Trainer Tips

Give your delegates an entertaining start to your training with this 10-minute ice-breaker. Human Bingo will absolutely help your delegates get to know each other quickly!

1. Ask your delegates to email you in advance with their “secret” – an odd hobby, an odd thing they own or an unusual like / dislike. For example, they like to sing under the shower, have a tattoo, have an exotic pet, do not like pizza, can play an instrument, hate football, sleep on the right side, have been to Lands End, and so on.

2. Create bingo sheets from the information you have gleaned.

3. On the day, give everyone a bingo sheet and explain that they have 10 minutes to run around and find people with those characteristics.

4. Explain the Rules:

• They must put the name of the person next to the characteristic.
• Names can only appear once on the bingo sheet.
• Once they have a name against every characteristic, they should call out BINGO!

It’s really fun to see delegates running around and asking each other for their secrets, trying to win at Bingo! And don’t be surprised if the lure of winning causes them to start shouting out … Anyone here that sings under the shower?

* This is most fun when you play it with a large group (20+ more people).
* Consider creating different bingo sheets to increase the level of difficulty.

Thanks go to mftrou.com for this ice-breaker, courtesy of Ivonne Rudolph.

Wake your delegates up after lunch with this fast-paced activity that requires speed and communication skills. This 10-minute game makes everyone excited and if delegates are of a competitive nature, they will try even harder to win, with amusing results! Great for delegate numbers between 8 and 30.You’ll need a pack of cards for each team and maybe a prize for the winning team!

1. Split the group into teams with a minimum of 4 people in each team.

2. Explain that the objective for each team is to pass playing cards from one person to another as quickly as they can.

3. Get the teams to sit (or stand*) in two lines in front of each other. Each line is a separate team. They will be competing against each other for this task.

4. Place the pack(s) of cards at one end of the table, face down, out of their packet.

5. The row of players have to pass the cards from one to another – starting with the person at one end picking up the first card and passing it to the next person’s nearest hand.

6. Each card must then be passed on along the row, passing to the nearest hand only with no ‘skipping’ people out to speed up the process!

7. No one is allowed more than two cards in their hand at any one time.

8. Each team must carry on passing cards until all cards have made it from one end of the table to the other.

*If your delegates are standing, then you need either a table at either end to put the cards on, or a team ‘captain’ to collect the finished card pile.

Variations: You can repeat the exercise to allow teams to improve their performance or switch team members around and see how the group dynamic changes.

Outcomes to look for:

• Communication between team members – everyone contributing?
• Competitiveness
• Speed/energy and ‘waking up your delegates
• Participation, reluctance

Thanks go to The Complete Trainer Ltd for this energiser.

This is a really quick, simple and fun ice-breaker for groups of four to around a dozen people. Split larger groups into smaller teams and apply these instructions for each of the teams.

1. Pass or toss a toilet roll to one of the group members. Ask the person to tear off as many sheets as they want and then pass or toss the roll to another member of the group to do the same, and then on to another member to include the whole group. (Tossing the roll at random is more fun as it increases fun and expectation).

2. Do not explain the purpose yet. Some will take two or three sheets, some will take more. This, and the interpretations made, will generate a lot of amusement and comment. Be sure to have a spare roll on hand, and obviously if splitting the group into teams ensure sufficient supplies for each team!

3. Now reveal the purpose: each individual must give as many facts about themselves according to how many pieces of toilet roll they have. Those with the most modest requirements will therefore need to say least; those tearing off a couple of dozen sheets will be under a little more pressure…

The activity can also be extended to create a great team building game:

After each person has removed their chosen number of sheets, split the group into the “have’s” and “have-less’s”, and give each side three minutes to prepare a 60 second statement justifying the merits of ‘ambition’ and ‘modesty’ respectively. Or for three teams (the “have’s” the “have-somes and the “have-littles”) to prepare and present respectively on ‘adventure’, ‘pragmatism’ and ‘caution’.

Thanks go to Business Balls for this Ice-breaker idea, courtesy of Pam Cook and adapted from an original exercise featured in The Encyclopedia of Ice-Breakers by Sue Forbess Green

This 20-30 minute ice breaker is guaranteed to produce very different and creative results, and provide much frustration and competition throughout:

1. Divide your group up into two teams or more with less than ten people in each team.

2. Give each team one pen, one flip chart and a theme for drawing, e.g. a cow parachuting.

3. Explain that person A will start drawing, but when his pen leaves the paper, he must stop drawing and pass the pen to person B. Person B will then continue the drawing until his pen leaves the paper, when he must stop drawing and pass the pen to person C ….. and so on.

4. Explain the rules of the exercise (you could print a copy for each team):

a) There is a time limit of ten minutes for the exercise.
b) Each team can talk about how to draw before they start drawing
c) Each team member can only draw on the paper once
d) Team members cannot trace (i.e. they cannot draw over any lines already drawn)

5. The drawing theme can be changed to suit, and can be played again by the same team members.

6. Aims of the game:

• Team building
• Understanding the need for a leader for team work
• Learning to discuss
• Learning to share responsibility
• Learning to listen to suggestions

The most value will be gained if there is a period of reflection and learning after the game, where the team discuss the roles they played and what worked or didn’t work, and what they’d do differently next time.

Here’s a great way to energise your delegates when things are slowing down a little … particularly after lunch!

1. Ask the team to form a circle with their chairs. Ensure there are only as many chairs as people and then take two away.

2. Ask those two people without chairs to stand in the middle of the circle (ensure you are outside the circle).

3. Go around the circle and name each person in turn as lemon, orange, apple, lemon, orange, apple etc. (don’t forget to name the two people in the middle)

4. Explain: “I will shout out a fruit name, which will be either, lemon, orange or apple. If you hear your fruit called out you must leave your own seat and find another. If you are left in the middle you must wait until your fruit is called until you can find a seat. If I shout ‘fruit salad’ then everyone must leave their seat and find another.

5. Ensure everyone understands the rules and then start the energizer.

6. Call out different fruits in sequence and occasionally add in ‘fruit salad’. Continue this process until you feel that energy levels have increased or that people start to fall down tired!

NB For health and safety, you will need chairs with wheels that lock (or chairs that don’t have wheels)!

Thanks go to www.trainerbubble.com for this energiser.

Here’s a great way to encourage participants to remind themselves of key learning points or action points from your training:

Towards the beginning of your course/workshop, ask each participant to choose a postcard from those you’ve brought with you. Ask them to look after their chosen postcard (but don’t tell them what it’s for yet).

At the end of the training, give each participant an envelope and ask them to write their name and address on it. Then, ask them to take the postcards they chose earlier and on these, write the action points, learning points or anything else that will trigger memories of the course for them – their choice.

Once they’ve done this, ask them to place their postcard in the envelope, seal it, and hand it to you. Explain that the postcard will drop onto their doormats one day in the future when they are least expecting it.

Make a diary note to remind yourself to send the postcards out to the participants – it’s recommended that you send them out between six and twelve weeks after the training.

The postcards will provide a powerful reminder of things participants may have forgotten on their return to work and re-focus their mind on what they need to do to implement the learning.

Thanks to Rod Webb from Glasstap for this idea.

Glasstap’s Trainers’ Library gives trainers access to pre-tested experiential training materials, including detailed trainer’s notes for interactive and innovative exercises, handouts, team briefs – in fact everything you need to quickly put together participative, inspiring training. And it can easily cut the time needed to develop new courses and workshops by 80%.

Readers of this article can save 15% on a new Library+ or Gold subscription by calling Glasstap on 01434 381122 and quoting ETCV. For more information, visit www.glasstap.com.

March 2011