Openers are something every trainer should have in their toolkit, which is why the subject was covered during The Bob Pike Group’s 20th Annual Creative Training Techniques Conference by Jason Ash, an Australian consultant affiliated with the group. Before Jason detailed a number of openers from the Land Down Under, he explained a very important distinction between icebreakers and openers.
Icebreakers are similar to openers in that they break participant preoccupation and facilitate networking by increasing participant comfort. However, icebreakers don’t relate to content. This distinction is important for trainers with time constraints, as they cannot afford to set time aside solely for the purposes of letting participants network and have fun. Icebreakers used in training sessions can also cause participants to become annoyed because they feel the activity is a waste of time.
The Name Tag Tent
With nothing more than a sheet of paper and a marker for each participant, a trainer can create the engaging opener.
- Start by dividing your participants into groups of five to seven.
- Instruct the participants to fold the paper into a tent by making three folds.
- Instruct participants to write their names on the front side and four facts about themselves on the back side.
- The categories of the four facts on the backside are flexible to the instructor’s purpose.
- It is best to have a few fun facts like the person’s favorite food or hobby.
- Try to have some of the material relate back to the content. For example, two things the participant wants to learn from the session.
- After each participant finishes work on their nametag, allow a few minutes for the group members to share their names and their four items with each other.
Expectation Wall
The expectation wall is a useful tool that engages participants in their learning while giving the instructor valuable insight into the needs of his or her audience. The tool can also be used as a revisiter if participants are instructed to grab the expectations from the wall when it is met by the instructor. All that is necessary for the expectation wall are sticky notes, markers and wall space.
- Start by dividing your participants into groups of five to seven people.
- Instruct each group to come up with a list of expectations for the training session.
- After giving them a couple of minutes to brainstorm, instruct the groups to discuss the items on their list and choose their top five expectations as a group.
- Have each group write their expectations on sticky notes and place them on an open spot on the wall.
Imaginary Executives
No tools are necessary for the opener, save an imagination. The activity works great for reorganizing individuals into new groups. It also allows participants to review content and think about how they will use it in the future.
- Tell participants to imagine they are their company’s executives.
- Instruct each person to come up with three things they learned from the training session that their company’s employees should apply.
- Once each participant decides on their three things, have them look for three to four other people who have the same lists. These groupings of three to four people can now be used as new groups.
Adapt Adopt and Apply
After demonstrating each exercise, Jason encouraged the participants to adapt, adopt and apply the openers to their content and time frames.
If you want to find additional openers for your training, check out 50 Creative Training Openers and Energizers by Lynn Solem and Bob Pike
by Jordan Meyers
