2 min Energizer for long meeting

[Bullett]

Just give them a break.

Any exercise or game is patronising and would make me just think you are a **** and cause resentment for the rest of the afternoon.

[scottri]

Bullett said:

Just give them a break.

Any exercise or game is patronising and would make me just think you are a **** and cause resentment for the rest of the afternoon.

+1

I hate this sort of crap as well. As soon as I see something like that on an agenda it pisses me off. Everyone will want the long meeting to end ASAP so just get on with it.

[LHRFlightman]

I despise this sort of crap.

Here's a thought. Get an agenda, stick to it, keep the meeting moving at a pace and get it done without any delay or superfluous rubbish.

Everyone will thank you got it. Much more than getting them to jump around for 5 minutes.

[Hoofy]

I work in the fitness industry. When we have team building exercises we wear suits and ties and get a load of desks and computers.*















* - I made this up for amusement value.

[conanius]

It depends if you think you have to move to promote fun and enthusiasm.

I did a course a few weeks back that did the intro briefings and destroyed us with powerpoint and fire rules.

We then had an icebreaker. It was a mental arithmetic test. The build up was '80 questions, read the instructions, super easy' And then, as papers were handed out face down, the story began that her 7 year old Son had done them the night before, and she'd timed him. He was a maths genius, and we wouldn't be able to beat him.

Without fail, everyone blasted through the test in a matter of minutes. The questions were really easy, 8+4 was the first question, I remember that much.

We were stopped after 1 minute, and several of us were proud as punch we'd finished, many of us were very close to finishing, lots of laughter.

She then said 'who got 32 for the first question'

We were all totally confused, at which point we read the instructions, which said 'the signs are changed. + means multiply' etc etc. Everyone laughed, but the point was, as the expense of being competitive, we ignored the instructions. Every single person did it, and apparently she's delivered the course to over 1000 people and had barely a handful of people do it correctly.

Something like that can be quite fun, and gets people relaxed, involved, and chatting. Saves anyone having heart failure from doing Yoga too.

[Sogra]

Wether you agree with this large company stuff or nots it's the world that many of us work in and is part of the game we play. The difficulty in this type of meeting is changing from being analytical to creative and some where in between. Often used are brain storming techniques like how many things can you do with a Whisky bottle (all answers welcome). Quick team game game or my favourite is to find a real solution to a real problem say world hunger or Middle East peace .

Something along the lines of you are the sole survivor on a boat wreck the boat has 10 minutes before going down and you can save say 5 things, what five things and why. You can add in after they have chosen say matches that they would be wet so no use but if they had saved a lighter? But whatever you choose the direction you want things to go.

A sheet of A4 paper and make a paper plane and a quick competition of who's gets furthest

Good luck

[DoubleSix]

We know what it is and why it exists.

[Spathodus77]

Thanks for all the replies. As someone said the delivery is key + relevance. Totally agree and this will be the case.

When I look round the room after an energizer I see smiling faces, when I look at people coming back from a break I see 'oh my god back to work faces'. With the right person an exercise can fits into the situation for all the right reasons.

Totally love the suggestions about 'russian routlette' and 'firing people who lose musical chairs'. We did this a couple of years ago and since then engagement is up and people seem to enjoy the energizers even more

[bint]

I too belong in this big corporate (read American run) world of team building, blue sky thinking and tag lines to make you cringe; "all your ducks in a row!"

The last energiser/ice breaker to get a large group going was led by a Canadian who said, "what was the last illegal thing you did?"

It was refreshing to be not to PC, although you could see those who were trying to think of tame/outlandish items to make themselves look good.

[offshorematt2]

Spathodus77 said:

?..when I look at people coming back from a break I see 'oh my god an energiser faces'.

Fixed that for you...

I've posted this before but a couple of great ones (by great I mean gut wrenchingly awful) that I remember participating in;

A slow (and incredibly unenthusiastic) conga line going round and round a conference hall (complete with hokey cokey style kicks on the alternating steps if you can picture it) while a microphone was passed back along the line and we all said what we thought we would gain from the day. I managed not say "flashbacks that would last a lifetime"

Secondly, and arguably worse, was around forty of us assembling on the lawn of a stately home in the midlands to 'break the ice' on an away-day. We were met by some grotty crusty with those big hoop things in his ear lobes and nose piercings, handing out drums and penny whistles. We then had to 'dance' in a circle or 'skanking' as he excitedly called it, while playing our instruments. Anyone showing less than 100% participation was singled out to come and dance in the middle... I remember looking into the eyes of a hardened 50year old rig hand and just watching his self respect crumble away and knowing I looked the same. Even worse was having tourists to the stately home taking photos of us as they couldn't believe what we were doing.

Funnily enough, in both cases the facilitator in charge of the day thought things had gone brilliantly and everybody had a great time. Takes a certain kind of personality to enjoy these. But I guess you know your audience...

[Dr Jekyll]

offshorematt2 said:

Funnily enough, in both cases the facilitator in charge of the day thought things had gone brilliantly and everybody had a great time. Takes a certain kind of personality to enjoy these. But I guess you know your audience...

These facilitators tend to be frustrated wannabee infants school teachers. I'm sure THEY have a great time.

There was a American TV program a few years back that got some corporate employees on what was supposed to be a team building exercise. The facilitator was actually Scott Adams (creator of Dilbert) in disguise, and he just got them to so more and more ridiculous/humiliating things to see when their bullst detectors would finally kick in.

Edited by Dr Jekyll on Sunday 14th September 08:10

[DoubleSix]

Sogra said:

Quick team game game or my favourite is to find a real solution to a real problem say world hunger or Middle East

errrr right...

Sogra said:

You can add in after they have chosen say matches that they would be wet so no use but if they had saved a lighter?

Genius. I can imagine the faces of wonder, agog at your lateral thinking and powers of perception. MIT awaits.

Sogra said:

A sheet of A4 paper and make a paper plane and a quick competition of who's gets furthest

"We're here to discuss active vs passive investment theory. Can we get the fk on with it now please?!"

[Bullett]

Sell me this pen...

[Sheepshanks]

Spathodus77 said:

Thanks for all the replies. As someone said the delivery is key + relevance. Totally agree and this will be the case.

When I look round the room after an energizer I see smiling faces, when I look at people coming back from a break I see 'oh my god back to work faces'. With the right person an exercise can fits into the situation for all the right reasons.

Totally love the suggestions about 'russian routlette' and 'firing people who lose musical chairs'. We did this a couple of years ago and since then engagement is up and people seem to enjoy the energizers even more

If you know what to do, then what was the point of your original question?

We had to build Lego towers on one of these things - tallest wins. Several people refused to do it, and the facilitator never really got the audience back and we agreed to finish the day early.

[Spathodus77]

Sheepshanks: I have n't decided what I'm going to do, I don't think I stated that?

[Campo]

Spathodus77 said:

Sheepshanks: I have n't decided what I'm going to do, I don't think I stated that?

I don't think you can do anything in 2 minutes to "energise" 80 people before a team building exercise.

Surely the point of the team building exercise is to energise them? Let's face it, most of them will be lost to you already having endured a tedious meeting and hearty lunch. They'll just be keen to get it over with and get off home.

Why not just treat them like adults as suggested and just give them 5 mins to sort themselves out. Making paper planes and pissing about dancing or playing with Lego is just going to get 99% of them off side straight away.

[Sheepshanks]

swerni said:

Bullett said:

Sell me this pen...

Wanna buy a pen?

Fail.

[VinceFox]

Form a circle...

[schmalex]

Bullett said:

Sell me this pen...

A hiring manager once said that to me in an interview. I told him to write his name on the piece of paper infront of him, without reaching into pocket.

The simple laws of supply and demand always prevail.

I didn't take the job, as I can't stand people who ask questions of that ilk.

[VinceFox]

schmalex said:

A hiring manager once said that to me in an interview. I told him to write his name on the piece of paper infront of him, without reaching into pocket.

The simple laws of supply and demand always prevail.

I didn't take the job, as I can't stand people who ask questions of that ilk.

How would he get his money out?