Polle de Maagt 
Polle de Maagt
You're doing it wrong.
I must have been in my twenties. We were facilitating a brainstorm, and someone walked up to me, pointed at my post-its and said: "You're doing it wrong." The way I peeled them off made them curl, stick badly and drop off the wall one by one. There was a better way.
How to peel.
Most people, me included, peel a post-it upwards: you grab the bottom edge and pull it towards you. That bends the sticky strip, the note curls up, and a little later it is on the floor.
Peel it sideways instead, along the sticky edge. The strip stays flat, the note stays flat, and it stays where you put it. I tested it on my own office wall: three days later the sideways one was still there.
Which post-its.
Then there are the post-its themselves. Peel a cheap one the wrong way and it falls off for sure. Peel a good one the wrong way and it might survive. It is also the quickest test of a facilitator: peel one upwards, stick it to the wall, and you know whether they bought the real thing.
no sponsoring
For what it is worth, and nobody pays me to say this: in all my years of workshops, 3M post-its have never let me down.
And digital ones.
Then there is the digital post-it, in whiteboards like Miro and Mural. I still prefer paper in my hands and the energy of a room full of people at a wall. But digital boards have real advantages: sessions run faster and with less noise, and every idea is already captured, ready for the recap and the work that follows.
At your next workshop, show the group the sideways peel before the first round. It takes ten seconds and your wall still stands at the end of the day.
