I’ll be teaching a class in communication skills and conflict resolution - a bit outside my area of expertise - but not too far afield to me to try for excellence. It will be one session, two hours, for a group of about 20 high powered executives.
I’m looking for one of those high energy exercises that you can start off with. Content isn’t that important. I think it’s more important to start off with something fun and interesting that they’ll remember, then sneak in a little bit of information before we break.
I’d try and work pictionary into the occasion, where someone draws something on the board and people have to guess it. Man, people love that. Maybe combine it with telephone for the communication part, although that might be hard.
Continuing that game show line, how about password. Dealing with words and how people relate to them.
There’s a relatively famous exercise where the instructor starts the session, then someone causes a short distrurbance (any kind of disturbance will do). The instructor resumes the session for a couple of minutes, then has the class describe what the disturbance was.
It’s also effective for proving that eyewitness testimony is nearly useless.
I’ve never done one of those “high energy exercises” that turned out to be anything but a waste of time and phony. Why not just cut to the chase and teach some communication skills? If these guys are really “high powered executives” they probably just want to learn some real skills, not waste time playing games.
OTOH, I am a big fan of that type of exercise, and am generally considered to have a knack for picking the right one for the occasion.
One point I will make is that the energy level tends to come from the group (and to some extent the presenter) not from the exercise. So maybe you know this group, and know they are high energy, and want an exercise that works well with a high-energy group? Because if you know they are low key and you push for high energy, especially right off the bat, it’s unlikely to succeed.
Also, the exercise should contribute to the overall meaning of the session. Communication skills is a hugely broad field. What exactly are you trying to teach them about communication? How to listen? How to give more polished presentations? How to respond to angry customers? How to motivate employees?
Also, do these people know each other at all, or not? If not, all you are probably going to accomplish is helping them get to know a little about each other, which is fine, but don’t necessarily expect more than that.
If you post more details about your objective, I might have some ideas. Also, there are books with hundreds of these exercises, so if you have your objective in mind you could swing by Barnes & Noble or the library and find one that fits your needs.
Sorry to have drifted off the board without at least thanking those who responded. Things got so busy at work I had to go through the entire weekend. Still not done.
Anyway, thanks for the responses, they were helpful. Just reading them stimulated enough ideas.
Go around the table, and ask each participant to answer the question ‘What CD do you own that you truly like, and would be most embarrassed about if people knew you had it?’ Mine would be a Celine Dion CD.
Or give everyone 3 minutes to write a haiku about some silly topic, such as how their favorite football team did over the weekend. Read them aloud.