual reflection or writing), breakout groups (small parallel groups working independently), or plenary (everyone together). Each mode serves different purposes and carries different energy. Solo work is good for thinking; breakouts are good for dialogue and building; plenary is good for sharing, aligning, and deciding.

In a physical room these modes shift fluidly: someone can work alone while still being in the room, overhear a conversation, or drift between tables. Online the transitions are much more deliberate. Moving people into breakout rooms is a step that has to be planned and managed. Moving them back and harvesting what they produced requires an explicit design.

The most common remote session mistake is spending too much time in plenary with everyone on screen together. It reads as a call, not a workshop. Mixing in solo work and breakout groups is what creates the variety and engagement that a remote session needs.

Online, specificallyBreakout rooms online require deliberate setup, clear instructions loaded before the split, and a plan for harvesting output when the group reconvenes, because none of that happens organically the way it would in a room where you can circulate.

In a remote session

The same building block as it plays out online: how experienced facilitators tend to handle it when the room is a screen. Illustrations to react to, not rules to follow.

Plan the mode in advance

Good facilitators plan which mode each activity uses as part of the session design, not in the moment. Each mode needs different prep: breakout rooms set up in advance, solo prompts written out, plenary harvest formats decided.

Load breakout instructions before splitting

Before opening breakout rooms they share the task, the time, and the expected output in a visible slide or a written message in chat, because once people are in separate rooms they cannot hear the facilitator add clarifications.

Harvest breakout outputs structurally

They ask each breakout group to nominate someone to report back and prepare a one or two sentence summary, so the harvest is quick and the plenary does not drag into unstructured sharing.

Use solo time deliberately

They open key activities with two to five minutes of silent solo thinking or writing before any group work, because remote participants need processing time that they do not get from ambient room energy.

Questions to plan around

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

Which activities need solo thinking time, which work best in breakouts, and which need the full group?
Have you set up breakout rooms in advance and tested them?
What instructions will participants have when they enter a breakout room, and where will those instructions be visible?
How will you harvest the output of breakout groups when they return to plenary?
Is there enough variety in working modes across the session to hold attention?

What trips people up online

Sending people into breakout rooms with only a verbal instruction means half the room asks the same clarifying question and time runs out before any real work starts.
All-plenary sessions feel like video calls where most people are on mute; without breakouts and solo time the session loses the workshop quality entirely.
Harvesting breakout outputs by asking each group to 'just share what you did' usually produces repetitive, unfocused reporting that exhausts the plenary; give groups a specific format for their summary.