What to do if your sticky notes won’t stick

A client opened a shiny new campus, and we set up in a brand new conference room for three days of workshops. To begin the first activity, I write an example sticky note and place it on the wall.

Where it promptly falls off, fluttering—like a leaf—down to the conference room floor. While a room full of participants watch, bemused.

I try again.

It falls off again.

Turns out, the shiny new conference room had a special coating on the walls to make them easier to clean, so sticky notes just wouldn't stick.

So, what do you do if this happens to you?

Come prepared

Ever since that fluttery day, I bring a few things with me to workshops.

• Super Sticky Post-It Notes

• Craft Paper

• Easel pads

• Masking tape

First, we insist on the Super Sticky sticky notes from Post-It. They really are stickier and stay better than other sticky notes I've seen. They're more expensive, but sticky notes sticking to the wall seems worth it.

Second, I bring a roll of brown wrapping paper or craft paper along for workshops. Before the workshop, we test the surfaces that will have sticky notes. If they don't stick well, we tape craft paper to the wall with wide masking tape.

(We often tape craft paper to the wall, anyway, for journey mapping, as this makes it easy to travel with the journey map afterward.)

If you don't have a roll of craft paper, easel pads also work well. The kind of giant pad where you can tear off the top sheet and stick it to a wall are easy to work with, but even non-adhesive easel sheets can be taped to the wall with wide masking tape.

If you use the adhesive easel pads, there's one thing to remember. The top 3" of the page has a film on it that makes it easy to pull the easel sheets apart and harder for sticky notes to stick. I usually write the title of the exercise and some squiggles up there to encourage participants to place their sticky notes further down on the page.

But what if masking tape won't hold craft paper or easel pads on the walls? That's what happened to me in that first conference room. Nothing would stick on the walls.

When walls are totally off limits

When nothing will stay on the walls, lay craft paper or easel pad pages on the tables and have participants place the sticky notes that way. A neat side effect of this approach is people gather around the horizontal "wall" while they discuss and add sticky notes.

That new conference room was the first time I'd ever faced walls where nothing would stick, but everything worked out ok in the end. As long as you come flexible and prepared, you can facilitate anything, anywhere. Just remember:

• Post-It Super Sticky Notes

• Brown wrapping paper or white craft paper

• Easel pads

• Wide masking tape

I have some recommendations on suitable items to buy on this Amazon list of workshop supplies.