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Facilitation

Thiagi's Six-Phase Debriefing Model

A question-led debriefing sequence from Sivasailam 'Thiagi' Thiagarajan, a designer of training games. It moves a group from feelings, through facts and lessons, to real-world relevance, alternative scenarios and action planning after an interactive exercise.

6 phasesFacilitation
When to Use This Framework

When a few voices dominate or quieter people don't contribute

Your group discussions aren't balanced, you need better ways to include everyone, or conversations go in circles.

Right after an interactive activity, game or simulation, especially one that produced strong emotions or surprising results.

The 6 Steps
Follow this sequence to apply Thiagi's Six-Phase Debriefing Model
1

How do you feel?

Let participants voice their emotional reactions to the activity first, so strong feelings do not block later analysis.

2

What happened?

Collect data: ask people to recall key events, build a shared timeline and compare perspectives.

3

What did you learn?

Invite participants to generate and test hypotheses and principles, checking them against what happened.

4

How does this relate to the real world?

Explore how the activity mirrors situations at work or in daily life, treating it as a metaphor.

5

What if?

Change a condition of the activity and ask how outcomes would differ, so insights are tested in new contexts.

6

What next?

Ask participants to plan concrete actions based on their insights, for the next round or for real work.

What You'll Achieve

Ensures every voice is heard and the group's collective intelligence is unlocked.

Use the six questions as the script for any debrief after a game, simulation or role play. Select or shorten phases to fit the time, but keep the order from emotion to action.

Practical Tips
How to get the most out of this framework
  • 1
    Use structured turn-taking to balance voices
  • 2
    Start with individual reflection before group discussion
  • 3
    Create safe spaces for minority opinions
  • 4
    Summarize and synthesize regularly
Best For
  • Training games and simulations
  • Role plays
  • Experiential team sessions
  • Online interactive exercises
Key Principles
  • People learn from reflecting on experience, not from experience alone
  • Feelings come before analysis
  • Test insights against data and alternative scenarios
  • End with action
Watch Out For
  • The 'How do you feel?' opening can be uncomfortable in cultures or groups where sharing emotions is unusual; offer written or anonymous options.
  • Thiagi published variations, including a later seven-phase version, so treat the phases as a flexible guide rather than a fixed script.
  • Needs enough time; a rushed debrief loses the later, most useful phases.
Related Frameworks
Other Facilitation frameworks you might find useful
Belbin Team RolesThe Belbin Team Roles framework identifies nine distinct behavioral clusters that contribute to effective team performance. By understanding these roles, facilitators can build balanced teams, leverage individual strengths, and mitigate potential weaknesses to enhance collaboration and achieve team objectives.
Liberating StructuresA repertoire of more than 30 simple interaction patterns, such as 1-2-4-All, Troika Consulting and 15% Solutions, that replace presentations and open discussion with structured formats where everyone contributes. Each structure is specified by five design elements: invitation, space and materials, distribution of participation, group configuration, and steps and timing.
Six Thinking HatsEdward de Bono's method of 'parallel thinking' in which a whole group adopts the same mode of thinking at the same time, signalled by six coloured hats: facts, feelings, caution, benefits, creativity and process. It reduces adversarial debate because everyone looks at the issue from the same angle before switching.