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Exercises/Reflection and Learning/Community Auction
Team Reflection · Reflection and Learning

Community Auction

This activity encourages critical analysis, negotiation, and prioritization, allowing participants to evaluate proposals based on their impact, relevance, and feasibility.

5 to 15 minutesTIME
Medium group (9-25)GROUP SIZE
ActiveENERGY
In person, RemoteSETTING
High cognitive loadCOGNITIVE LOAD
Strengthens Learning Transfer This reflection and learning exercise strengthens Learning Transfer, one of the eight Gathering Effectiveness pillars.

How to run it

  1. Explain the objective of the activity: evaluating and prioritizing projects through a participatory auction.
  2. Clarify that symbolic money represents available resources and must be distributed strategically.
  3. Each team presents their project to the group, highlighting:
  4. Limit presentations to 3-5 minutes per proposal.
  5. Participatory Methods Community Auction Community Auction The Community Auction is a participatory activity where different projects or proposals “bid” for symbolic resources allocated by a group of participants acting as investors.
  6. This activity encourages critical analysis, negotiation, and prioritization, allowing participants to evaluate proposals based on their impact, relevance, and feasibility.
  7. Prepare the proposals: Ask participants in advance to develop clear and concrete proposals, including information such as: Project description.
  8. Symbolic resources: Define the total amount of “symbolic money” to be distributed among the investors (this could be play money, tokens, or points).
  9. Design the auction: Create a list of proposals to be auctioned and set a time limit for each round.
Live facilitator

Run this exercise live

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Prompts to use +

Explain the objective of the activity: evaluating and prioritizing projects through a participatory auction.

This activity encourages critical analysis, negotiation, and prioritization, allowing participants to evaluate proposals based on their impact, relevance, and feasibility.

Prepare the proposals: Ask participants in advance to develop clear and concrete proposals, including information such as: Project description.

Symbolic resources: Define the total amount of “symbolic money” to be distributed among the investors (this could be play money, tokens, or points).

Design the auction: Create a list of proposals to be auctioned and set a time limit for each round.

Run this with your AI assistant +

Works with Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, or your own local model: paste this prompt and your AI will co-facilitate this exercise with you.

Adapt this exercise for my exact room. Exercise: Community Auction. Readiness: Publishable Draft. Core moves: Explain the objective of the activity: evaluating and prioritizing projects through a participatory auction.; This activity encourages critical analysis, negotiation, and prioritization, allowing participants to evaluate proposals based on their impact, relevance, and feasibility.; Prepare the proposals: Ask participants in advance to develop clear and concrete proposals, including information such as: Project description.; Symbolic resources: Define the total amount of “symbolic money” to be distributed among the investors (this could be play money, tokens, or points).. Return a concise facilitator script with timing, wording, safety notes, and remote/in-person adjustments.

Origin unverified

  • Where we observed it: The strongest current observations come from Participatory Methods; aggregators are listed as additional observations, not origin proof. (1 source observed, including Participatory Methods.)
  • What that means: we track where an exercise has been observed in public sources. We do not claim to know who created it, or how popular it is.
  • No efficacy claims: appearing in this library is not a claim that the exercise is proven effective. Facilitator judgment and context decide whether it works for a given room.
  • Corrections: if you have evidence of an earlier or more accurate source, read our methodology and trust boundary and tell us.

Pairs well with