This method takes away the attention from the trainer and provides space for the participants to share their expertise, thus demonstrating that their experience and knowledge is valued.
< 30 (in teams of 4 – 6 pers.)
30 min.
Paper and pens for taking notes
Outline
- After a lecture or a period of work participants split into groups of 4 – 6. Each group reflects on the topic and agree on up to 3 questions for which they would like to receive more information, ideas, or opinions. Next the group elects one person who will be a detective on their behalf; his/her task will be to look for answers for the proposed questions. The other group members become experts; their task will be to offer the other groups’ detectives answers to their questions.
- Each group’s detective visits the neighbouring group’s experts, puts forward their questions, and makes notes of the answers received. After 5 minutes the detectives move clockwise to the next group and repeat the process. After all groups have been visited the detectives report back to their groups and present the answers they have received.
- In a final plenary session each group shortly summarises the results.
Comment
The trainer has to stress that questions should not be factual (“How much does this cost?”) to enable the groups to offer meaningful answers. If such information is really important, the he/she can comment on it after the exercise. But if there are no specific questions left unanswered one should refrain from voicing his/her answers and opinion, since this will devalue the information given by the participants.
