According to the American Society of Training and Development (ASTD), the average corporate training expenditure rests at 2.7% of payroll. Faced with a micro-budget for training, what are trainers to do when creating activities for their training sessions?
The question was a topic of discussion during a breakout session led by Janice Horne at The Bob Pike Group's 20th Annual Creative Training Techniques Conference. Laid out neatly on each group's table were Koosh balls, markers, toothpicks and playing cards. The eclectic grouping of items stirred a great deal of curiosity among participants, especially when Janice, a consultant at The Bob Pike Group, boldly proclaimed the inexpensive items were all that was needed to create engaging activities for participants to learn.
Toothpicks Aren’t Just for Teeth
With only 80 cents, 800 hundred toothpicks can be yours. As Janice demonstrated in the following two activities, engaging activities can be created with toothpicks alone.
Toothpick Confessions
- After evenly distributing four or five toothpicks to each participant, request that all participants stand up.
- Let the participants know they all will get a turn to create an “I have never” statement. The objective of each participant will be to say something that somebody in the room has done, which will force the person’s peers to discard a toothpick. If nobody has done a participant’s statement, the person who said the “I have never” statement has to discard a toothpick.
- For example, Participant A might say, “I have never been skiing.” If Participant B has gone skiing, Participant B will have to give up a toothpick.
- If nobody but Participant A has gone skiing, Participant A will discard a toothpick.
This activity breaks the preoccupation of participants while allowing them to network with each other. It also can be related back to the course content by adding the requirement that the “I have never” statement be relevant to the job. The most opportune times for the activity are at the beginning of the class or after a break when participants are most likely preoccupied with thoughts outside of the training.
Tricky Toothpicks
- Divide participants into groups of four or five and give each group 11 toothpicks.
- Instruct each group to make an “ate” with the toothpicks without breaking or overlapping any of the toothpicks.
- Be ambiguous about the creation of the “ate.” Most groups will try to make the number “eight,” which is good for the discussion that follows.
- Have each group show their creations. Then begin a discussion on challenging personal assumptions.
This activity is great for trainers with a desire to challenge their participants’ previously held beliefs. However, if the activity is to be fully effective, it needs to be accompanied by a discussion that relates it to the content.
Revisiting Content with a Koosh Ball
Apart from being fun to hold, the small and frilly, rubber ball can be used to revisit content through a game of Koosh toss.
1. Start with dividing a poster board into four even squares by drawing lines with a marker.
2. In the four squares write four categories your participants should revisit.
3. Divide the participants into teams.
4. Instruct the teams to alternate tossing the Koosh ball at the square. Each time a team tosses the ball at the square, the team must give an example of whichever category it lands closest to.
More of Janice's activities can be found in SCORE 3: Super Closers, Openers, Revisiters, Energizers.
by Jordan Meyers
