It’s one word that can doom any successful training effort.  I was reading through some blogs today and came across an entry on Icebreakers.  It sent chills down my spine and I just froze.  Not really the the feel I go for when starting a workshop or retreat.  It reminded me of a Train-the-Trainers workshop I facilitated last week.  The trainers were talking about Icebreakers.  I asked them “How does your staff respond to when you engage them in an icebreaker?”

They admitted, that more times than not it was a struggle and often heard a gasp as the eyes rolled around in their group members. I through out this ideas – “what might be different if you called this an exercise?”  Hmmmm…What’s the diff?

To start:

• Your group is going to go into autopilot and check out when they hear the dreaded “icebreaker”
• The EXERCISE is going to be related to the content of the training.  This is where I think icebreaking goes awry.
• I’m not going to ask you, as a participant, to do anything I hate doing as a workshop participant.  That’s a pretty good gut check for me to gauge the feasibility of any opening exercise.

One of my favorite exercises to do in the beginning of the workshop is around the learning objectives themselves.  Download the PDF Exercise for  a simple step-by-step approach to starting your next training off with a SPARK, not a deep freeze.