Check-in and check-out are simple but powerful practices that bring presence and a sense of connectedness, and help to set a tone for the entire meeting or other social gathering. These exercises support the team members’ cohesion and collective embodied presence.

Check-in brings people into the collective space, whereas check-out is used to bring some closure or convergence to the social gathering. It provides an opportunity for good collective reflection.

There is one key rule: Let everyone speak once before anyone speaks twice. Make sure to go through all participants before the comments or conversation begin. Sense of being heard is very important here.

Tip: If you consider it helpful, you can use a 'talking piece' – an object that indicates whose turn it is to talk while others listen.

Check-in and check-out can be implemented in various situations and adapted to fit different purposes. The form of the practices can vary from speaking to body movements or music, for example. The length varies too, from a few minutes to even hours, depending on the purpose and the time available.

Usually, check-in is done at the beginning of the meeting and check-out at the end of the meeting, but you can also use them somewhere along the gathering.

“We had a difficult topic to discuss. I decided to try the check-in exercise at the beginning of the meeting. To my surprise, suddenly the whole tone of the meeting changed - even more surprising to me was that we finally finished in 1.5 hours what was scheduled for 2 hours.” – Participant in the CBCR pilot, reflection between workshops