“Our group has just gone through downsizing and restructuring, and we’re having a difficult time letting go of the past. This negatively impacts our ability to concentrate on future demands. What can I do to help the group deal with this type of situation?”

7. The Funeral

What Is the Funeral?

The Funeral is a technique for helping a group put the past aside and prepare for the future. The Funeral acknowledges in a good-natured way that the past had both its good and bad points. However, in order to go forward, the group must now bury the past and Continue reading →

“I’m want a technique for helping our group understand and appreciate the diversity of experience and backgrounds in the room, but in an informal and interesting way.  Do you have any ideas?”

#6: MILESTONES

What is MILESTONES?

MILESTONES is a technique that allows for participants to learn more about the members of their meeting group, thereby building a stronger sense of team.  By focusing on MILESTONES in each participant’s life, the exercise promotes learning more about each other, both on a personal and professional level, which ultimately helps people work together more effectively.

It is often an underlying Continue reading →

“More than ever before, our group needs to start making some radical improvements in the way we do our business.  We haven’t worked particularly well together in the past and I need to get these people together and jolted fast.  Do you have any suggestions?”

#3:  INCREDIBALLS

What is INCREDIBALLS?

INCREDIBALLS is a technique that motivates people to work together as a team and challenges them to think about ways to work together differently and more efficiently.  The INCREDIBALLS exercise presents participants with increasingly difficult and seemingly impossible deadlines, which stimulates creative thinking and solutions.  Continue reading →

“Some of my group’s participants seem resistant to change and insist on looking at problems in the same old ways. Is there a simple technique that can help them snap out of their old habits and perceptions?”

2. New Glasses

What Is New Glasses?

New Glasses is a simple technique to help your meeting participants look at the meeting agenda’s topics through new eyes and to support them in leaving their biases and old perspectives behind. It is an instantaneous energizer and also serves as a good technique for the tactile learner.

New Glasses involves literally asking each participant to Continue reading →

1. Thinking Outside the Box

2. New Glasses

3. Incrediballs

4. Team Learning

5. Two Truths and a Lie

6. Milestones

7. The Funeral

Today, we’ll start with Technique #1: Thinking Outside the Box.   Here we go!