This Tip is about a training ice breaker that uses a beach ball with questions written all over it that participants have to answer.
This week’s idea comes from St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, via Natalie and Nicky.
It’s nice for trainers to have a variety of ice breakers in their training repertoire. This is especially true when the training participants don’t know each other. We always want the participants to relax and feel comfortable. An ice breaker gives participants a chance to interact and get to know each other before the actual learning begins.
The intention is to break the ice and help participants get to know each other. At the beginning of a training program, they throw a beach ball with questions written all over it. When a participant catches the ball, s/he answers the question facing him or her. What a creative use of a familiar playful object. Thank you, Natalie and Nicky!
What I particularly like about this ice breaker is that it:
- is easy to create, and
- helps everyone get to know somethings about each other.
A common ice breaker is a bingo game where participants have to find other participants who have red hair or four children or grew up in Milwaukee, etc. It’s a fun ice breaker but it doesn’t ensure that everyone learns something about all of the other participants. As mentioned, the beach ball does.
If you do something equally creative to help folks get to know each other, please let us know.
Please book a call to discuss creative experiential learning activities you can use in your training programs. https://laurelandassociates.com/contact/
