Remember that the youth are partners, not just participants. Before the session even begins, make sure the facilitators are ready to embrace the idea of young people as thought partners, not merely research participants. This means explicitly acknowledging the expertise youth have on the topic. We asked a Character Lab CLIPster to reflect on the value of the role of the facilitator, and they shared, “Thinking back on one- on- one interviews, the researcher would try to affirm what I was saying no matter what, and made me feel like my feedback actually has merit.” For more on this topic, go back to chapter 1!

There are lots of good strategies you can use to check your own power as adults (Walsh et al., 2013; Yip et al., 2017). Be mindful of adult air time, and explicitly invite pushback on adult assumptions and interpretations by asking questions like these:

• What are adults – including us – missing?
• What do you want to make sure adults understand about this finding?
• Are there any findings you’re afraid will be misinterpreted or skewed by adults?

An important thing to remember is this: if plans change based on what the youth are saying, or if you are put in a spot of increased emotion or conflict between participants, this means you are sharing power and getting to a more engaged place. Count this as a win (and follow up as needed to make sure your participants are OK – we will cover how to tackle tense and tricky moments later in this chapter).

… and having a young adult, near-peer, or youth co-facilitator has been especially valuable for us when it’s feasible. In virtual settings, it’s especially helpful to have multiple facilitators so one of you can handle tech (set up breakout rooms, respond to notes in the chat, take notes, etc.) while the other is talking and facilitating. That said, try to be strategic about who is facilitating which conversations and activities, and rotate leadership among facilitators as often as you can.

It may feel silly or cheesy, but a fun opening icebreaker goes a long way! Ask everyone to introduce themselves, and also pull out your best fun questions to help loosen people up. A list of our go-to opening questions can be found in the Resources section at the end of chapter 5.

As part of breaking the ice, it can help to be sure to also frame the process as one that is going to feel “messy,” sometimes awkward, and a little unclear at times. In codesign (or participatory design), participants should feel confident at times and also uncertain at times– that place is where the magic happens! Naming this out loud can go a long way in helping reassure young people that they aren’t “missing something.” 

Share why they’re here, what you’re trying to figure out, and why their role is important.

It’s really important to set clear expectations about the goal of the session. We all want to know how our input is going to be used – are you here to generate lots of ideas? Take action? Be provocative? Make decisions? Whichever it is, strive to make sure everyone is clear about it from the beginning.

When teens join our meetings, they have often been in school all day. It is important to create space to interact and engage in meaningful and fun ways. In online settings it can be especially easy to multi-task or check out, so try to make sure people are interacting right away, and try to not go more than 20 minutes without a shift in working mode or a break.

In online environments, it can be hard to know if you’re doing the “right thing” to respond to a prompt. In person, if you’re slightly unclear on the instructions, you can just look around the room and see people start scribbling ideas in their notebooks and be like “oh ok, I guess that’s what we’re doing now” – but in a virtual setting, people sometimes miss those cues because their cat chewed on their internet wire and now it sometimes flickers in and out. So if you have an activity planned, be sure to explain it clearly, in bite-sized pieces, preferably with an accompanying visual. You can also give a tutorial while sharing your screen for participants to follow along, keep the instructions posted in writing on the screen throughout the activity, or drop the instructions in the chat. And pause for questions! Count to 10 before you move on, or say something like, ‘We can’t move on until we have at least two questions! We mean it!’

Remember it can feel intimidating to share, so affirming that what your youth partners are saying is helpful can be really encouraging. Without it, participants may be wondering: am I doing this right? Is this right? Was that a helpful thing to say? Do I get what’s going on?

Validation can be expressed as genuine delight, interest, or appreciation of a person’s idea. One CLIPster shared, “When I do group interviews I always feel affirmed in the opinion I present, even when I’m not sure of it myself.” Repeating a key idea or phrase can be helpful, but resist the urge to summarize everything you hear a participant say as a way to validate it. It’s also important to resist the urge to “lead the witness” by giving too much affirmation to one particular answer or opinion. Affirming young people’s responses could sound like a simple “Thanks for noting that!” or “I hear/see you.” Pause to see who else chimes in and builds upon it. Be curious about unlocking insights from these youth by providing a space where they feel valued and important.

Also, remember to validate that the teens involved are experts in being a teen, especially if you hear them second-guessing their own opinions or minimizing their own reactions. They are bringing genuine, real, important expertise that complements yours. Emphasize that their voice and guidance is incredibly valuable, as they have lived experience that research findings do not always capture. And, if you aren’t totally sure what a teen is trying to express, don’t be afraid to check for understanding. Remember, repeating back and asking for more detail is a great way to check the collective understanding of the group, and might solicit more discussion.

Sometimes you’ll realize partway through a session that the activities you planned don’t really match the direction the group is heading. Maybe something really rich came out of your opening conversation, and you actually want to use the rest of the session to keep unpacking that instead of moving into other activities you planned. Give yourself permission to pivot!

Example from Center for Digital Thriving

When we were working on a digital well-being project, we planned to do some poster presentations, and then use a dot-style voting process to collectively decide on which direction to pursue from the ideas people shared. The idea was to allow people to use their dots in whatever way they wanted: putting all three on one idea, or dispersing them across different ideas. But we pivoted during the session and did something different. As people shared their posters ideas, we noted that their ideas weren’t all mutually exclusive and several ideas had key overlaps. So instead of voting on just one idea or using the “dots,” we instead asked everyone to reflect on three key things they heard through the poster presentations that they wanted to be sure were components of our final product (a toolkit we were co-creating). Their lists ultimately converged as a powerful set of design principles for the toolkit itself.

Sometimes there are power dynamics in the room that make some people feel less comfortable talking. Sometimes the quietest person is doing the most thinking. Pay attention to who’s taking up a lot of space and who isn’t, and use your power as a facilitator to help make room for everyone. You can do this, for example, by pausing and inviting those who have not yet spoken to share their reflections either out loud or in the chat. You may also want to offer a follow-up reflection opportunity (if your study protocol allows it), particularly to young people who seemed uncomfortable sharing in the group setting.

When closing a session, we have found it extremely valuable to give participants space to reflect, either through a closing question or activity. At the end of the session, it can be helpful to ask questions like “What do you think adults should know about this topic?” or “What didn’t we ask about that you think is important to consider?” or “What’s something you’re taking away from our session today?” Young people have so much wisdom and advice, and the answers they provide to these types of questions can create many points of connection. If we’re short on time, sometimes we’ll simply invite everyone to share a closing word or phrase.

Another helpful closing activity and compelling prompt is one that comes from Project Zero (where the Center for Digital Thriving is based) and it’s called “I used to think… Now I think…”. With this compelling thinking routine, you can learn from youth participants how their perspective may have changed through the course of your activities. As a facilitator, it can also help you begin to think about how the young peoples’ perspectives have changed how you think about the topic. We often encourage participants to modify the prompt as they see fit – for example, maybe they want to share in the format “I used to think… Now I really think…” to emphasize a view that’s gotten stronger, rather than something in their thinking that’s changed.  

You can also ask for anonymous feedback on the facilitation and session structure, and then make sure to circle back to that feedback the next time you meet, e.g, “we heard X from your feedback; we’re going to try doing Y differently this time.” We will cover more on following up and closing the loop in chapter 9.