August 25, 2008
3 New Energizers!
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Training GamesTable of Contents:
- An Introduction!
- 3 New Energizers!
Introduction
You'll notice the new name of the e-zine. It is now called "Stories, Games and Articles for EL" instead of "Stories for EL".In line with the new name, this e-zine will provide two more added resources to you. In addition to stories you will receive details of new games, articles on various concepts like leadership, communication etc.
Read, use and enjoy!
3 New Energizers - Games you can use to keep your group active!
Energizers are activities done in between sessions in training or during a class. The purpose of the energizer is essentially to awaken a sleeping audience or activate a jaded audience.Seriously! That is the primary reason! If you have to use too many energizers, what do you think that says about your presentation ability?
Anyway, another reason for using energizers is to give the participants an opportunity to change perspectives, move from one session to another in between breaks etc.
The first energizer is called Stand in Alphabetical Order.
Get the group to move away from their seats and stand in a line. This is a self-managed activity. They are expected to stand in alphabetical order – the first person’s name should begin with an ‘A’.
They have to do this without talking to each other. They can use non-verbal communication, but they cannot speak to each other. They also have to finish this activity in five minutes.
The energizer can also be turned into a competition, if the group has 20 or more people in it. Make groups of 10. Each group plays the game simultaneously. The winning group of course is the one that finishes first.
The second, energizer is a variation of the first game. It is called Stand in Chronological Order.
Get the group to stand. This time they can talk. They have to call out their dates of birth in turn and as they do they have to arrange themselves in ascending order – the first participant will have their birthday in January and so on.
The third energizer is called My Coloured Hat.
Preparation: Make paper hats of different colours. There should be as many hats as there are participants. You can choose to have anywhere from four to six colours. So if you have chosen to have six colours and there are thirty participants. There will be five hats of the same colour in the stack of hats.
Each colour is designated to represent a feeling. For instance, if you have decided to play with feelings, you can have white for peaceful/tranquil, blue for joyful, green for envy/jealousy, red for irritation/anger, purple for rich/plenteous, orange for creative.
Process: The participants have to be told the meaning of each colour. Then they pick up a hat of their choice and stand in a circle. Once each of the participants is wearing a hat, they are expected to describe their feeling.
If it is a positive feeling they express it and give themselves permission to enjoy it.
If it is a negative feeling, they acknowledge it, and decide to bag (bracket) it for the present. They also decide to pick it up after the sessions are over and do something positive to deal with it. The objective is to replace the negative feeling with a positive one.
A fourth possible energizer - My Role.
My coloured hat can also be played to experience the roles that people play in a group. In this case the colour does not matter It is used only to make the activity interesting. It is then called My Role. On each hat the name of the role is written. Some roles people play are: initiator, summarizer, etc.
Get a list of all the roles and their explanations from http://www.context.org/ICLIB/IC09/FCL.ht
Participants pick up a role of their choice and stand in a circle. Once there they are given a controversial topic. They have to discuss this topic in their roles. They have ten minutes to explore their roles while discussing the topic.
Use these games and let me know how you fared. You'll find more such games - all of them brand new in my e-book "New Training Games". If you purchase the e-book, you'll also get a bonus e-book on creativity techniques.
To order your e-book and get the bonus go here. It will cost you just $7. Buy it and add the games to your training repertoire. Get a free e-book on Creativity too.
You can also order your leadership profile for just $5 at:on this page.