Use this opener as a fun way to introduce brainstorming, and team building.
Objective: Brainstorm humorous endings to common clichés that help to describe a job, company or process.
Audience: Any training audience
Time: 20 minutes
Group Size: Under 50 people
Materials: One handout with the clichés per person or team.
Process: Have each team complete the cliché to fit its business, training, job, process or company. Tell them to be creative and have fun.
- When you are up to your armpits in alligators it is hard to remember that your initial objective
- was to___________( drain the swamp).
- The squeaky wheel gets the_________(grease).
- The optimist says the glass is half full. The pessimist says the glass is half empty. The project
- manager says the glass is ___________(twice as big as it needs to be).
- Time is of the _______(essence).
- Don’t throw out the baby with the _________(bathwater).
- When you discover that you are riding a dead horse, the best strategy is to ____________
- (dismount).
- A picture is worth ________(1,000 words).
- A clear conscience is usually the sign of a __________(bad memory).
- 80 percent of output is produced by ________(20 percent of input).
Debrief: Ask each team to share one or two of their clichés.
Variations: Depending on the size of the audience and the amount of time you have, you may have just four or five teams share. Collect their clichés and post throughout the training on PowerPoint™ slides.
By Priscilla Shumway. From SCORE: Super Closers, Openers, Revisiters, Energizers, volume 3. Used with permission.
