Yesterday I spoke with an old friend. It had been more than a year. The conversation started with the usual “Good to finally talk with you again”, “How long has it been?”, “How are things going?”, “The last thing I remember, you were …”.

We got past the initial chitchat quite quickly and got hooked on a topic we both found very interesting. The conversation just took its natural course from that point on, and after 1.5 hours, we were still talking. We were eagerly building on each other’s points, enriching each other’s views and surprising each other with different perspectives. It didn’t take any effort.

You would expect this to be the norm. On the contrary, a lot of times, I experience conversations that are out of sync, or more correctly, we are out of sync. I am explaining something and feel that the other person is only listening with half an ear. Or I get distracted by something urgent I need to do and can’t properly focus. It happens that the conversation starts with some predispositions that don’t allow (or create) a good connection and openness.

You might think at this point that a great conversation with a friend happens because our minds are alike, but we can disagree and argue on some very fundamental principles and important topics. It is still enriching and helps us to get to a higher place, feeding off each other’s insights.

How to be in sync

In this article, I would like to make the point that good conversations come from being in sync. Literally, “being in sync” means a situation in which two or more people or things move or happen together at the same time and speed. It means you share the moment completely. It has your full attention and your commitment to making the most out of it. You are synchronized and tuned into each other. You lean into the moment, allowing for a good level of connection to emerge.

I love the book I May Be Wrong by Björn Natthiko Lindeblad, who lived years as a forest monk in Thailand. His central learning is, “Don’t believe your every thought”, which sounds so obvious but is very profound when you reflect on your own relationship with your mind.

In his book, he explains how he learned from one of his teachers in life, the American teacher Adyashanti, who said, “You will know what you need to know when you need to know it.” Adyashanti said, “If you don’t unquestioningly believe everything you think, if you’re completely mindful, if your attention is unfettered, you will discover this fundamental truth.”

In my own experience, I have learned that life is one big conversation with other people and with yourself. You sometimes cling to a truth for a while because it serves you - until it doesn’t, and it helps you even more to let it go. The more you identify with a truth, the harder it is to let go of it and see other perspectives and possibilities. If you feel threatened in some way, you need to cling to it for security; it is your role, these are your values, it is your truth and what you stand for. If you are at ease with a situation, it is much easier to let go and consider other people’s truths.

Three types of Synchronizers

From that perspective, this article sheds a different light on the use of energizers, ice breakers or mindsetters in workshops: the moment when minds interact to achieve a better outcome together. We call them Synchronizers due to their synchronizing effect. Synchronizers help us to loosen up on our personal truths and consider other beliefs to jointly get to an evolved interpretation of things.

Synchronizers can help workshop participants identify less with their beliefs and feel more comfortable inviting in other perspectives. In the spirit of Lindeblad’s book, Synchronizers help participants with the realization that “they might be wrong”.

This article explains three types of Synchronizers:

1.     Thinking Synchronizers: Bringing minds together in the moment.

2.     Movement Synchronizers: Bringing bodies together in the moment

3.     State Synchronizers: Bringing bodies and minds together in the moment

Synchronizers, just like ice breakers, energizers or mindsetters, are exercises you do together as a group at the start or end of a workshop or in between workshop activities. They are short and powerful exercises to get synchronized and ready to co-create.

When to use the right Synchronizer?

Whether you choose to apply Thinking Synchronizers, Movement Synchronizers or State Synchronizers depends on the type of people you are facilitating and their initial state. If you are working with a group of ‘thinkers’ who like to reason and analyze, applying a Thinking Synchronizer will be your safest bet. But a Movement Synchronizer will help them ‘get out of their heads’ and become more intuitive. A group of people who are more about feelings and less about rationale will naturally enjoy Movement Synchronizers. But a Thinking Synchronizers might help them become more analytical. With all groups, State Synchronizers are very effective. But sometimes a large part of the group comes into your workshop with a critical and closed initial mindset. State Synchronizers need a level of surrendering. If the participants aren’t ready from the start to have this kind of openness, State Synchronizers could make them even more critical.  

Use your facilitator’s sixth sense to evaluate which synchronizers suit the people and the moment in the best way.

In sum…

Ice breakers, energizers and mindsetters are common practices among experienced facilitators. Although having a laugh or doing some physical activities almost always has all kinds of great benefits for your workshop participants, we would like to make the case that the most important benefit is synchronizing the group. Synchronizing means we are helping them to become a collective, tuning into the moment and connecting with the others, aligning their thinking, movement and even state.

Only a selection of ice breakers, energizers and mindsetters really have a synchronizing effect. Above, we have set out a few, but you can create your own Synchronizers, giving the workshop your signature style as a facilitator.

Whenever you add small activities at the start, end or after a break to nurture the synergy, select or craft your activity to achieve a synchronizing effect. Each time, the group will get a kind of reboot to start again as a collective and let go of any disconnect caused by something that happened before. Especially after having a dispute, bring them back together before starting the next step in your workshop. If you design your workshop for controversy (see the article ‘TNT Tactics), it can help to often bring them back together with a synchronizer, nurturing their willingness for alignment.

State Synchronizers, using breathwork, is not a common practice during workshops in a professional environment. Let’s make it so, as it is the most powerful way to achieve synergy in a group. Aligning humans’ respiratory rates and heartbeats really brings that feeling of connection, as if you are singing the same song at a concert. Be bold and try this out, but before you do, practice breathwork yourself, so you can facilitate from experience.

Did you download our free “Synchronizers: Top 5 examples” PDF?
If not, download it here!

Happy Captaineering!

Learn more about facilitation by enrolling in one of our courses 👇

Want to know how to become a facilitative leader?

Book your free Captains´ Co-creation Exploration Call here: