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Weather

Sharing your mood through the metaphor of weather

Pratique

Aim

The weather exercise allows participants to meet and/or check the mood before or after a work session. To do this, everyone uses the metaphor of the weather: sun, wind, cloud, grey or blue sky, stable or changeable, etc.

Instructions

Time needed: 10 to 30 minutes

Key steps

As a facilitator, you invite participants to express their state of mind or “weather” and explain the reasons (professional or personal, depending on what everyone wants to share). The weather can relate to a specific project, the intention of the session, or be general.

Each participant then has one minute to present their weather forecast.
When everyone has finished speaking, you can summarise by making a connection to the intention of the day or with the next step.

The use of metaphor is there to allow participants to more easily share emotions or feelings that they would not be able to express literally: it is often easier to talk about yourself by “protecting” yourself behind an image.

Tips and Advice

You can provide pictorial examples of weather to inspire participants and encourage them to express themselves.
E.g..: “My weather is a mixture of sun and clouds: overall I like the topic we are going to talk about, but there are a lot of unknowns that are hampering my motivation at the moment”
Don’t hesitate to take notes of what the participants say so that you can take it into account for the future.
Don’t forget to share your weather too!