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Small group discussions in an online session on Teams

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The question was posted by Sarah on 20/04/2026 12:52:39

Hi all, I'm delivering a workshop for a client on MS Teams next week.
Originally it was planned to be a small group but it's now more than 15 people.
So I'd like to have some small group discussions but I'm not the host of the Teams meeting and - since I'm not within their organisation - they can't make me cohost. So I can't use the breakout rooms functionality on Teams.
Does anyone have any good suggestions of how I can create some more intimate, sharing type of session(s) in this scenario? Thanks!


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ResponsesDateAuthor
Hi Sarah, that's a tricky one and I would ask the host or one of the participants to create the breakout rooms. You're not in control, but to me a much better alternative than constantly working the room of 15. The other alternative is if you send the invite from your own Teams (with permission from the company of course). Best of luck! Lottie
21/04/2026Lottie
Hi Sarah, First thought, do you have access to MS Teams yourself, and if so would the client be open to you hosting the session and sharing your own Teams link instead? If that's not possible, you are slightly limited in terms of small group interaction, but you could still build engagement through structured chat prompts and emoji reactions. Will the 15 delegates be sat in one room together? If so, you could use a "Turn and Talk" approach - asking them to work in small groups off screen and then bring reflections back into the main room.
21/04/2026Joyce
I've recently experienced this from the attendees POV. The trainer pre-plan the names in the smaller groups and let us know. One person from each group took ownership of creating a teams meeting for the smaller group. One group member was responsible for time keeping so we returned to the main group on time. - Not ideal - and will only work if you have a contact for the client to start with.
21/04/2026Rebecca


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