5 Responses

1. games
   I use a game called Tennis Shoe Alien which I found in an excellent book called The Big Book of Customer service Training Games by Carlaw and Deming. If you want to give me a ring I’ll explain it – it’s very simple but the instructions are a bit long-winded to post here!

2. ‘tennis shoe alien’
   Thanks Shelly … I’m familiar with ‘tennis show alien’ but what moral do you take from it for group dynamics?

3. Try here…
   I’m sure you’ll find something useful at http://www.businessballs.com/

   Regards
   Cathy

4. Group dynamics
   The groups I’m dealing with in this context are normally new recruits into the same department. They’ve been together for most of a day at this point. This is an after-tea-about-4pm exercise and although the exercise brief says clearly they mustn’t all shout at once, at first they tend to do so! Since this doesn’t get them anywhere, it usually only takes a minute or two either for a leader to emerge or for the ‘monitor/evaluator’ type to pipe up and suggest they go back to the rules. At the end of the exercise, I split them into two groups and ask them to go back over the experience.

   One group charts what actually happened – step by step – in terms of the success of the instructions given to the alien about its shoe – focussing on the language used and without commenting on who gave the instructions.

   The other group looks at how the way they worked as a group impacted on the alien’s sucess in getting its sock and shoe on.

   The usual result (which has only once needed encouragement on my part!) is a realisation that it wasn’t the words so much as the way they behaved as a group that influenced success. They also usually recognise that a group will naturally appoint a leader (or two!) and needs ideas people and supporting people if it’s to work. Because they’ve been together for several hours they usually say they could have predicted who’d fall into which roles.

   Sorry to rabbit on at such length – does that help any?

5. Telepathy for Groups
   Hi Willie

   Ive used a few games from here http://www.thiagi.com/games.html
   One called telepathic review is good for learners to recall the key points of the day and great for making Trainers look extra special!