Prompt: Lately, I find that my usual breakfast of toast and eggs is really boring. What would you say makes a good breakfast?
”Quiet group”
One person answers that they eat cereal. Everyone else remains silent, even when you ask “Does anyone else have anything to share about breakfast?”
- Call on people
- Popcorn to next person
- Offer your own opinion to start
- Provide some time for people to formulate their thoughts
Monopolist
One person takes this as an opportunity to describe in detail their breakfast choices and how they have changed since they were a child. This is all interesting to share and fun to listen to, but they keep talking even when another Den member starts to chime in.
- Set a time limit and designate a timekeeper
- Oscars music (needs to be disclosed in advance)
- “I’m conscious of the fact that not everyone has had the chance to share on this topic yet. I’d like to create space for those folks to share, if they’d like to?”
Running out of time
It’s two minutes before the end of the Den and everyone is still animatedly talking about their favorite breakfast foods. It’s fun that everyone is so engaged, but you don’t get to share any takeaways or bring the meeting to a close before everyone has to jump to their next meeting.
- Pivot to notetaking / summarizing at set time in meeting
- Scheduled time checks
Running out of conversation
Everyone agrees that they always skip breakfast, but they don’t really have much else to say about it. There are still 25 minutes left for your Den session!
- Go meta: “I noticed we ran out of conversation; is it the prompt, or something else?”
- Have backup prompts to pivot to
Spiral of doom
Your Den members share a list of reasons why they can never eat breakfast and why that stresses them out. Someone brings up a story about why they hate breakfast, and soon everyone realizes they have strongly negative feelings about breakfast that they want to share.
- Acknowledge the problem and shift to dealing with it. “This is the reality that we’re in; what can we do about it?”
- Self-parody by setting up a “pity competition”