Cartoon Deck
cartoon deck What are some good Christmas movies? I already have A Christmas Story A Christmas Carol Christmas Vacation Deck The Halls It's A Wonderful Life and the more obvious cartoons I'm loo...
cartoon deck
 What are some good Christmas movies? I already have and the more obvious cartoons I'm looking for suggestions for some less obvious ones Surely there are more Christmas movies than that list B Q: There was one where a bag lady in the park tells a young girl to "always follow your heart"...can you name it? Miracle on 34th Street (the original in black and white is my all time favorite) |
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Energize Your Meetings by Using Icebreakers and Team Building Activities
In facilitating training sessions and sales meetings for 3 different Fortune 500 companies, I notice that getting team members acquainted and comfortable with each other and keeping team members energized and actively involved in the meeting are my two biggest challenges. To these ends, I've found that investing a few minutes throughout the meeting using a quick icebreaker or team-building activity can quickly help team members feel more comfortable and become more energized and engaged.
Here are a couple of ideas and insights to help you adjust your icebreakers and team-building activities to the needs of your group:
1) Let team members talk about the subject they know the best...themselves!
This technique is used routinely by interviewers to help set a candidate at ease by letting them talk about themselves and this is one of the best methods for getting meeting participants talking and, as well, it helps to set an expectation of participation from everyone. Here are a few ideas to get you started:
Personal Connections: If the team members are always the same, it's nice to personalize the team icebreaker by having each person give a 2-3 minute personal update on "what's going on in their world".
Hand sketch: Have team members draw an outline of their hand on a piece of paper and then for each finger they will write something interesting:
- Thumb – a thing I do well (thumbs up)
- First finger – a thing that makes me stand out from a crowd
- Middle finger – a pet peeve/something that frustrates me
- Ring finger - something I'm obsessive about or committed to
- Pinkie finger - a little known fact about me
2) Help team members find common ground or interests with one another!
If the team members not acquainted with each other, a great activity is to help them find common ground from which they can start building bonds. Here are a few ideas you can use to help people find common ground:
Life Firsts: Using a sheet of paper, have team members write 2-3 "firsts in their life" (e.g. the first sporting event they attended, the first DVD they purchased, the first summer job they had, etc.). The responses can then be read by the facilitator or participant after they introduce themselves.
Forced Choice: Read off a seemingly opposite pair of words (e.g. spring/fall; Pepsi/Coke; PC/Mac; beach/pool, etc.) and have participants record their answers on a sheet of paper. After 10-20 questions are answered, assign either a "1" or "2" to each answer (e.g. PC=1 & Mac=2; Pepsi=1 & Coke=2) and have the participants add up the number of "1s" and "2s" as per their answers. Designate two separate areas of the room and have participants with more "1s" gather in one area and participants with more "2s" gather in the other. While in the subgroups, instruct individuals to introduce themselves to one another and then discuss, defend, or explain their choices. (Visit our website at the bottom of the page for a downloadable list of "Forced Choice" questions and other resources on our free icebreakers page). You can also go around the room and with each participant, ask 5 forced choice questions. This is a quick way to let people learn about each other's little opinions or preferences
3) Reinforce a point with laughter!
Find cartoons, stories, trivia, etc. that are relevant to your meeting topic. Cartoons can be added to PowerPoint decks or blown up and taped to a flip chart and flipped over at the appropriate moment. Stories should ideally teach a point, relate to meeting goal or help transition into an agenda item. The following are two of my favorites:
- Three ducks are sitting on a wall and two decide to jump off. How many ducks are left on the wall? The answer is TWO, because there is a big difference between deciding to do something and actually doing something. Moral: once you decide on a course of action...take action!
- Five frogs are hopping through the forest and two fall into a hole filled with water. Floating in the water, they can't leap out of the hole so they begin to drink the water. Once the water is all gone and they are firmly on the bottom of the hole, the two began jumping and jumping, trying to get out. The frogs at the top quickly realize that because the frogs in the hole are now full with water and will be too heavy to jump out of the hole. At this realization, the frogs at the top begin shouting to the frogs in the hole to stop jumping and just save their energy, because they are going to die in the hole anyway. Listening to his "friends", one of the frogs in the hole finally gives up and after a while, rolls over and dies. But the other frog just keeps on jumping and jumping and jumping, as he keeps his eyes on the frogs at the top, he sees that they are shouting and motioning toward him and their excitement gives him renewed energy. After just a little while and with great effort, the frog in the hole gives one last burst and springs out of the hole. Now outside, the other frogs gather around him and ask him why he kept jumping. He simply responds, "Well I couldn't hear what you were all shouting since I'm def, but your excitement made me believe I could get out of the hole, so I just kept jumping!" Moral: Through team building and and encouragement, teammates can help each other reach new heights.
A closing note: Many facilitators like the "go around the room and find the person with your same name" or "interview and tell the group about the person on your left" activities, but for some team members, these types of "icebreakers" could make them feel more uncomfortable than they already are. Remember how you may have felt the first time you asked someone out on a date. It's for this reason that I like to let people talk about themselves or share the interests they like first.
Implementing team icebreaker activities throughout your meetings can significantly increase the sharing of ideas and help to create a sense of teamwork among the team members, which ultimately contributes to a more successful and productive meeting or training session. Have fun!
About the Author
Martin Waverly is a dynamic and energetic team leader and trainer with over 15 years of professional experience in teaching and leading high-performance teams within 3 different Fortune 500 Companies. He has a passion for working with leaders and trainers to translate his years of insight and experience to help them run fun, high-energy, positive and engaging meetings both in the classroom and the boardroom.
You can get more ideas for fun icebreakers and engaging teambuilding ideas at http://www.icebreakersformeetings.com
Action is the last resource of those who know not how to dream. ~Oscar Wilde
I am extremely impressed with your writing skills as well as with the layout on your blog. Is this a paid theme or did you modify it yourself? Anyway keep up the excellent quality writing, it’s rare to see a nice blog like this one nowadays..