Icebreaker: Getting to Know Each Other

Every now and then I develop a tool for a client that could be useful for other people. In this case the client is running a short get-to-know-each-other and get-organised session for a workgroup that is usually separated geographically.

I offered to provide a short activity that could be used to get to know each other. Having pondered for a while I turned to a trainers' resource you should be familiar with called Google. Thanks to Kristin Bird who writes on Yahoo Voices, I was able to provide the activity below...

Go around the room taking it in turns finishing some sentences. Only introduce one sentence at a time. You might need to repeat the sentence for participants who are caught up in the activity. Pick 3-6 of the questions below (based on suitability), or write some of your own:

1. “My name is …”
2. “My organisation is in the business of …”
3. “I’m here because …”
4. “I think our clients could benefit from …”
5.  “If I wasn’t here, I would be …”
6. “When I feel nervous, I …”
7. “The most important contribution I make at work is …”
8. “In groups, I like it when the leader …”
9. “If I was in charge today, I would make sure to …”
10. “My favourite character from television or movies is …”
11. “If there were no such thing as gravity, I would live in a …”
12. “When my mobile phone rings at 11pm, I think …”

This exercise is adapted from Kristin's original post. She suggest some more and different questions, so for more ideas, read her post: Group Activities: Ice Breakers to Help People Get to Know Each Other.

...Geoff
www.performancepeople.com.au

Stop & Think, to Make it Better

A Better Slide Using a Visual Metaphor (all rights reserved)

No matter how good a topic is, there is probably something you can do to make it better.  If you are curious, give this a try...

Stop and think about one aspect of your next session.  You would be amazed at how much you can improve something you were happy with.  It could be your opening, your closing, a topic or an activity, if you stop and think, it can probably be improved.

Some questions to ask yourself:

• What do I want to achieve here?
• What do I want the participants to do?
• What is the context?
• What resources could we use?
• How can I increase participant involvement?
• How could I make my point more clearly?

Or...

• Are there too many messages?
• Am I trying too hard?
• Is it about the participants, or maybe a bit much about me?
• How can I 'let go' and let the process evolve?

Or maybe...

• Can I tell a story or use a metaphor?
• Can I 'paint a picture'?
• Can I use more senses than hearing and sight?

You might have some more questions of your own.

If you want to try this, take a random part of your next session, sit back and think about what you plan to do, and see if you can come up with something better ... maybe even something startling.

...Geoff

www.performancepeople.com.au

How to Create & Use Wordles

Wordle on Performance People Webpage (created at www.wordle.net)

I have previously written about what Wordles can used to achieve (click here for the post).  I thought it might be useful to explain how you can make one yourself, and how to transfer it to Word or PowerPoint.

Create a Wordle

1. Open the Wordle webpage at www.wordle.net (or Google 'wordle').
2. Click on Create in the sentence 'Create your own'.
3. Paste some text into the large box on the screen.
4. Click on the Go button.
5. And check out your Wordle.

Edit a Wordle

Click 'Randomize' to see your Wordle presented in a number of ways.

You cannot add words (or 'grow' them by duplicating them multiple times) without going back to the Create window and repasting your text.

You can remove words by right clicking on the word and selecting 'Remove word'.  For example, a word which appeared in a header on every page may not be suited to the topic of your Wordle.

Browse through the menus immediately above your Wordle to see what you can change.  I particularly like the 'Edit Custom Palette' option.

At the bottom of the Language menu is the option 'Show word count'.  This brings up a box with the number of times each word appears.  You can re-sort the list by clicking on the column titles.  In case you are curious too, I pasted more than 25,000 words into Wordle to see whether there was a limit.  I did not find a limit.

Transfer a Wordle Elsewhere
Once you are satisfied with your Wordle, you will probably want to use it.  The Wordle creation screen includes options to 'Open in Window' or 'Print'.  However, these may not be sufficient.  You might like to put the image into a Word or PowerPointit file, or save an an image file or a PDF file.

To create an image file, or put it into Word or PowerPoint as an image, you can use a screen capture utility, like the useful Snipping Tool in Windows (Vista or later).

1. Click 'Open in Window'.
2. Drag the bottom right corner of the window out-and-down to fill your screen (to get the highest resolution screen capture you can).
3. Launch the Snipping Tool using StartMenu>AllPrograms>Accessories>Snipping Tool (or on the keyboard, WindowsKey>snip>enter).
4. Click in the top right corner and drag the pink box to envelope the Wordle.  (You may need to change the snip type to 'rectangular snip'.)
5. The Wordle is now in your clipboard, and you can paste it into a Word or PowerPoint file.  Alternatively, you can use the Save function in the Snipping Tool to save the image as a JPG file.

To create a PDF, you can use a PDF creator, like the useful and free CutePDF Writer. Once installed, CutePDF Writer creates PDF files by pretending to be a printer.  (Click the 'Print' button on the Wordle creation screen; then select the printer called CutePDF Writer from the mini-menu on the Print box.  You will get another box in which you specify where the PDF file should be saved.)


All the best creating and using Wordles!

...Geoff
www.performancepeople.com.au