In this guide, you will learn how to close off a meeting using a check-out. We explain how you can use group exercises to ensure everyone leaves with a good feeling.

📚 This guide is part of a series on how to facilitate meetings.

Introduction #

Endings are important. Take time to acknowledge what you've done together, and say goodbye. Where appropriate, share contacts or arrange follow on get-togethers so you can carry on what you've started, or support each other with anything that comes up afterwards. At the very least, people are more likely to go away with a satisfied and positive feeling if they have a sense of closure.

Check-out #

5 - 20 minutes; any number of people

This is similar to a check-in, but at the end of the session. It gives people the opportunity to share how they are feeling. This could be about how they are feeling inside themselves, about the group or about what has been achieved in the session. Check-outs can be run in different formats, for example everyone together as a go-round or pop corn style, or in pairs or small groups.

Personal take-aways #

5 - 10 minutes; any number of people

This tool gives people time to reflect on what they have learnt in the session and how they will apply that learning.

Provide everyone with pen and paper, or even a printed form and give them a set amount of time to answer a couple of questions. Think about what questions would be most useful in your setting. Here a couple examples:

• Three things I’ve learnt, Three things I'll do.

• Something straightforward I’ll do as a result of this session, and Something that will make a big impact (and may need more effort)

When people have written down their points you can ask them share some of these with each other, either as a whole group, or in smaller groups or pairs. Encourage people to keep hold of their notes so that they can refer to them in the future.

Closing circle #

5 - 20 minutes; any number of people

Bring people together into a tight circle, either seated or standing up if that works for everyone. Ask everyone to say some short last things to give a feeling of closure, e.g. how people are feeling or what they are taking away from the session.

Writing a letter to yourself #

5 - 20 minutes; any number of people

This might seem like a strange idea, but it's a lovely way for everyone to take the time to think about what they have learnt through a workshop, and what changes they might make, or steps they might take, in their lives or work because of it. We all know that we often have great intentions of making change but simply never get around to it. However having these intentions, written in our own fair hands, land on our doormats six weeks later could be just the reminder we need.

Process #

1. Give everyone some paper, an envelope and a pen and ask them to write a letter to themselves that outlines the main things they have learnt at the workshop, and the changes they would like to bring about. They put their letter in an envelope and address it to themselves.

2. Collect the letters. Explain that they won't be opened but that they will be posted out in a couple of weeks or months.

Workshop gifts #

10 - 15 minutes; 5 - 20 people

A contemplative and fun game. Everyone is given a card with a 'gift' written on it. People then take turns to explain what they will do with their gift. Example gifts are: an apple tree whose fruit has the power to grant a wish to whoever eats it, an empty train that can travel anywhere in the world, and a cloak that turns the wearer invisible.

When we use this exercise at the end of workshops, people tend to use it to refer back to things that have been said during the training. An alternative would be to use it at the start - in which case it might function as more of a getting to know each other game.

Attribution #

Work from the following sources was reused:

• Facilitation tools for meetings and workshops by Seeds for Change