Create Your Own Collaboration Environment

Choose this exercise

Purpose: Compare how physical room layouts support or hinder group interaction, then reconfigure the room by consensus.

Use it when: Use at the start of a workshop on organizational change, teamwork, or working norms where participants will spend multiple hours together.

Skip it when: Skip in rooms with fixed auditorium seating, bolted furniture, fragile equipment, or when participants cannot safely move lightweight tables and chairs.

Group arrangement: Whole group working together

Timing: Source indicates 15 to 30 minutes; UWT standardizes to 20 minutes.

Materials and tools

• Moveable chairs and lightweight tables already in the room
• 1 flip chart and easel or whiteboard
• Marker pens
• Display screen, external microphone, and video camera (for hybrid format)
• Pre-configured digital whiteboard board with draggable workspace icons (for remote format alternative)

Before participants arrive

1. Substantial room setup before participants arrive: arrange all tables and chairs in traditional classroom rows facing the front wall.
2. Place the facilitator easel, flip chart, and presenter materials at the back of the room, facing the backs of the participant chairs.
3. Ensure pathways between rows are clear of cables or tripping hazards.

Say this to open

Welcome everyone. Please take your seats facing forward. As you notice, my flip chart and I are behind you. This is how many organizations manage change: leadership stands behind people and pushes from behind, out of sight. You have seven minutes to talk with each other and physically rearrange this room so it works for the conversation we need to have today.

How to run it

1. Experience the backwards setup 3 minutes

   Deliver the opening script while remaining behind the participants. Present the brief agenda from the back of the room for two minutes. Let participants notice the physical discomfort of turning around in their seats to see you.

2. Rearrange the room 7 minutes

   Invite participants to stand, agree on a layout, and move the tables and chairs. Step aside completely. Anyone opting out of moving furniture participates by directing the layout, testing pathways, or observing. Stop when the group finishes arranging furniture and takes seats.

3. Test the new space 4 minutes

   Move to the presenter location or seat established by the group. Ask participants to test sightlines, personal space, and access pathways. Make minor adjustments to individual chairs as needed.

4. Debrief the layout 6 minutes

   Facilitate a short group debrief using the debrief questions. Collect 3 to 4 reflections from across the room before beginning the core agenda.

Debrief questions

• What did it feel like physically and mentally when the presentation started from behind your back?
• How did your group decide on this new configuration, and whose needs were accommodated?
• What parallels do you see between physical room design and how your team organizes communication?

Finished output: A reconfigured meeting space chosen by the group, ready for the rest of the session.

Remote

This activity requires physical architecture and cannot run identically online. Run this labeled alternative instead: 'Virtual Workspace Redesign'. Keep facilitator video off for the first 2 minutes while speaking from the background. Then spend 12 minutes together on a digital whiteboard organizing draggable icons that represent cameras, chat rules, breaks, and note-taking areas into an agreed team setup.

Hybrid

In-person participants move physical chairs and lightweight tables, while remote participants direct the placement of the mobile hybrid screen, camera, and microphone so they have direct sightlines and audio clarity.

Access and participation choices

• Participants may opt out of moving heavy furniture without disclosure and contribute by directing placement, checking accessibility, or taking a seat once placed.
• Maintain clear wheelchair turning clearance and trip-free paths in the reconfigured space.

If the session gets stuck

Furniture is too heavy or bolted to the floor.

Do not move fixed tables. Pivot only the chairs, or turn seating inwards to create conversation clusters.

Disagreement stalls the rearrangement.

Step in after 4 minutes if people are stuck debating. Ask the room to select one layout to test for the next hour, with an option to alter it at the break.

Terms used here

• Classroom row style: Desks or tables arranged in straight, parallel lines facing one wall, typical of traditional lectures.