Episode 4 of the Resist + Renew podcast, where we get our nerd on about "check-ins" as a facilitation tool: what they are, when they're useful, and their limitations.

'Notice what intention you have when you're trying to do a check in, and bring that intention as much as you can into the way that you hold the space.' - Katherine

Show notes, links

Find "Check-in" on Seeds for Change's tools page.

See our "What is facilitation?" podcast episode page for more general facilitation resources.

Transcript

Ali: This is Resist + Renew.

Kat: A UK-based podcast about social movements.

Sami: What we're fighting for, why, and how it all happens.

Ali: The hosts of the show are:

Kat: Me Kat,

Sami: Me, Sami,

Ali: and me, Ali,

Sami: I'm recording this now baby

Ali: Shit it's a podcast.

*Laughter*

Sami: Okay, so welcome to the toolbox from Resist + Renew. This is a podcast where we geek out about different tools in our facilitation toolbox, what they are when they’re useful, and their limitations. And today we are talking about check ins. So first things first, what are check ins. So like check ins are a name that we use for kind of tools where people can share how people are doing. And within the context of a meeting or a workshop. often they're used at the start of a workshop, but not entirely. And they can also be a useful tool to check in on how people are feeling in the middle of something after lunch after something stressful happened at the end, etc. And they are generally used to help facilitators and potentially other people get an eye on how people are doing and like how people engage how people respond to questions, etc. and can be depending on how they are used a good way to like build connection within groups and build that relationship with them groups. And one thing that people often do, which is like a crossover between check ins and icebreakers is often people will as a check in have a kind of like icebreaker question, because it's a very low intensity way into a workshop. So for example, like, What's your favourite vegetable? Or why'd you like autumn, or whatever? And so that's what a check in is. Anyone else have anything else to describe the check in before we move into a little bit of an example?

Ali: Often, like a go round format as well, it's not, it's usually not just like, open space, and everyone chuck in and stuff. It like tends to be in a circle format. Just I think that's mostly to make it flow easier, and to make the threshold for speaking as low as possible, as well. So that's what a check in is. And yeah, I'm just going to share a little story about like examples of when, or an example of when we've I've used one. So a couple of years ago, a few friends came over to my mum's farm in Wales, and it wasn't like a workshop thing. But it was kind of hybrid holiday hybrid hangout and work, have discussions kind of space. So it's pretty low pressure situation. Yeah, we had, we had offerings of discussions, we had fun tasks to do around but it wasn't like, there was any, like, major purpose. And every day, we just had a check in for like, an hour or two is pretty chill. And I think it just added to the vibe, changed it from like just hanging out to something a bit more collective, something a bit more hearing about where everyone is at. And yeah, that was good. And I think, though there was no, there was no intention to do anything particularly difficult. But like people did bring up some like, intense stuff. And I think that's like, partly because we had a space for that. So yeah, it's kind of nice. Anyone else want to add anything? example wise?

Kat: I mean, I feel like that is a really lovely example. And I wonder like whether those people that were there maybe had some experience of check ins and, and why we might use them. And I guess a lot of the experience I've had of check ins in groups where they've not worked so well, has been like,