You have five minutes to discover an interesting, surprising and separate connection you share with each person in your team. A different connection with each person, not a single connection that every team member shares. Try to find a connection or something in common that surprises both of you. The purpose of the exercise is to ensure that each person of the team ask some questions and gives some answers about themselves and all other team members, and so gets to know each other better.
Discussions can be in pairs or threes. The team can decide how best to enable each person to speak to every other team member in the time allowed.
This requires more care in larger teams. Group review of individual connections is unnecessary although particularly interesting connections can be volunteered and highlighted as examples if people are keen to do so. More general review aspects include for example, optional depending on your own situation and wider aims for the group :. Larger teams need more time to ensure everyone learns something new and ideally establishes an interesting connection with each other team member.
Younger people might be happier with questions about less deep subjects, which is fine. Guide the group as you consider appropriate. Multiple Intelligences.
Personality types and models. Play as a team game in pairs, threes, fours or fives, which keeps everyone involved all the time, and introduces teamwork and tactics. The game is essentially team bowls played like beach bowls or green bowls using balls of newspaper.
Scoring is one point for each ball closest to the 'jack' ball. If a team gets say three or four of its balls closer than the balls of any other team then three or four points would be scored accordingly. The potential to score high - notably for big groups split into big teams - means a winning team can emerge surprisingly late, which sustains full involvement of all players. The larger the floor area then the more energetic the game will tend to be. The game can also be played outside provided there is no strong wind.
For a more messy game outside for kids, supply a bucket of water and instruct that the balls should be wet.. The game is very adaptable. Consider and decide your own rules and scoring for your own situation. If playing the game with individuals for example in a small group of five , allow players two balls each. This makes the game more interesting for individuals, in which the order of throwing can be reversed for the second ball, making it fairer for all, assuming playing only one 'end'.
Or play big 'marbles' instead - best on a square playing area - in which players eliminate other players by rolling their ball to hit another player's balls. Players take turns to roll their balls. The winner is the last player remaining whose ball has not been hit by another ball. Players have to decide how close to risk leaving their balls to other balls, so it becomes quite a tactical exercise.
Simplest rule here is to eliminate only the first ball hit with each roll, not rebounds. See also the bin toss game , and newspaper towers , for other newspaper games ideas. This is a quick adaptable exercise for small groups, or for large groups if split into self-facilitating teams, or alternatively pairs. Take a minute to consider - What thirty seconds of your life would you most want to re-live, if you only had thirty seconds left? For the purposes of the exercise participants can choose several different life experiences, provided the total time is no more than thirty seconds.
Exclude sex from highlights if there is a risk that it will unhelpfully distract, embarrass or be too dominant. Shorten and concentrate the exercise by reducing the highlights time period from thirty to ten seconds, or lengthen and deepen the exercise by increasing the time period to ten minutes or an hour. Note: To make the exercise more dynamic and forward-looking you can encourage people to consider especially life highlights which can be repeated or extended in some way.
Childbirth is for many people a highlight which is not likely to be repeatable, although this can of course prompt thoughts and discussions about the importance of family compared to other life issues. Maslow motivation and Hierarchy of Needs. Herzberg , Adams , and Personality Theory. This website accepts no liability for any marital or romantic strife arising if you play this game socially in couples, especially under the influence of drink or other inhibition-reducing substance.
Here's a really quick exercise, ideal for ice-breakers - minutes - for groups any age or size. Equipment: Lots of coins, in case participants need extra. At last a use for all the shrapnel in your piggy bank..
Large groups can be spilt into teams of people. Combine team coins. Produce a single team logo, themed according to the situation. Optionally ask teams to guess the meaning of other teams logos, before the explanations. Split the group into two. Half leave the room while remaining half make their personal coin logos. Half return to room and try to match logos to people.
Repeat the process enabling the guessers to make, and the makers to guess. Ask participants to explain their logos to the group, or if pressed for time and for large groups - split the group and have the logos explained among teams of threes. If running the exercise in teams - review the discussions and feelings leading to the design of the logo, and the team theme if appropriate. To enlarge the exercise and offer material about self-and mutual awareness see the Johari Window model.
See the money slang and history page for lots of interesting facts about coins and money. The activity is more dynamic if played in competitive teams, minimum three players per team, ideally per team.
The exercise involves devising and using a simple coded non-verbal unspoken communications system. This is a very flexible game concept, and can be adapted in many ways to suit your situation and purposes. These instructions are for competitive teams playing the game. Adapt it accordingly for a single group. For groups of four people or more, best with six people or more.
Teams of more than ten become chaotic which is okay if that's what you are seeking to demonstrate. Given the variation and interesting dynamics within this exercise you are especially recommended to test it first with a group so you can understand how it works and the sort of controls and guidance or freedoms that you would like to apply for your own situation.
It's a very flexible concept; adapt it to suit your needs. This exercise is subject to a lot of variation, including the solutions that people devise. If you are a facilitator trying to imagine how it works, this might help.. At least three strings need to be connected to the top open end or near the top of the transporter tube, which keeps the tube upright and hanging from the connected strings being pulled tight by team members, and enables the tube potentially to be suspended and moved anywhere by and between the stringholders.
Given that people cannot move their positions once the ball is loaded into the transporter tube, the method of 'playing out' string, as well as pulling it, is crucial.
Strings that are too short become a problem. At least one team member needs a string connected to the bottom of the tube to enable the tipping. If just one string is connected to the bottom of the tube then the tube can be tipped from just one direction, which means the team needs to have good control over the positioning of the tube. Having more than one string connected to the bottom of the tube from more than one position increases the options for the direction of the tipping, but the downside is that beyond a certain point, depending on the coordination capability of the team the difficulty tends to increase with more people having more strings connected.
Any bottom-connected string that crosses with a top-connected string will encounter a problem when it comes to tipping, because logically the bottom-connected string must get higher than the top-connected strings, hence the example solution which follows. At its simplest, imagine the receptor tube the target into which the ball must be tipped being in the centre of a clock face. Three team members are positioned at, say, 12, 4 and 8 o'clock, each of whom has a string connected to the top of the transporter tube, and a fourth team member, say, at 6 o'clock, has a string connected to the bottom of the transporter tube to enable the tipping.
The ball is placed in the transporter tube, say by the team member at 12 o'clock. At this time no one can move from their position. The people at 4 and 8 take up the slack while 12 string is kept tight enabling the tube to be lifted.
While 4 and 8 pull the tube towards the clockface centre, 12 plays out, keeping a tight string. When the tube is in the correct position for tipping, 6 can pull, while the other three strings stay tight to keep the tube's position, or adjust as necessary. A quicker simpler version of this game can be played using drinking straws, a ball of rolled-up paper and a very thin dinner-table place mat:.
A quick simple ice-breaker or bigger exercise related to questioning, and working together, here is the instruction, for groups of any size and any ages:. You can devise your own situations besides these to suit your purposes. There are countless other possible situations. Increasing the variety of situations allocated will tend to increase the time of the activity and especially its review.
Ask people to work in pairs or threes to test and reflect and refine and maybe role-play the questions. There are no absolute 'right' or best questions - there are many effective questions, depending on the situation and people's needs, but there are certainly questions which do not work well and which should be avoided.
This exercise does not suggest that we can or should use merely one question to identify solutions for anything, especially crucial partnerships.
The purpose of the exercise is to focus attention on quality, relevance, style and preparation of questioning, according to the situation and people involved. Questioning is powerful and helpful when prepared well, but wastes everyone's time and creates problems when it is not.
Whatever you do in the review, ensure people understand the nature and purposes of open and closed questions, which is explained in the Questioning section of the sales training page. This is a simple exercise requiring no equipment or materials preparation, for groups of any size and age. We all tend to classify and stereotype each other - 'pigeon-holing' is a common expression for this. Usually this sort of classification is subjective, unhelpfully judgemental, and sometimes of course it's unfair to the point of being illegal discrimination.
If as a facilitator you use these examples feel free to instruct the group to think of their own ideas, and not merely to use one of the examples. The purpose of the exercise is to encourage people to get to know each other better, to collectively consider the nature of all individuals within the team, and to think of each other in ways that are quite different to how people tend usually to classify others. You can stipulate how many subgroups should be classified within the team s , and how many different classifications are required one split using a single classification is simplest and quickest , or you can offer wider more open flexibility, and see what the teams develop for themselves.
The Johari Window is a useful reference model, as is up to a point employment background on discrimination, minorities, bullying, etc. Approach the activity with a broader view than reminding people about employment law and discrimination:.
The way we understand and regard each other is a big subject, offering far more helpful outcomes than merely applying a legal code. For groups of four to ten people. Split larger groups into teams with leaders who can facilitate the exercise. Introduction: Facial expressions are an important part of communications. There are many different emotions and corresponding facial expressions. Some are easier to interpret than others. This exercise helps illustrate different expressions and how some are more obvious and easy to 'read' than others.
Each team member must think of one emotion or two or three emotions, for a longer exercise , which they should then write separately on a slip of paper. Fold the slips of paper and put it into a cup or glass in the centre of the table, to enable 'blind' selection. Each person must then in turn take one of the folded slips and show the emotion on their face to the team, who must guess the emotion. See Body Language and Mehrabian's communications theory for background.
Cut the picture retaining a copy into as many pieces - ideally equal squares or oblongs - as as there are participants for the exercise. Issue each person a piece of the picture. The exercise is more challenging and fascinating if the group does not see the whole original picture until the end of the activity, although this question is entirely a matter for local judgement.
Instruct people to create a copy of their piece of the picture exactly for example ten times bigger, according to length and width dimension. Size increase ten-times, five-times, twenty-times, etc is up to you - the more then the longer the activity takes, and the bigger the final result. You should clarify what 'ten-times bigger, according to length and width dimension' actually means, or different interpretations of this could spoil the result which is a lesson in itself about consistency of planning and communications, etc.
Multiplying width and length dimensions by ten produces an area which is actually a hundred-times bigger in area. This seems a lot, but it's very reasonable if seeking to produce a good sized result to stick onto a wall.
For example, if individual pieces are say 2 inches square, i. Technically 'ten times bigger' refers to area, but this isn't very easy to imagine - it's easier to plan and explain the exercise in terms of width and length dimensions.
Give a time limit minutes depending on complexity of the work and the magnification level you specify. When all the enlargements are completed ask people to assemble them into a giant copy of the original picture - on the table, or onto a wall using sticky putty, be careful not to use a wall whose surface could be damaged when removing the sticky putty..
London Underground Tube Map. Other ideas for pictures: geographical maps and weather maps, biological diagrams, well-known posters and cartoons. You can adapt the exercise by altering the 'ten-times widthand length dimensions' enlargement factor, for instance five-times would make the task easier and quicker; twenty or a hundred-times would make it more difficult and longer, and also more impactful, if you have time and space, and enough paper drawing materials The resulting assembled whole picture will indicate how well each team communicated and managed its own divisionalization of the task.
Based on an old numbers game this activity can be adapted in many different ways for groups and teams of all sizes. You can easily expand the game, add complexity, and turn it into a much longer planning and tactics exercise. With increased complexity the activity becomes increasingly suitable for teams and allowing a strategic planning stage.
Complex versions of the game are far less easy to plan and control. The game obviously allows mathematically-minded people who are often quiet and understated in the background to demonstrate their value to the group, which can be an additional benefit of the exercise.
Obviously, given snowy weather, take everyone outside and build a snowman. Or several of them. Have the team brainstorm the rules and aims of the exercise, mindful of group size, teams, and proximity of the activity to the managing director's office window. Throwing snowballs can be harmful to your team-mates' health and to the managing director's office windows.
You have been warned. If the MD or other senior executive sees what is happening and asks you to explain the purpose of the activity, here are some suggested answers delete as appropriate :. Businessballs accepts no liability for damages arising from inappropriate use of this activity. If in doubt, make some newspaper towers instead. Activities and exercises for group selection days and assessment centres can be designed to stretch the participants more if the task is issued several days before the day of the assessment.
This allows more preparation and team-working among the candidates, which in turn enables a fuller deeper test and demonstration of people's capabilities. The exercise can be used if issued on the day of the assessment, but obviously due allowance must be made for the resulting time pressure in meeting such a big challenge.
Accordingly the exercise is suited to training courses lasting two days or more when delegates can work evenings in their team on the activities. Create presentation to sell proposition to the 'board of directors' or an investor - a part which can be played by the recruitment team. This is a helpful and non-threatening way to show the effects of stress and confusion, especially in teams, and by implication the effects of stress on productivity, organisational performance and healthy working.
Ideally for teams of eight to ten people. Split larger groups into teams of and establish facilitation and review as appropriate, appointing and briefing facilitators since each team requires facilitation. You will need for each team about five balls of various sizes, compositions, weights, shapes, etc.
Five balls is probably adequate for most teams of eight people. Using very different balls makes the exercise work better for example a tennis ball, a beach ball, a rugby ball, a ping-pong ball, etc - use your imagination. The ball must be kept moving the facilitator can equate this to the processing of a task within the work situation. A dropped ball equates to a failed task which the facilitator can equate to a specific relevant objective. A held ball equates to a delayed task.
When the team can satisfactorily manage the first ball, the facilitator should then introduce a second ball to be thrown and caught while the first ball remains in circulation. Equate the second ball to an additional task, or a typical work complication, like a holiday, or an extra customer requirement. Continue to introduce more balls one by one - not too fast - each time equating them to work situations and complications.
Allow the sense of increasing stress and confusion to build, according to the ball-handling capability of the team. Introducing balls too quickly will not allow the stress to build. Stress theory and stress management. Johari Window model mutual and self-awareness. Assertiveness especially for junior people managing stress caused from above. Thanks to Karen Wright of wrightminded. This is a quick simple activity for groups of any size. For large groups spilt into teams of about six people and organise the appointment of team leaders for self-facilitation and review.
You will perhaps think of other questions on similar lines. Use one or a number of questions to prompt discussion and thereafter a review of the issues. Most people unsurprisingly tend to favour their sense of sight. You will find plenty of variation aside from this however, and generally the activity and discussion provides a quick and interesting way to explore personal strengths and preferences without the aid of a testing instrument.
Your group might have additional ideas about other 'senses' which you can include in the considerations, for example speech, movement, etc. If so then the exercise relates more strongly to Multiple Intelligences theory. Everyone would prefer Christmas and New Year celebrations to more suitably address the needs and issues of the modern age. What changes would you make? You can add a context if you wish, for example, changes for business, changes for society, changes for kids, changes for the planet, changes for global cooperation, etc.
Email me suggestions and I'll publish the best ones on this page. The exercise especially demonstrates the influencial power of mobile phones and by inference other communications methods such as emails to disrupt effective working, time management and organisational efficiency. Ask all delegates to switch on their phones or blackberries - or is it blackberrys?.. Say that this is a demonstration of the disruptive and negative effects of technology controlling people rather than vice-versa.
Ask everyone to text a friend or two or several friends each whom they know to be keen in responding to text messages. Then continue with the training or conference session, and wait for the chaotic interruptions to begin.
The chaos is a very audible demonstration of what typically happens in organisations where people are not managing their incoming communications which according to most research is the vast majority of folk.
The Mehrabian research is a useful reference area. Quizballs 48 Xmas quiz questions and answers. See the 'Smile' words and Chaplin story for inspiring positive outlook and triumph through adversity. Charlie Chaplin died on Christmas Day Seasonal acronym for when work and customers must necessarily fit in around the festivities and holidays.
Seasonal acronym explaining why most business comes to a grinding stop for two whole weeks at the end of the year. Yuletide acronym, when procrastinators everywhere are joined by most of the western world in deferring anything other than a life-threatening emergency until the Christmas blow-out is properly organized and maximum enjoyment extracted. Customer services and despatch expression, especially appropriate approaching department close-down for weekends, holidays, Christmas, etc.
Understandable response from overworked despatch departments and customer services staff when attempting to explain quite reasonably that it's not possible to process urgent last-minute orders received at lunchtime on the day before holiday shut-down. Expression origin - "Boxing day" - the day after Christmas - from the custom in seventeenth and eighteenth centuries of servants receiving gratuities from their masters, collected in boxes in Christmas day, sometimes in churches, and distributed the day after.
Spaghetti and Marshmallow Towers. Helium Stick. Baking Foil Models. Animal Perceptions Exercise. Businessballs Quickies. For pure laughs try the funny Weakest Link answers and Letters to the Council which serve as illustrations of communications breakdowns, if you need a context or excuse for sharing them..
Fantisticat is an interesting way to look at fresh starts and the New Year, especially for young people or those facing or desiring change. Ask the group to think of an example - any example, from their own personal life not too personal or from work or the world of media, politics, economy, anything.
Discuss how and why things can seem crucial one day, yet often can soon become completely insignificant, given a little time. Discuss the influences of emotions, peer pressure, zietgeist, the media, daft unquestioning management, personal mood, etc. This is a creative planning process and template for individuals and for groups facing or desiring career change, especially a move into self-employment or starting up their own new business.
It can be helpful for people facing decisions about new work or business direction, especially to encourage thinking outside of habits and conditioning, at any stage of a person's working life.
It's a simple formula. For example, subject to time available, encourage people to think through the stages of the process:. A quick table-top exercise for individuals or teams, and a quick version of the bigger newspaper tower activity. Issue a single sheet of paper A4 or international equivalent to each group member or one sheet per team if the exercise is to be played as a team game.
Using the sheet of paper only - no other materials - construct the tallest free-standing structure - in 5 minutes. Incidentally the best technical approach to this task almost certainly requires the construction and use of connectable tubular rolled or triangular telescopic sections, made from lengthways strips of the sheet. Using this technique it is possible to make a tower at least three times higher than the length of the sheet.
The exercise can be adapted to suit your situation, for example giving group members 15 minutes for the task and issuing an extra practice sheet of paper will increase the depth and complexity of the task and the review. Focus especially on the differences in expectations between mutually depending groups. These games are great for understanding how to boost daily productivity and make better use of working time. And if you are looking for some extra tips on how to make yourself highly productive, follow the link.
This creative team bonding exercise requires effective color coordination and collaboration is required for each canvas to fit perfectly. And BTW, here is the list of best software tools to help your colleagues plan effectively. If the participants share their rhythms with each other, they could build an efficient working schedule for the whole team. Another effective way for your colleagues to control their working time and breaks is to use the Pomodoro technique.
The task can be done throughout the day, so that your co-workers have more precise results on their papers, allowing them to evaluate time efficiently. This game is a convenient way to actually see on paper how time is spent throughout the day. Afterward, ask your colleagues to find new ways to improve their time management. One great place to start is with some time management literature. Knowing how to delegate tasks is an essential skill for any manager.
It optimizes time spent and helps ensure the best person for the job is assigned to it, whenever possible. Using this activity, participants can adjust the expectations of their daily schedule and become more efficient. This will help them accept an appropriate amount of work, prioritize and be able to give a clearer deadline. Leading to a more prosperous, efficient company. Depending on which objects you put in first determines how much of the other items you can put in afterward.
If you put sand in first, nothing else will fit except some water , but if you start with the big rocks our most important tasks and go down, you can fit some of everything in. This jar represents your life. The rocks are the important things — your family, your partner, your health, your work — things that if everything else was lost and only they remained, your life would still be full.
The pebbles are the other things that matter — your house, your car. The sand is everything else, the small stuff.
If you put the sand into the jar first, there is no room for the pebbles or the rocks. The same goes for your life. If you spend all your time and energy on the small stuff, you will never have room for the things that are important to you. Pay attention to the things that are critical to your happiness. Play with your children. There will always be time to clean the house, throw a dinner party, or fix the disposal. Emphasize the importance of time and you are in control of how you spend it.
Time is about making the right choices. Unlike the wide variety of off-the-peg training course material providers on the internet that wait to trap the unwary would-be trainer with generic canned courses that prioritize style over substance, our soft skills topics are carefully developed to target specific skills and mindsets using hands-on immersive learning and innovative training models.
All our training materials and courseware packages are designed and developed with both trainers and trainees in mind, and have been tried and tested on the job to ensure their successful delivery by trainers of all types, from frontline employees and first-timers to senior management and training professionals alike.
My course materials were professionally designed in a compelling manner that resonated with my learners and made my delivery even more impactful. Instructional design principles were also applied in the design of the course materials - it was build for adult learners and there were several application based learning models and exercises to use for learner engagement and retention. The customer service was also suburb and the entire purchasing process seamless from start to finish.
I will definitely use Training Materials again! I just completed a three-day program ,using one of your two day packages. I was able to customize this program quite easily. The thorough work done by your team saved me a lot of time-and money.
Your programs provide the blueprint for what I need for my corporate and government training clients. I have seen similar programs advertised elsewhere for triple the price! I will return to your website as needed and will recommend your products and services to fellow consultants. Participants benefit from interactive activities that reinforce the content and making learning fun.
I've been using training course materials for a number of years. They have some of the best products I seen on the market. Looking for engaging games, information and content Training Course Material is the way to go.
Some of the best reviews I've ever received were after I put on presentations using training course material content. If you want to wow your clients, if you want to stand out in the crowd, if you just want to be the best you can be, use Training Course Materials.
I am super impressed. I am normally very picky and very disappointed in the quality of prepared content and this is just so well done. However, I have to tell you that I am impressed with the materials! I spent a couple of hours reviewing the student workbook and facilitators materials over the weekend and am excited about offering the Professional Sales program to one of my clients next month.
The content is structured and delivered in such a way as to facilitate a positive learning experience for the participants. The presentation and course notes are well-designed, fun and engaging which help to encourage a high level of participation. I found materials very useful and dynamic. I like the whole package and I think that the mix of theory and exercises is the best I could find. Also the package is the good value for money. I am very pleased with the presentation.
My team and I are becoming familiarized with the information. That said, we are very pleased what you have produced. As a trainer, I found the Time Management Training course very comprehensive and easy to follow.
I especially like the experiential aspects of the course content delivery. Every module of this package is laid out extremely well, including easy to follow lists such supplies required. I like your training material very much which I have used before and I have not been able to get the quality of content and graphics from other courseware providers like Training Course Material.
Com offers. It is very interactive for the participants and easy to identify with. It helped me as a trainer to deliver in a way that kept interest and attention. I have purchased the 3 training programmes of the Complete Communications Excellence Series. I consider that the GBP 99 cost represents excellent value for money and the materials are of a high quality.
The programmes follow a logical sequence and are very comprehensive. How many participants are there? What is the knowledge and experience of the participants? What is my budget? What other courses can I use this game for? How do I run a management game? This will give you a good idea of what the game is about and how to run it Look at your learning objectives and see how they will fit into the game Make copies of the provided debrief or devise you own to suit your needs Run through the game, preferable with others, so you have a good understanding of it Prepare the layout of the room and issue the supplied materials.
On occasions you may need to provide other materials such flip charts, writing paper and pens etc Brief the participants on the game Monitor the groups in action and where appropriate help individuals or groups to go in the right direction Guide the debrief - listen to their experiences; promote discussion from and between participants; draw out key learning points; relate it to the real world Draw up action plans for performance improvement in the workplace.
Key benefits of our management games: Wide selection of business games and training materials produced by us and other top companies Best price guaranteed with help before and after your purchase Buy and use as many times as you want Easy to use — just follow the included trainer's guide Structured learning activities that are lively and fun, but focus on real, relevant workplace issues. Expert free advice to help you choose and use If you are trying to choose the best management games to fit your needs, or have a query about running our management games, the Elite Training Team will help you.
Why areas do management games cover? For more information on our management games click on the link below:. If the game or training material does not live up to your expectations, you can return them unused within 10 days, for a full refund on the goods. Follow us.
0コメント