Objective: To encourage retention of names and to create an atmosphere of friendly competition while energizing an audience
Audience: Any training audience
Group Size: 10 – 100 (need room to move)
Time: 5-15 min
Materials: Bed sheet or blanket
Process:
This activity is most beneficial after people have had a chance to get to know the other names of the people in the room. It is helpful for people who know each other but not too well.
- Begin by splitting the class roughly in half. Have each group get together and face the other group while leaving some space in the middle.
- You will need a partner to facilitate this activity by holding up the bed sheet, but you may decide to switch this person out to let everyone get in on the fun.
- Say: “In just a moment, we are going to raise a bed sheet and separate the two groups. While the sheet is raised, you and your group need to pick a person who will be the champion for your team. The champion from each team will come and stand in front of the bed sheet facing the other team. We will then drop the bed sheet and the two champions will race to see who can shout out the name of the other person first. We will then raise the bed sheet and repeat with a new person from each team. Keep track of your victories as there will be a prize for the winning team.”
- Clarify instructions before beginning.
- Repeat for as many rounds as desired.
Debrief: While this may be treated as a simple energizer, here are some questions that you may choose to ask to help tie it into content.
- What was difficult about this activity? What was easy?
- How is this activity a reminder for us in our work?
- Is there any way that we could have created this game so that we were not two competing teams but rather one cohesive team?
- How are you going to tap into the resources in this room as opposed to treating others as the “competition”?
Variation: If you would like to tie this back into your content, ask everyone to meet someone from the other team and once they have found one another, ask them to share something that they like to do outside of work as well as one of the key takeaways that they are going to walk out of the room with.
Here is a video of Scott modeling this exercise.
Scott Enebo is a training consultant for The Bob Pike Group.
