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Exercises/Relationship Mapping/Favorite Little Things
Relationship Mapping

Favorite Little Things

Favorite Little Things is a relationship mapping exercise that helps participants build useful connections and understand how people, roles, or ideas relate.

5 to 15 minutesTIME
Medium group (9-25), PairsGROUP SIZE
ActiveENERGY
In person, RemoteSETTING
High cognitive loadCOGNITIVE LOAD
Strengthens Network Design This relationship mapping exercise strengthens Network Design, one of the eight Gathering Effectiveness pillars.

How to run it

  1. Ask participants to think of a small, specific thing that brings them joy, calm, or comfort.
  2. Give a few fun or poetic examples, such as “The smell of books,” “The sound of rain on the window,” or “The first sip of coffee.”
  3. Each person writes one or more “favorite little things.”
  4. Optional: include why it matters or how it makes them feel.
  5. Display all contributions on a board or screen.
  6. Group similar themes and notice shared joys.
  7. Create a visual wall, mural, or digital board with the shared “little things.”
  8. Use the responses as creative prompts (for poems, collages, drawings, etc.).
Live facilitator

Run this exercise live

The facilitator console stays in this browser. Its QR handoff is a short-lived participant snapshot containing only public exercise instructions, phase, prompt, and timer state.

Prompts to use +

Ask participants to think of a small, specific thing that brings them joy, calm, or comfort.

Give a few fun or poetic examples, such as “The smell of books,” “The sound of rain on the window,” or “The first sip of coffee.”

Create a visual wall, mural, or digital board with the shared “little things.”

Use the responses as creative prompts (for poems, collages, drawings, etc.).

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: Favorite Little Things. Readiness: Publishable Draft. Core moves: Ask participants to think of a small, specific thing that brings them joy, calm, or comfort.; Give a few fun or poetic examples, such as “The smell of books,” “The sound of rain on the window,” or “The first sip of coffee.”; Create a visual wall, mural, or digital board with the shared “little things.”; Use the responses as creative prompts (for poems, collages, drawings, etc.).. 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