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>From my ESL days, a common ice breaker I used was called Find Someone
Who. Make a handout titled Find Someone Who and then list a series of
things relevant (or irrelevant) to your workshop. On each line, but a
blank space for people to fill in names. Then get them to stand up and
mill around trying to fill in names for each item. Make it a little
silly if you want to lighten the mood. This gets them physically up
and moving around, asking questions to each other, and getting to know
each other. After five or ten minutes, do a wrap up and review each
item as a group.
For example:
Find someone who:
1. Has gone rock climbing or sea kayaking. ___________
2. Has seen the Rolling Stones live. _______________
3. Can write a complex sentence. ______________
4. Has been to Shanghai. _______________
5. and so on.
10 to 20 items would be enough. Do it first thing in the workshop.
Have fun with it, and they will have fun with it.
Cheers.
Ken
On 9/27/05, gwjohng -at- yahoo -dot- com <gwjohng -at- yahoo -dot- com> wrote:
>
> I am involved with a series of workshops at my company where we teach engineers to write effect documentation. These workshops seem to go very well and despite attendance being entirely elective, the classes are filled to capacity.
>
> We are looking for a relevant exercise we can conduct early during the two hour session which will get the participants verbally involved in the workshop. We are after something that encourages folks to ask questions, make comments and become comfortable interacting with their fellow participants.
>
> Does anyone have suggestions for such exercises? If so, could you describe the exercise?
--
kenmunro -at- gmail -dot- com http://www.kenmunro.com/
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