Debate
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Team Agile – explain what the Agile methodology is (group 1), give some main advantages (group 2), and wrap up with your most convincing summary (group 3). Yes, you saw that right – depending on the number of participants, separate groups can be assigned to work on different parts of the presentation and share findings.

Have a group of politically-savvy participants? Let them serve as Deputy Prime Minister in Parliamentary debate, where they will speak like law-makers, using terms like “This house believes that…” and “I support this motion!” This style of debate takes the competitiveness up a notch, where even groups on one side are competing against each other to be crowned winners. This could be a fun approach to adopt if dealing with any Human Resources or organizational matters in your workplace.

The Karl Popper Debate format necessitates rigorous research on both sides of the issue, from both sides, and usually on controversial topics. The debate flow consists of six uninterrupted speeches and four cross-examinations, or fiery cross-side Q&A. Use this if dealing with an urgent topic that needs to be clarified – like the pros and cons of switching your company over from Google to Microsoft by the end of the month.

Multi-sided debates are great if you are not in a rush. This framework shows how a debate session can be easily broken up into chunks and completed in more than one sitting.

Public Forum debate is a good one to use when there’s an issue that needs to be resolved. The special component not found in other debate models is that the evaluator is told what ethical value to focus on to frame the resolution, be it national security or the greatest good for the greatest number of people. This may be a good option when deciding on people-centered initiatives, like DEI and employee wellness strategy.