One of the biggest trends in consultation is away from the big fat document and towards participative events. These come in different shapes and sizes and sport a variety of titles from consultation seminars or workshops to full-blown Stakeholder Conferences.

Most, if not all these, will involve a participative element or breakout session. Unfortunately these often don’t work too well, possibly because insufficient thought has gone into planning them.

Any experienced organiser of these events will confirm that, in general, breakouts have a bi-polar satisfaction profile. Many people give them high marks, but many also give them low marks, whilst relatively few score them in the middle; in other words participants either love them or hate them. This, in part, reflects the truism that group sessions are only as good as their facilitation, and too often groups are left to organise themselves – so chance plays a role in the experience people get.