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Boredom Busters: Boosting Engagement
in Meetings and Trainings by Brian Remer A 1-day workshop.
Survey Results Training Webinars A summary of your responses.
Check It Out PechaKucha An antidote for PowerPoint poisoning.
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THIAGI GAMELETTER:
SERIOUSLY FUN ACTIVITIES FOR TRAINERS, FACILITATORS,
PERFORMANCE CONSULTANTS, AND MANAGERS.
Mission
To increase and improve the use of interactive,
experiential strategies to improve human performance in an
effective, efficient, and enjoyable way.
Editorial Roster
Author and Editor
: Sivasailam (Thiagi) Thiagarajan
Assistant Editor
: Raja Thiagarajan
Associate Editors: Tracy Tagliati and Jean Reese
Contributing Editors: Brian Remer and Matthew Richter
Copyright Info
The materials in this newsletter are copyright 2014 by The
Thiagi Group. However, they may be freely reproduced for
educational/training activities. There is no need to obtain
special permission for such use as long as you do not
reproduce more than 100 copies per year. Please
include the following statement on all reproductions:
For any other use of the content, please contact us (
thiagi@thiagi.com ) for permission.
Subscription Info
To sign up, or to donate and help us continue this
newsletter, please see the Online
Newsletter page on our website (
http://thiagi.com/pfp.html ).
Feedback Request
Thiagi believes in practicing what he preaches. This is an
interactive newsletter, so interact already! Send us your
feedback, sarcastic remarks, and gratuitous advice through
email to thiagi@thiagi.com . Thanks!
This activity uses the modified version of the
Who and Why framegame from the
March
2014 issue of TGL as the basic
structure.
Synopsis
Participants work individually, assuming the roles of three
different people and brainstorming their perceptions of
three most favorite managers and three least favorite
managers. Later, they work with a partner (and still later,
in teams) to prepare a list of dos and
don'ts for improving employees' perception of a
manager's style.
Purpose
To identify behaviors and characteristics of managers that
enhance their image in the minds of their employees.
Participants
Minimum: 6
Maximum: 50
Best: 15 to 30
Time
20 to 45 minutes
Supplies
Countdown timer
Whistle
Sheets of flipchart paper
Felt-tipped markers
Masking tape
Flow
Ask the participants to select three
employees. Tell the participants that they are
going to undertake a thought experiment. Ask each
participant to think of three employees. Encourage the
participants to make sure that these employees are as
different as possible from each other in terms of age,
gender, ethnicity, and educational background. Tell the
participants that these people could be real employees or
imaginary characters.
Ask the participants to identify positive behaviors
and characteristics of managers. Instruct the
participants to work individually and assume the role of one
of the three employees they selected. Ask them to make a
list of responses to this question:
In the perception of this employee, what behaviors and
characteristics of managers will make him or her feel
positive?
Ask the participants to repeat the same thinking assignment
in the roles of the other two selected employees. Announce a
3-minute time limit for this activity.
Ask the participants to identify negative behaviors
and characteristics of managers. Explain that you
are going to repeat the activity—but work in the
opposite direction. As before, instruct the participants to
assume the role of one of the three employees. Ask them to
make a list of responses to this question:
In the perception of this employee, what behaviors and
characteristics of managers will make him or her feel
negative?
Ask the participants to repeat the same thinking task with
the roles of the other two employees. Announce a 3-minute
time limit for this activity.
Distribute playing cards. Give a random
playing card to each participant. Make sure to distribute
equal numbers of black and red cards. (If you have an odd
number of participants, you will end up with one more person
who has either a red or a black card.)
Pair up with a partner. Ask the
participants to pair up with someone who has a card of the
different color. If one participant is left over,
ask him or her to pair up with you.
Discuss positive and negative management factors
with the partner. Ask the participants to share
the positive behaviors and characteristics they had
identified in the first thought experiment. Ask them to also
discuss the negative factors. Announce a 3-minute time limit
for this activity.
Form a team. Blow a whistle at the end of
3 minutes. Ask the participants to say “Goodbye” to
their partners and to form a team of three to five people
who have playing cards of the same color (red or
black).
Prepare a checklist. Distribute a sheet of
flip-chart paper and a felt-tipped marker to each team.
Instruct the team members to share their ideas and to
prepare a list of do's and don'ts for a
manager to improve the employees' perception. Announce a
5-minute time limit for this activity.
Review lists from other teams. Blow the
whistle at the end of 5 minutes. Ask the teams to attach
their posters on the wall with pieces of masking tape.
Invite the participants to review the posters from the other
teams to discover common items and unique ones. Announce a
3-minute time limit.
Debriefing
Discuss the items from the posters. At the
end of 3 minutes, blow the whistle and assemble the
participants for a debriefing discussion. Conduct this
discussion by asking questions similar to these:
Which suggestions appeared in the most posters?
Which suggestions were unique to a single
poster?
Which suggestions do managers most frequently
neglect?
Which suggestions would significantly improve the
employees' image of the managers?
The name of the game refers to the repeated reduction of a
number of cards to a single card. The participants compare
pairs of cards, select the better one, and repeat this
procedure until only one card remains.
About the Cards
This game uses a deck of Practical Advice
Cards.
Each card in a deck of 52 Practical Advice
Cards contains an actionable guideline related
to a specific topic. We currently have more than 20
different ready-to-use decks of cards for sale on topics
such as trust building, coaching, interviewing, customer
service, facilitation, feedback, innovation, leadership,
listening, managing globally, motivation, presentation
skills, teamwork, and training. You can find them in our
online store at http://www.thiagi.biz/category_s/1833.htm .
We'd love to sell you the cards, but you don't have to buy
them. You can create your own cards by writing different
pieces of practical advice on blank index cards. If you want
to be more efficient (and effective), you can ask the
participants to generate their own cards, mix them up, and
conduct the game.
This game requires one card per player.
Synopsis
Participants pair up and compare the pieces of advice on
the two cards they have. In each pair, the participant with
the better card keeps it; the other participant returns his
or her card to the facilitator. The participants with cards
continue pairing up with each other and comparing cards. The
game continues until only one cardholder remains with the
best piece of advice.
Purpose
To comparatively review the pieces of advice on different
cards and to identify the best piece of advice.
Participants
Minimum: 5 Maximum: Any number Best: 20-50
Time
15-30 minutes, depending on the number of participants
Supplies
One Practical Advice Card for each
participant.
Flow
Brief the participants. Select any two
cards and read the piece of advice on each of them. Ask the
participants to compare these pieces of advice and to select
the better one. Encourage the participants to talk to each
other and to discuss the costs and benefits associated with
implementing each piece of advice. After a suitable pause,
select the card with the better piece of advice based on the
inputs from the participants.
Distribute Practical Advice
Cards. Ask each person to take a
random card and review the piece of advice printed on
it.
Ask the participants to pair up and compare their
cards. Tell each participant to pair up with
another participant. Ask the members of each pair to review
the pieces of advice on the two cards they have. Encourage
the participants to discuss the relative merits of the two
cards and to select the card with the better piece of
advice.
Give instructions to the cardholders. Ask
the participant with the better piece of advice (“the
cardholder”) to hold on to the card and to pair up with
another cardholder.
Give instructions to the facilitators. Ask
the participant with the other card (“the facilitator”)
to give back his card and help the cardholders to continue
the activity. Ask these facilitators to spot cardholders in
different parts of the room and to pair them up. Also ask
the facilitators to help speed up the review process and to
select the card with the better piece of advice.
Continue the activity. Ask the
participants to continue reviewing pairs of cards and
selecting the one with the better piece of advice. As the
game proceeds, the number of facilitators will increase and
the number of cardholders will decrease. Encourage the mobs
of facilitators to actively help the cardholders to review
the pieces of advice and to select the card with the better
one.
Conclude the activity. The game will come
to an automatic stop when only one cardholder remains,
holding the card with the best piece of advice. Ask for a
drum roll and ask the remaining cardholder to read the piece
of advice. Encourage the participants to reflect on this
piece of advice and to implement it at the next available
opportunity.
Would you like to have some fun, and help us beta-test a
program?
We're having fun with a new interactive cryptogram solver
created by the students of Dr. Gregory Rawlins's
Object-Oriented Software Management class. It requires
JavaScript to run, and is specifically designed to work on
mobile devices (i.e., iPhones and other smartphones, iPads and
other tablets). It also works with modern desktop browsers
such as Chrome, Firefox, and Safari, and should work with
up-to-date versions of Internet Explorer (though we have no
way to test that).
A lot of talent lies dormant in your workplace that is
capable of coming up with innovative ideas for improving
products, procedures, productivity, and profits. You can
leverage hidden talent not only by training employees how to
be creative but also by training managers how to lead
innovation by encouraging people to generate ideas, collect
and evaluate these ideas, and implement them.
Working with Dimis Michaelides, the best-selling author of
The Art of Innovation, we have
designed two decks of cards, each with several different
games, on the topic of leading innovation. We are launching
these card games with a hefty discount.
Practical Advice Card (PAC)
Games
The Cards
This collection of games features a deck of 52 cards,
each with a piece of practical advice related to leading
innovation in the workplace. The advice on each card is
self-contained, evidence-based, useful, and usable. The
pieces of advice are not based on any single book or any
single model for leading innovation. Instead, they are
based on our analysis of several books, research reports,
case studies, online forums, conference sessions, and
interviews with subject-matter experts.
The Games
While you can read the advice on each card and implement
it at work and home, what makes this training tool
effective and engaging is the collection of 20 different
games. These games can be played by different numbers of
people (from 1 to 100) and last for different periods of
time (from 10 minutes to 52 weeks). The deck comes with a
copy of the game manual. You can also download a PDF
version of the manual.
Buy Now and Get a Discount
The Practical Advice Cards deck
and game manual sells for $49.95. Order before
April 30, 2014 and you will receive a $10
discount. You can purchase the
Leading Innovation PAC game for
$39.95 (plus $9.50 for shipping) in our online store. No need to enter a coupon
code—as long as you order before April 30, you'll
get the discount automatically.
Fluency Card (FC) Games
The Cards
This is a different system of card games on the same
topic. A deck of fluency cards contains four different
types of cards. Spades cards contain a
category associated with leading innovation.
Clubs cards contain a pair of concepts
associated with leading innovation.
Hearts cards contain a single concept
associated with leading innovation.
Diamonds cards contain a roleplay
scenario associated with leading innovation.
The Games
You can use the Fluency Cards to
play different games. The object of the game is to win as
many cards as possible within a specific period of play.
To win a card, you have to perform a specific task
associated with the card better than the other players. To
win a spades card, you have to come up with a list of
items that belong to the category printed on the card. To
win a clubs card, you have to come up with one important
difference and one important similarity between the two
concepts printed on the card. To win a hearts card you
have to draw a picture that is directly related to the
concept printed on the card. To win a diamond card you
have to act out appropriate behaviors in a roleplay
related to the scenario printed on the card.
Buy Now and Get a Discount
The Fluency Cards deck and game
manual sells for $49.95. Order before March 31,
2014 and you will receive a $10 discount. You
can purchase the Leading Innovation
FC game for $39.95 (plus $9.50 for shipping) in our online store. No need to enter a coupon
code—as long as you order before April 30, you'll
get the discount automatically.
Leading Innovation Combo
Save even more!
Want to save more? Buy the Leading Innovation
combo, which contains one PAC and one FC deck and
game manual. Ordinarily this combo sells for $89.95 (plus
$9.50 shipping). Order before April 30, 2014 and
you will receive a $20 discount. You can
purchase the combo for $69.95 (plus $10.00 for shipping)
in our online store. No need to enter a coupon
code—as long as you order before April 30, you'll
get the discount automatically.
Interactive Techniques for
Instructor-Led Training: A 2-day
workshop
Here is our upcoming workshop in Washington, DC. This will
probably be our last public workshop in the USA this year.
WHAT:
Interactive Techniques for Instructor-Led
Training: A 2-day workshop
FOR WHOM: Trainers, facilitators,
instructional designers, performance consultants, and
managers
HOW MUCH: Regular registration rate: $1099.
As a reader of the Thiagi GameLetter,
get $150 off by entering coupon code TGL-WS14 when
you register online.
Washington, DC June 10-11,
2014
Hyatt Regency Crystal City 2799 Jefferson
Davis Highway Arlington, VA 22202 USA
Telephone: (703) 418-1234
Thiagi is conducting public workshops outside the USA. Check
our online calendar at http://thiagi.com/calendar/ for details.
Paris, France: April 22-24, 2014.
Interactive Strategies for Training
Teaching / Les
jeux-cadres de Thiagi: Des stratégies interactives
pour la formation et l'enseignement.
In English with simultaneous French interpretation.
Paris, France: April 25, 2014.
Interactive Strategies for Training:
The Fundamental Tools /
Stratégies interactives de
formation: Les outils fondamentaux. In
English with simultaneous French interpretation.
Bengaluru (aka Bangalore), India:
August 19-20, 2014. Interactive
Techniques for Instructor-Led Training: A 2-day
workshop. Organized by C2C, Bengaluru.
For more information, email info@concept2competence.com or phone +91 80
41478568/65834685/25303195.
Every day, Thiagi tweets ready-to-use pieces of practical
advice on HR topics such as coaching, creativity, customer
service, feedback, leadership, listening skills and
management.
Here are some pieces of advice tweeted during March that were
retweeted frequently:
Be a life-long learner. Keep on learning new skills, using
new skills, and improving new skills.
You are not a lecturer who covers the content. You are a
facilitator who helps the participants discover the
content.
Present training content before an activity as briefing,
during an activity as coaching, and after an activity as
debriefing.
Join the thousands of people who follow @thiagi on
Twitter.
Even when problems develop quickly out of our control, we can
make them worse by our shortsighted actions. Learn more about
the nature of exponential growth along with some specific
suggestions to avoid its negative impact.
Power Tip: Are problems piling up? Work on
them steadily, one at a time, in small bites.
Boredom Busters: Boosting Engagement
in Meetings and Trainings
by Brian Remer
Do you want to increase engagement and improve productivity
in your next meeting?
Learn more about fun and inexpensive ways to make your
meetings productive and your trainings more memorable from
award-winning facilitator and game designer, Brian Remer of
The Firefly Group. Sign up to attend
Boredom Busters: Boosting Engagement in
Meetings and Trainings.
April 24, 2014 in San Jose, CA or April 25, 2014 in
Emeryville, CA
In the March 2014 issue of
TGL we asked this poll question:
Do you conduct training webinars?
Twenty-six readers responded, 17 of them saying,
“Yes”.
Open Question
As a follow up to the poll, we asked this open
question:
What are some frequent complaints about training
webinars?
Here are some interesting responses:
I have participated in webinars to learn new software,
and my biggest complaint is that I have to learn at the
same rate as the most clueless person on the session.
Luckily, I can do these webinars at home, so I can clean
the bathroom or fix lunch while everyone else takes their
time. :)
- Can't hear the audio - Difficulty logging
in, difficulty with the technology (sometimes need to
download software, which makes me late joining the
webinar). - The complaints I would have for a webinar
would be the same for any type of training—if it is
boring, objectives not clearly stated, etc. It's not
necessarily the medium of teaching that is the problem, it
is usually the teaching itself!
1. They don't hold the participants' attention.
2. Participants don't participate!
Too much info on the slides; too much talking, not
enough interaction; no opportunity to ask
questions.
Thanks to everyone who responded.
You Can Still Participate
This survey is still open. Feel free to add your comments
by visiting the survey page.
If you are tired of lengthy lecture presentations featuring
unlimited collections of slides, PechaKucha (or Pecha Kucha)
is just the thing for you.
The idea behind this technique is very simple: Your
presentation is structured around 20 slides, each displayed
for 20 seconds. The total time is 20 x 20 or 400 seconds,
which works out to 6 minutes 40 seconds.
PechaKucha has spread all around the world. Many corporations
and professional organizations have enthusiastically adopted
this approach. The 2014 annual conference of the International
Society for Performance Improvement (ISPI) features a
PechaKucha session (and I am presenting as a part of this
session). I have also been incorporating PechaKuchas in
several interactive lecture presentations.
Learn more about this technique by visiting the
“official” website:
Author and Editor
: Sivasailam (Thiagi) Thiagarajan
Assistant Editor
: Raja Thiagarajan