Management Games and Icebreakers

Paradigm Shift

2012-01-26T00:30:00.000-08:00

(If you are interested in authentic management books, go to “Best Books” at: http://best-book-list.blogspot.com)

(Refer for the most authentic articles on Building Leadership and Management: http://shyam.bhatawdekar.com

(Refer our High Quality Management Encyclopedia “Management Universe” at: http://management-universe.blogspot.com/)

Paradigm Shift

“Paradigm Shift” is an all time important issue. You being a faculty or a trainer must be finding the need to highlight the concepts of paradigms in your various workshops and seminars irrespective of what topics or modules they cover. So, here is an exercise that you will find quite handy and useful in explaining the “paradigms” and “paradigm shift”.

Give each one of your workshop/seminar participants the following jumbled up pieces of words and phrases written on a paper. Ask them to read the words/phrases carefully and let them select out at a time two of them as a pair such that in each selected pair one word or phrase is almost or completely opposite of the other word or phrase.

As a demonstration, select out from the distributed paper the phrases “Hard work’” and “Smart work”. Ask your program participants to make two columns on their note pad, the title of the first column being “Old Way” and that of the other being “New Way”. Ask them to fill the first column with “Hard work” as the old way of doing any work and the second column with “Smart work” as the new way of doing the work. Explain to them that “working hard” was an old paradigm and “working smart” has replaced it as a new paradigm of working.

Tell them that they should start picking up the rest of the pairs of words/phrases from the jumbled up list given to them and arrange the phrases/words in the two columns.
________________________________________________________________________________
         Local                          Collaborate                       Work designed by employees
Add cost             Control-order-predict (COP)
    Internal alliance                           Command              First time right
Idea-intensive production                                                    Uncovering errors
                      Individual courses
Lateral                        Add value                     Material-intensive production
High trust                                              Continuous learning
Low trust                                        Hard work
Work designed by management                                                   Hiding errors
                                   Internal competition
    Hierarchical                                      Acknowledge-create-empower (ACE)
                           Smart work                          Global             Rework
________________________________________________________________________________

They may need some fifteen to twenty minutes to complete this exercise. You may notice that some participants may give up some way down the lane.

Now ask the person who completed the exercise the fastest to shout out the arrangement of phrases/words in the two columns. If he goes wrong in some cases, you can invite other participants to correct. If no one volunteers in some specific cases, you can fill them in.

The exercise does not end here. Now ask the participants to extend the list in “Old Way” and “New Way” columns by at least 10 more entries. The opposing paradigms added by them should be based on their observations, knowledge, experience and their own thinking. They can as well add some new paradigms of futuristic nature through their own imagination.

Request the participants to present their paradigm shift extensions to the list with their explanations wherever necessary.

It is an experiential learning exercise and by the time they finish with the whole exercise they will have adequate clarity on the concepts of paradigm and paradigm shift. They would have also learnt and realized the importance and necessity of becoming flexible in their thinking patterns about various aspects of their personal, professional, family and social lives.

Here is your chance of buying the book “Classic Management Games, Exercises, Energizers and Icebreakers”:

For owning your copy/copies of the book, visit the following Amazon.com sites:

For eBook format: http://www.amazon.com/Management-Exercises-Energizers-Icebreakers-ebook/dp/B004OEKF0I/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1323836948&sr=1-1

For book in print form: http://www.amazon.com/Classic-Management-Exercises-Energizers-Icebreakers/dp/1461029945/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1323837139&sr=1-1

Our Books Publications (Books authored by Shyam Bhatawdekar and Dr Kalpana Bhatawdekar)

Own your copy/copies of the following bestseller books authored by eminent management gurus and consultants Shyam Bhatawdekar and Dr Kalpana Bhatawdekar:

1.HSoftware (Human Software) (The Only Key to Higher Effectiveness) or HSoftware Shyam Bhatawdekar’s Effectiveness Model)
2. Classic Management Games, Exercises, Energizers and
Icebreakers
3. Sensitive Stories of Corporate World (Management Case Studies)
4. Funny (and Not So Funny) Short Stories
5. Stress? No Way!! (Handbook on Stress Management)

You may like to go to the above-mentioned titles (web links) and order your copies on Amazon.com on Internet. The books are available in printed form and also as eBooks.
Or
Persons residing in India may like to write to our email address prodcons@prodcons.comand order your copies.

For More Guidance, Assistance, Training and Consultation

Contact: prodcons@prodcons.com

Training in all the soft skills and various management functions/techniques is imparted by Prodcons Group’s Mr Shyam Bhatawdekar and/or Dr (Mrs) Kalpana Bhatawdekar, eminent management educationists, management consultants and trainers- par excellence, with distinction of having trained over 150,000 people from around 250 organizations.

Also refer: (Prodcons Group) http://prodcons-group.blogspot.com/, (Training Programs by Prodcons Group) http://training-development-function.blogspot.com/, (Productivity Consultants) http://productivity-consultants.blogspot.com/

Problem Solving by Brain Writing

2012-01-09T08:16:00.000-08:00

(If you are interested in authentic management books, go to “Best Books” at: http://best-book-list.blogspot.com)

(Refer for the most authentic articles on Building Leadership and Management: http://shyam.bhatawdekar.com

(Refer our High Quality Management Encyclopedia “Management Universe” at: http://management-universe.blogspot.com/)

Problem Solving by Brain Writing

This exercise is apt for your training programs on problem solving techniques, creative problem solving, participative problem solving, creativity, brainstorming/brain writing, team work etc. As a faculty or leader of a workshop or seminar, you can choose a problem of a general nature that is somewhat familiar to your audience and then lead them in solving that problem by using brain writing technique rather than the conventional brain storming technique.

Brain writing engages the minds of even those participants who are shy of speaking in a group. The conventional brainstorming requires the members of the brainstorming group to offer their ideas by way of oral communication. In brain writing the ideas are written down by the members of the group.

To start the exercise display on the white board or the flip chart the statement of the problem- the problem that you want the group members to solve through their various suggestions.

For example the problem statement you choose may be: “In your opinion what are the various ways in which the human beings can tackle the environmental pollution problem?” Another suggested problem could be: “In your opinion what steps husband and wife can take to make theirs a happy marriage?” or “In your opinion what should be done in the organization to control the costs?” and so on.

You are free to choose any problem or you can even invite participants’ suggestions on selecting the problem. Having decided on the problem, paraphrase it in the form of a problem statement and display it for all to see all the time this exercise is on.

Distribute to each participant a blank A4 size paper and a pencil. Now ask them to write down on the paper as many suggestions they can think in order to solve the problem. They should give serial numbers to each of their suggestions and write in legible handwriting.

After every participant has consumed all of his suggestions, ask each participant to pass on his paper to the participant sitting next to him. Thus now every participant has a paper on which already some ideas have been noted. Let each participant read these earlier written ideas and if new ideas spring up in his mind he should add them below the already written suggestions by extending the serial numbers. The ideas should not be repeated. Only new ideas should be added up.

Again circulate the papers and repeat the exercise. This process will continue till the paper with the suggestions written by a particular person travels back to him.

Now ask the first person sitting nearest to you to read out loudly only the unique ideas noted on his paper. Repeated ideas if any should be skipped. As he reads the ideas one by one from his paper, you should write them on the white board or a large flip chart by giving each idea a serial number. When the first person exhausts all the suggestions from his paper, ask the second person to read out only the unique suggestions from the paper he is holding skipping out the repeat suggestions. Ask all the persons to read out the unique ideas this way and you should keep on extending the list on the white board/large flip chart. We will call this list a long list of ideas.

Now instruct that every participant should select out from the long list the most important five ideas- the ideas (which as per him) if implemented will solve a large degree of the problem. Advise them to maintain the objectivity. They need not write the entire description of the ideas on their writing pad but just pick up the serial numbers of the selected ideas as written on the white board (the long list). They should arrange those five selected ideas in terms of their importance and usefulness. Ask each participant to assign 5 marks to the most important idea, 4 marks to the next most important idea and so on till he assigns 1 mark to the least important idea.

Ask each participant turn by turn to shout out the serial number of their selected five ideas and the marks assigned to them. You will transfer those marks next to that idea on the long list on the white board/flip chart. It will be seen that some particular ideas will start accumulating more and more marks and some ideas may even be left out by all the participants. After you have collected the marks from all the participants and accumulated them against each of the ideas on the long list, total up the marks gained by each idea.

Now rearrange (by re-writing) the list of ideas in the descending order of the marks gained by them leaving out entirely those ideas which did not secure any marks from the audience.
Select out top few ideas (may be 5 to 6 ideas) from the newly rank ordered list of solutions in consultation with the audience. These will be those ideas if implemented will solve 90% to 95% of the stated problem.

The is a wonderful experiential learning exercise and you may not be required to explain much after the exercise is over. Your participants would have grasped the inputs that you meant to give them. The exercise will also act as an excellent energizer for the rest of your program.

Here is your chance of buying the book "Classic Management Games, Exercises, Energizers and Icebreakers"(at price slashed by around 50% till end December 2011):

For owning your copy/copies of the book, visit the following Amazon.com sites:

For eBook format: http://www.amazon.com/Management-Exercises-Energizers-Icebreakers-ebook/dp/B004OEKF0I/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1323836948&sr=1-1
For book in print form: http://www.amazon.com/Classic-Management-Exercises-Energizers-Icebreakers/dp/1461029945/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1323837139&sr=1-1

Our Books Publications (Books authored by Shyam Bhatawdekar and Dr Kalpana Bhatawdekar)

Own your copy/copies of the following bestseller books authored by eminent management gurus and consultants Shyam Bhatawdekar and Dr Kalpana Bhatawdekar:

1.HSoftware (Human Software) (The Only Key to Higher Effectiveness) or HSoftware Shyam Bhatawdekar’s Effectiveness Model)
2. Classic Management Games, Exercises, Energizers and
Icebreakers
3. Sensitive Stories of Corporate World (Management Case Studies)
4. Funny (and Not So Funny) Short Stories
5. Stress? No Way!! (Handbook on Stress Management)

You may like to go to the above-mentioned titles (web links) and order your copies on Amazon.com on Internet. The books are available in printed form and also as eBooks.
Or
Persons residing in India may like to write to our email address prodcons@prodcons.comand order your copies.

For More Guidance, Assistance, Training and Consultation

Contact: prodcons@prodcons.com

Training in all the soft skills and various management functions/techniques is imparted by Prodcons Group’s Mr Shyam Bhatawdekar and/or Dr (Mrs) Kalpana Bhatawdekar, eminent management educationists, management consultants and trainers- par excellence, with distinction of having trained over 150,000 people from around 250 organizations.

Also refer: (Prodcons Group) http://prodcons-group.blogspot.com/, (Training Programs by Prodcons Group) http://training-development-function.blogspot.com/, (Productivity Consultants) http://productivity-consultants.blogspot.com/

A to Z Review

2012-01-09T00:11:00.000-08:00

(If you are interested in authentic management books, go to “Best Books” at: http://best-book-list.blogspot.com)

(Refer for the most authentic articles on Building Leadership and Management: http://shyam.bhatawdekar.com

(Refer our High Quality Management Encyclopedia “Management Universe” at: http://management-universe.blogspot.com/)

A to Z Review

Every workshop or seminar leader (faculty) like you sincerely wants to find out how effectively he delivered his program. You wish to know if your program participants grasped the inputs you provided them. Can they correctly answer the questions based on the contents of your program? In addition to meeting this objective it is a good practice to recap the inputs given in your program in your last session before concluding the program. This helps improve the retention of the knowledge by the participants. The best way to achieve these twin objectives is to engage the participants creatively in the review of their learnings.

Prior to actually conducting your workshop/seminar, you will need to prepare 26 questions the answers to which will result in the comprehensive review of the entire contents of your program.

Write each question on one index card. Thus you will have 26 cards with you. On other side of the card, write an English alphabet starting with “A” on the first card and going right up to “Z” on the 26th card.

After you have conducted all the sessions of your program, in your last session of recap and review, divide the participants into groups, each group consisting of 4 to 5 participants picked up randomly. Give each group a bell.

Now list the 26 alphabets in bold font on single sheet of a flip chart and display them. Ask groups to select any alphabet randomly. Start with the first group first. Suppose the first group selects an alphabet say, “D”, then cross mark the alphabet “D” on the flip chart and pick out the index card “D” from the 26 cards you are holding. Read the question of this card “D” loudly and clearly.

Ask the groups to ring the bell if any of the groups know the answer to that question. The group that rings the bell the fastest will get the first opportunity to answer the question. If the group’s answer is correct, give the card to that group. If the answer is wrong, the group that rang the bell the second fastest will be given the opportunity to answer the question and so on. Finally the group answering correctly will get that card.

Second time the second group will pick up the alphabet from the flip chart randomly and the process as described above will be executed.

Thus the groups will take turns selecting alphabets. As they select alphabet, you will cross off that alphabet from the flip chart and read the question written on the corresponding card. When a question is answered correctly, you will hand over the card to the successful group.

The game/exercise will end when all the 26 questions have been read and answered. When none of the groups is in a position to answer the question correctly, you will provide its answer and keep that particular card with yourself.

The group that collects the maximum number of cards will be declared the winner. You may like to give a prize to the winner group. If number of groups are many then you may like to give prizes to top two or three groups.

Thanks the participants and conclude your program.

Here is your chance of buying the book “Classic Management Games, Exercises, Energizers and Icebreakers”:

For owning your copy/copies of the book, visit the following Amazon.com sites:

For eBook format: http://www.amazon.com/Management-Exercises-Energizers-Icebreakers-ebook/dp/B004OEKF0I/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1323836948&sr=1-1

For book in print form: http://www.amazon.com/Classic-Management-Exercises-Energizers-Icebreakers/dp/1461029945/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1323837139&sr=1-1

Our Books Publications (Books authored by Shyam Bhatawdekar and Dr Kalpana Bhatawdekar)

Own your copy/copies of the following bestseller books authored by eminent management gurus and consultants Shyam Bhatawdekar and Dr Kalpana Bhatawdekar:

1.HSoftware (Human Software) (The Only Key to Higher Effectiveness) or HSoftware Shyam Bhatawdekar’s Effectiveness Model)
2. Classic Management Games, Exercises, Energizers and
Icebreakers
3. Sensitive Stories of Corporate World (Management Case Studies)
4. Funny (and Not So Funny) Short Stories
5. Stress? No Way!! (Handbook on Stress Management)

You may like to go to the above-mentioned titles (web links) and order your copies on Amazon.com on Internet. The books are available in printed form and also as eBooks.
Or
Persons residing in India may like to write to our email address prodcons@prodcons.comand order your copies.

For More Guidance, Assistance, Training and Consultation

Contact: prodcons@prodcons.com

Training in all the soft skills and various management functions/techniques is imparted by Prodcons Group’s Mr Shyam Bhatawdekar and/or Dr (Mrs) Kalpana Bhatawdekar, eminent management educationists, management consultants and trainers- par excellence, with distinction of having trained over 150,000 people from around 250 organizations.

Also refer: (Prodcons Group) http://prodcons-group.blogspot.com/, (Training Programs by Prodcons Group) http://training-development-function.blogspot.com/, (Productivity Consultants) http://productivity-consultants.blogspot.com/

Pre and Post Program Quiz

2012-01-03T23:24:00.000-08:00

(If you are interested in authentic management books, go to “Best Books” at: http://best-book-list.blogspot.com)

(Refer for the most authentic articles on Building Leadership and Management: http://shyam.bhatawdekar.com

(Refer our High Quality Management Encyclopedia “Management Universe” at: http://management-universe.blogspot.com/)

Pre and Post Program Quiz

Every workshop or seminar leader (faculty) like you sincerely wants to find out his program’s effectiveness. The measure of real effectiveness is how much and how well the participants grasped the subject matter and improved their knowledge level from your program. At the end of your program are they really equipped well to implement what you covered in your program? What has been the percentage improvement in them- how much knowledgeable they were before attending your program and how much more knowledgeable they became after attending your program?

One of the best ways of doing it is to design a suitable and effective questionnaire (quiz) covering all the topics you plan to cover through your workshop/seminar. The questions should be objective type questions and number of questions should depend upon the number of topics you would cover in your program. Against each question indicate the marks the participants can score if they answer the question correctly. Normally the duration of the quiz could be around 30 to 45 minutes or so.

At the start of your program give each participant this quiz (the hard copy) and ask them to answer the question on the same sheet of paper after writing their name on top of the page. At the expiry of the duration allowed for tackling the quiz, instruct that each person should pass on his answer sheet to the person sitting next to him. Thus each person will have some one else’s answer sheet. Read out the correct answer and let each participant score out the marks on the answer sheet he is holding and add up the total marks. Collect all the answer sheets with marks written on them.

After you have finished teaching all the topics of the program as planned, repeat the above-mentioned exercise at the end of the program. Give the same quiz- a new sheet to each participant. After each answer sheet has been evaluated by a fellow participant and marks written on it, collect all the answer sheets.

Pull out the pre-program and post program answer sheets participant-wise and staple them together so that you can readily see the marks obtained by each and every participant at the beginning of the program when he was not exposed to the topics and the marks obtained by him after getting exposed to the topics through your program. Declare their marks and the extent of improvement each participant showed by learning in your program. Work out the percentage improvements.

Let the entire class clap for each participant as you declare the results of everyone’s performance in the quiz. Let them know that they are much better off after learning.

Also, submit a report to your client giving feedback on the effectiveness of your training program.

Here is your chance of buying the book “Classic Management Games, Exercises, Energizers and Icebreakers”:

For owning your copy/copies of the book, visit the following Amazon.com sites:
For eBook format: http://www.amazon.com/Management-Exercises-Energizers-Icebreakers-ebook/dp/B004OEKF0I/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1323836948&sr=1-1

For book in print form: http://www.amazon.com/Classic-Management-Exercises-Energizers-Icebreakers/dp/1461029945/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1323837139&sr=1-1

Our Books Publications (Books authored by Shyam Bhatawdekar and Dr Kalpana Bhatawdekar)

Own your copy/copies of the following bestseller books authored by eminent management gurus and consultants Shyam Bhatawdekar and Dr Kalpana Bhatawdekar:

1.HSoftware (Human Software) (The Only Key to Higher Effectiveness) or HSoftware Shyam Bhatawdekar’s Effectiveness Model)
2. Classic Management Games, Exercises, Energizers and
Icebreakers
3. Sensitive Stories of Corporate World (Management Case Studies)
4. Funny (and Not So Funny) Short Stories
5. Stress? No Way!! (Handbook on Stress Management)

You may like to go to the above-mentioned titles (web links) and order your copies on Amazon.com on Internet. The books are available in printed form and also as eBooks.
Or
Persons residing in India may like to write to our email address prodcons@prodcons.comand order your copies.

For More Guidance, Assistance, Training and Consultation

Contact: prodcons@prodcons.com

Training in all the soft skills and various management functions/techniques is imparted by Prodcons Group’s Mr Shyam Bhatawdekar and/or Dr (Mrs) Kalpana Bhatawdekar, eminent management educationists, management consultants and trainers- par excellence, with distinction of having trained over 150,000 people from around 250 organizations.

Also refer: (Prodcons Group) http://prodcons-group.blogspot.com/, (Training Programs by Prodcons Group) http://training-development-function.blogspot.com/, (Productivity Consultants) http://productivity-consultants.blogspot.com/

Who Is the Best Observer?

2011-12-29T03:22:00.000-08:00

(If you are interested in authentic management books, go to “Best Books” at: http://best-book-list.blogspot.com)

(Refer for the most authentic articles on Building Leadership and Management: http://shyam.bhatawdekar.com

(Refer our High Quality Management Encyclopedia “Management Universe” at: http://management-universe.blogspot.com/)

Who Is the Best Observer?

As a training faculty or workshop leader you can use this particular exercise in your training programs on observation skills, memory enhancement, team work, effectiveness improvement, personal and professional improvement etc. The exercise provides experiential learning. It is a combination of individual and group exercise.

You will need to make some prior preparation to administer the exercise. Prepare three trays of various miscellaneous items. In each tray fix 20 items of different descriptions. For examples these items could be a pencil, an eraser, a lip stick, a match box, a shoe lace, an electric switch, a whistle, a cigarette, a coin, a spoon and so on. Alternately take the pictures (photographs) of these items and assemble them randomly on a display chart or you can also project them on a screen (20 items together at a time from a PC or lap top computer through the LCD projector onto a screen).

Tell the participants of your program that you are going to show them 20 items (either in a tray, or on a display chart or on the screen through LCD projector). They should observe the items carefully and remember as many items as they can without writing down anything. After displaying the items for a minute you will stop their display. They should then note down on their note pads the items they remembered.

Now display the 20 items for 60 seconds. Let the participants write down as many items as they can remember.

Show the items to the participants again. Participants should compare what they wrote with what is actually on the display. They should tick out the correct items they listed, count them and write down this number of correctly observed items.

As a second round, tell the participants that you will now show them another set of 20 items. This time the display time will be just 30 seconds. However, this time they should be ready with their pad and pencil and they can jot down the names of the items on their note pads as they go on observing them.

Ask the participants to count the number of items listed by them in the second round of observations.

Now for the third round of observations, randomly divide the participants in groups, each group consisting of 4 to 5 participants. Each group will be asked to observe a new display of another set of 20 items for 30 seconds. Before actually displaying the items, give them 5 minutes for discussions on finalizing their methodology for observing and noting down the names of the items.

Now display the new set of 20 items on the tray for 30 seconds. Each group will observe and note down the items. One combined list will be made by each group even if the observations were made individually in the groups. Find out how many correct items each group listed.

Write down on flip chart or white board the count of observations made by the individual participants in round 1 and round 2 and also the number of observations made by each group after round 3.

Normally it will be seen that when individuals made the observations and noted them down simultaneously, they did better than when they just remembered what they saw without taking notes. This is so despite the fact that the observation time was 30 seconds in the first case as against 60 seconds in the second case.

Also it will be seen that the number of observations made by groups were more than what they did as individuals provided the groups worked out as good teams and decided on better processes for making the observations.

Lead a discussion among your participants on this basis. Establish that observation skills are important and can be improved by various ways e.g. making notes, other better processes, practice in observing and team work.

Here is your chance of buying the book "Classic Management Games, Exercises, Energizers and Icebreakers"(at price slashed by around 50% till end December 2011):

For owning your copy/copies of the book, visit the following Amazon.com sites:

For eBook format: http://www.amazon.com/Management-Exercises-Energizers-Icebreakers-ebook/dp/B004OEKF0I/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1323836948&sr=1-1
For book in print form: http://www.amazon.com/Classic-Management-Exercises-Energizers-Icebreakers/dp/1461029945/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1323837139&sr=1-1

Our Books Publications (Books authored by Shyam Bhatawdekar and Dr Kalpana Bhatawdekar)

Own your copy/copies of the following bestseller books authored by eminent management gurus and consultants Shyam Bhatawdekar and Dr Kalpana Bhatawdekar:

1.HSoftware (Human Software) (The Only Key to Higher Effectiveness) or HSoftware Shyam Bhatawdekar’s Effectiveness Model)
2. Classic Management Games, Exercises, Energizers and
Icebreakers
3. Sensitive Stories of Corporate World (Management Case Studies)
4. Funny (and Not So Funny) Short Stories
5. Stress? No Way!! (Handbook on Stress Management)

You may like to go to the above-mentioned titles (web links) and order your copies on Amazon.com on Internet. The books are available in printed form and also as eBooks.
Or
Persons residing in India may like to write to our email address prodcons@prodcons.comand order your copies.

For More Guidance, Assistance, Training and Consultation

Contact: prodcons@prodcons.com

Training in all the soft skills and various management functions/techniques is imparted by Prodcons Group’s Mr Shyam Bhatawdekar and/or Dr (Mrs) Kalpana Bhatawdekar, eminent management educationists, management consultants and trainers- par excellence, with distinction of having trained over 150,000 people from around 250 organizations.

Also refer: (Prodcons Group) http://prodcons-group.blogspot.com/,
(Training Programs by Prodcons Group) http://training-development-function.blogspot.com/, (Productivity Consultants) http://productivity-consultants.blogspot.com/

Follow Me

2011-12-19T03:42:00.000-08:00

(If you are interested in authentic management books, go to “Best Books” at: http://best-book-list.blogspot.com)

(Refer for the most authentic articles on Building Leadership and Management: http://shyam.bhatawdekar.com

(Refer our High Quality Management Encyclopedia “Management Universe” at: http://management-universe.blogspot.com/)

Follow Me

This is a very simple exercise that lasts just a few minutes. Yet, the discussions that may follow the exercise may continue for much longer period resulting in great participation. Therefore, as a seminar or workshop leader you may use it as an opener or an icebreaker of your program. It will be handy also as an energizer whenever you find that your audience is becoming dull and you need to wake them up. You can as well use this group exercise in your modules or sessions on communication, listening, body language, team work etc. This exercise also emphasizes that action speaks louder than words.

To start the exercise, ask every participant of your program to clap.

Each one will clap or you may even notice a few indifferent persons in your training group. Single them out and say that you want them to join in when you say "clap" the next time.

So, say "clap" again. Now you might find that almost everyone clapped.

Now this time show your disappointment on the performance of their clapping. Tell them that they did not synchronize their clapping and the clapping was very weak. It was not thunderous enough. It lacked enthusiasm and energy.

So, come to their rescue and explain that you will help them to achieve the synchronized and thunderous clapping. For achieving this, tell them that you will count “One, two, three” and then you will say, “clap”. And then everyone in the audience should clap simultaneously.

Now Count “one, two, three”. Immediately after calling "three", clap your hands without saying “clap”. You may find that a large majority of your participants would have clapped by following your action of clapping. They would not bother whether you uttered the command "clap" or not. Now shout out your command "clap" loudly. The participants will keep gaping at you.

At this stage express your surprise and question them why they did not wait for your "clap" command as was decided earlier. Why did they clap without waiting for the command?

A few participants might argue that they followed your action of clapping.

Ask the participants whether they were right in doing so? The answers will set tone for some involved discussion.

Lead the discussion to uncover the concepts of communication, listening, body language, team work and the fact that the action speaks louder than words. Wrap up your session.

Here is your chance of buying the book "Classic Management Games, Exercises, Energizers and Icebreakers"(at price slashed by around 50% till end December 2011):

For owning your copy/copies of the book, visit the following Amazon.com sites:

For eBook format: http://www.amazon.com/Management-Exercises-Energizers-Icebreakers-ebook/dp/B004OEKF0I/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1323836948&sr=1-1
For book in print form: http://www.amazon.com/Classic-Management-Exercises-Energizers-Icebreakers/dp/1461029945/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1323837139&sr=1-1

Our Books Publications (Books authored by Shyam Bhatawdekar and Dr Kalpana Bhatawdekar)

Own your copy/copies of the following bestseller books authored by eminent management gurus and consultants Shyam Bhatawdekar and Dr Kalpana Bhatawdekar:

1.HSoftware (Human Software) (The Only Key to Higher Effectiveness) or HSoftware Shyam Bhatawdekar’s Effectiveness Model)
2. Classic Management Games, Exercises, Energizers and
Icebreakers
3. Sensitive Stories of Corporate World (Management Case Studies)
4. Funny (and Not So Funny) Short Stories
5. Stress? No Way!! (Handbook on Stress Management)

You may like to go to the above-mentioned titles (web links) and order your copies on Amazon.com on Internet. The books are available in printed form and also as eBooks.
Or
Persons residing in India may like to write to our email address prodcons@prodcons.comand order your copies.

For More Guidance, Assistance, Training and Consultation

Contact: prodcons@prodcons.com

Training in all the soft skills and various management functions/techniques is imparted by Prodcons Group’s Mr Shyam Bhatawdekar and/or Dr (Mrs) Kalpana Bhatawdekar, eminent management educationists, management consultants and trainers- par excellence, with distinction of having trained over 150,000 people from around 250 organizations.

Also refer: (Prodcons Group) http://prodcons-group.blogspot.com/,
(Training Programs by Prodcons Group) http://training-development-function.blogspot.com/, (Productivity Consultants) http://productivity-consultants.blogspot.com/

Promise of Implementation (Plan of Action)

2011-12-13T00:04:00.000-08:00

(If you are interested in authentic management books, go to “Best Books” at: http://best-book-list.blogspot.com)

(Refer for the most authentic articles on Building Leadership and Management: http://shyam.bhatawdekar.com

(Refer our High Quality Management Encyclopedia “Management Universe” at: http://management-universe.blogspot.com/)

Promise of Implementation (Plan of Action)

One question is often asked of the trainers and management consultants like you, “How are you going to make the participants implement what you covered in your training workshop?” Your training program’s effectiveness is often judged based the extent of improvements your program brought about in your client organization.

An effective answer is this present exercise that you can get done by your program participants towards the close of your program. This exercise provides an effective method of self contracting and follow up for behavior change. Through this exercise the participants of your program will make gentlemanly promises with themselves on transferring certain aspects of what they learnt in your program to their jobs in their organizations.

At the beginning of your program announce that you have planned this exercise towards the end of the program. Caution the participants to stay alert throughout the workshop to check out the implementability of the learnings on the job.

Then in the last session of your program distribute copies of the suitably designed form to each participant. Remind the group that the time has come when they need to decide and write down in the form their plans of implementation of learnings of the program on their jobs. This kind of self-contract would morally pressurize them and facilitate transfer of the training to their jobs.

Give them sufficient time to fill out the form. Distribute blank envelopes to the participants. Ask them to write down their own postal addresses on these envelopes. Then have the participants insert the filled-up form in their own envelopes, seal them and give them to you.

Tell them that they will soon get the envelope with the form inside to remind them to put in practice what they had promised to themselves if they did not do it already. Wish them best luck for effective implementation and wrap up your workshop.

Later on place postage on the envelopes and mail them to the participants three to four weeks after the workshop.

Here is your chance of buying the book "Classic Management Games, Exercises, Energizers and Icebreakers"(at price slashed by around 50% till end December 2011):

For owning your copy/copies of the book, visit the following Amazon.com sites:

For eBook format: http://www.amazon.com/Management-Exercises-Energizers-Icebreakers-ebook/dp/B004OEKF0I/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1323836948&sr=1-1

For book in print form: http://www.amazon.com/Classic-Management-Exercises-Energizers-Icebreakers/dp/1461029945/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1323837139&sr=1-1

Our Books Publications (Books authored by Shyam Bhatawdekar and Dr Kalpana Bhatawdekar)

Own your copy/copies of the following bestseller books authored by eminent management gurus and consultants Shyam Bhatawdekar and Dr Kalpana Bhatawdekar:

1.HSoftware (Human Software) (The Only Key to Higher Effectiveness) or HSoftware Shyam Bhatawdekar’s Effectiveness Model)
2. Classic Management Games, Exercises, Energizers and
Icebreakers
3. Sensitive Stories of Corporate World (Management Case Studies)
4. Funny (and Not So Funny) Short Stories
5. Stress? No Way!! (Handbook on Stress Management)

You may like to go to the above-mentioned titles (web links) and order your copies on Amazon.com on Internet. The books are available in printed form and also as eBooks.
Or
Persons residing in India may like to write to our email address prodcons@prodcons.comand order your copies.

For More Guidance, Assistance, Training and Consultation

Contact: prodcons@prodcons.com

Training in all the soft skills and various management functions/techniques is imparted by Prodcons Group’s Mr Shyam Bhatawdekar and/or Dr (Mrs) Kalpana Bhatawdekar, eminent management educationists, management consultants and trainers- par excellence, with distinction of having trained over 150,000 people from around 250 organizations.

Also refer: (Prodcons Group) http://prodcons-group.blogspot.com/,
(Training Programs by Prodcons Group) http://training-development-function.blogspot.com/, (Productivity Consultants) http://productivity-consultants.blogspot.com/

Exercise in Why Why Analysis or 5 Whys Analysis

2011-12-07T04:10:00.000-08:00

Customers are unhappy because they are being shipped products that don't meet their specifications.
A worker was hurt by a flying chip (the turnings) of metal on his machine.
Car did not start after switching on the ignition key.
Components are being delivered late to the customers.
A particular CNC machine went into breakdown all of a sudden.
A caterer delivered food one hour late for a party.
A lady is trying to loose weight but meeting with no success.
Our team lost the soccer (football) match.

Ask each sub-group to work on these problems by mutual discussions between its members. Arrange for presentations by them on their findings.

Share your observations on how well they applied why why technique in finding the root causes of the problems and solving them. Wrap up the session by giving additional theoretical inputs if necessary.

Here is your chance of buying the book "Classic Management Games, Exercises, Energizers and Icebreakers"(at price slashed by around 50% till end December 2011):
For owning your copy/copies of the book, visit the following Amazon.com sites:

For eBook format: http://www.amazon.com/Management-Exercises-Energizers-Icebreakers-ebook/dp/B004OEKF0I/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1323836948&sr=1-1

For book in print form: http://www.amazon.com/Classic-Management-Exercises-Energizers-Icebreakers/dp/1461029945/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1323837139&sr=1-1

Our Books Publications (Books authored by Shyam Bhatawdekar and Dr Kalpana Bhatawdekar)

Own your copy/copies of the following bestseller books authored by eminent management gurus and consultants Shyam Bhatawdekar and Dr Kalpana Bhatawdekar:

1.HSoftware (Human Software) (The Only Key to Higher Effectiveness) or HSoftware Shyam Bhatawdekar’s Effectiveness Model)
2. Classic Management Games, Exercises, Energizers and
Icebreakers
3. Sensitive Stories of Corporate World (Management Case Studies)
4. Funny (and Not So Funny) Short Stories
5. Stress? No Way!! (Handbook on Stress Management)

You may like to go to the above-mentioned titles (web links) and order your copies on Amazon.com on Internet. The books are available in printed form and also as eBooks.
Or
Persons residing in India may like to write to our email address prodcons@prodcons.comand order your copies.

For More Guidance, Assistance, Training and Consultation

Contact: prodcons@prodcons.com

Training in all the soft skills and various management functions/techniques is imparted by Prodcons Group’s Mr Shyam Bhatawdekar and/or Dr (Mrs) Kalpana Bhatawdekar, eminent management educationists, management consultants and trainers- par excellence, with distinction of having trained over 150,000 people from around 250 organizations.

Also refer: (Prodcons Group) http://prodcons-group.blogspot.com/,
(Training Programs by Prodcons Group) http://training-development-function.blogspot.com/, (Productivity Consultants) http://productivity-consultants.blogspot.com/

Uncover Your Time Wasters

2011-11-30T00:23:00.000-08:00

Unnecessary meetings
Unclear instructions from the bosses
Overload of useless emails

etc.

Tell them that the examples you gave were just to illustrate the point. Now taking a clue from this, they should work out their own time wasters which they experience in their own work places. Each person should write down all the time wasters that he came across during past six months to an year that affected their work effectiveness and efficiency.

You may allow around twenty minutes to each participant to jot down his time wasters. Some participants may find themselves at a loss to identify their own time wasters or they may stop after writing only few reasons of wasting the time. Thus their lists may remain incomplete.

To facilitate them in completing their lists of time wasters in a more comprehensive manner, put them into groups. Randomly pick up 6 to 7 participants to form each group.

Now, in each group the group members should compare among themselves the lists prepared by them. This will prompt each member of the group to check out the items in the others’ lists which he did not include but those time wasters are applicable to him as well. By this process every member of each group will be able to extend his list of time wasters to make it more comprehensive.

Now each participant will shortlist two or three top most critical time wasters out of his entire list of time wasters. Ask the participants to make their own plan of action to minimize these two or three time wasters.

You will ask each participant to share his top two or three time wasters with the rest of the group by writing them on the white board/flip chart and presenting his plan action, At the end of all the presentations, the participants would have displayed on the white board/flip chart the most critical time wasters faced by them all. Group the common time wasters together.

As a faculty if you have more suggestions on how they can tackle their time wasters, share them with the participants.

Thank the participants and wind up your session on time wasters.

Our Books Publications (Books authored by Shyam Bhatawdekar and Dr Kalpana Bhatawdekar)

Own your copy/copies of the following bestseller books authored by eminent management gurus and consultants Shyam Bhatawdekar and Dr Kalpana Bhatawdekar:

1.HSoftware (Human Software) (The Only Key to Higher Effectiveness) or HSoftware Shyam Bhatawdekar’s Effectiveness Model)
2. Classic Management Games, Exercises, Energizers and Icebreakers
3. Sensitive Stories of Corporate World (Management Case Studies)
4. Funny (and Not So Funny) Short Stories
5. Stress? No Way!! (Handbook on Stress Management)

You may like to go to the above-mentioned titles (web links) and order your copies on Amazon.com on Internet. The books are available in printed form and also as eBooks.
Or
Persons residing in India may like to write to our email address prodcons@prodcons.comand order your copies.

For More Guidance, Assistance, Training and Consultation

Contact: prodcons@prodcons.com

Training in all the soft skills and various management functions/techniques is imparted by Prodcons Group’s Mr Shyam Bhatawdekar and/or Dr (Mrs) Kalpana Bhatawdekar, eminent management educationists, management consultants and trainers- par excellence, with distinction of having trained over 150,000 people from around 250 organizations.

Also refer: (Prodcons Group) http://prodcons-group.blogspot.com/,
(Training Programs by Prodcons Group) http://training-development-function.blogspot.com/, (Productivity Consultants) http://productivity-consultants.blogspot.com/

Marooned on an Island

2011-11-23T23:53:00.000-08:00

Candy Treat

2011-11-19T00:21:00.000-08:00

(If you are interested in authentic management books, go to “Best Books” at: http://best-book-list.blogspot.com)

(Refer for the most authentic articles on Building Leadership and Management: http://shyam.bhatawdekar.com

(Refer our High Quality Management Encyclopedia
“Management Universe” at: http://management-universe.blogspot.com/)

Candy Treat

As an effective trainer or educator, you are always conscious and anxious about the following aspects:

Are your participants really learning in your program?
Are the participants retaining the learning?
Are they enjoying your training sessions?
Are they having fun learning?
How can you make them to participate more and more?
How can you involve all of them in the learning process?
How to keep the energy level in your seminar room all the time at the peak?

Here is a simple energizer called “Candy Treat” that you can use to meet the above-mentioned objectives. It is a good intervention for an effective program review.

At the beginning of your seminar/workshop tell the participants of your program that you will surprise them with spot questions/quiz throughout the day. The questions will be directed at them any time you feel like asking them. The questions will be related to what you are teaching them. So they better be attentive.

You will also tell them that the persons who can answer the question will raise their hands. The person who raises the hand the fastest will be given the first opportunity to answer the question. If his answer is incorrect, the second fastest person will be asked to answer and this will continue with all the volunteers (who raised the hands) till the right answer comes out.

The person giving the right answer will win two candies. Also the first person raising the hand will win one candy. The candies will be distributed by you immediately.

The persons receiving the candies should retain the wrappers of candies. At the end of the day the person with the highest number of candy wrappers will receive equal number of candies. For example if the person winning the highest number of candies presents 7 wrappers, he will get 7 more candies from you.

Congratulate the mega winner as well as all the other winners of candies. Shower you appreciation on their enthusiasm.

Our Books Publications (Books authored by Shyam Bhatawdekar and Dr Kalpana Bhatawdekar)

Own your copy/copies of the following bestseller books authored by eminent management gurus and consultants Shyam Bhatawdekar and Dr Kalpana Bhatawdekar:

1.HSoftware (Human Software) (The Only Key to Higher Effectiveness) or HSoftware Shyam Bhatawdekar’s Effectiveness Model)
2. Classic Management Games, Exercises, Energizers and Icebreakers
3. Sensitive Stories of Corporate World (Management Case Studies)
4. Funny (and Not So Funny) Short Stories
5. Stress? No Way!! (Handbook on Stress Management)

You may like to go to the above-mentioned titles (web links) and order your copies on Amazon.com on Internet. The books are available in printed form and also as eBooks.
Or
Persons residing in India may like to write to our email address prodcons@prodcons.comand order your copies.

For More Guidance, Assistance, Training and Consultation

Contact: prodcons@prodcons.com

Training in all the soft skills and various management functions/techniques is imparted by Prodcons Group’s Mr Shyam Bhatawdekar and/or Dr (Mrs) Kalpana Bhatawdekar, eminent management educationists, management consultants and
trainers- par excellence, with distinction of having trained over 150,000 people from around 250 organizations.

Also refer: (Prodcons Group) http://prodcons-group.blogspot.com/,
(Training Programs by Prodcons Group) http://training-development-function.blogspot.com/, (Productivity Consultants) http://productivity-consultants.blogspot.com/

Top Up Your Money

2011-11-16T23:30:00.000-08:00

The balance money after giving out some money to the other group.
Money received from the other group (of the pair)
Money topped up by me to each group (equal to the money that was transferred by the other group)

Each group will total up the money at hand now and declare it.

The group having the maximum money at hand will be declared as the winner.

End of instructions

After the participants get the full clarity regarding how to play the game, you can hand over envelops containing $25 to each group. Two groups in each pair can then start playing the game.

At the conclusion of the game, each group will declare the total money at hand. You will declare the winner(s).

Start a discussion by asking the participants on whether they could have made still more money and how? Could they have played the game differently and in a better way? What went wrong and what went right? What did you learn from this management exercise?

Fill them up with additional inputs from your side and wrap up your session.

Our Books Publications (Books authored by Shyam Bhatawdekar and Dr Kalpana Bhatawdekar)

Own your copy/copies of the following bestseller books authored by eminent management gurus and consultants Shyam Bhatawdekar and Dr Kalpana Bhatawdekar:

1.HSoftware (Human Software) (The Only Key to Higher Effectiveness) or HSoftware (Shyam Bhatawdekar’s Effectiveness Model)
2. Classic Management Games, Exercises, Energizers and Icebreakers
3. Sensitive Stories of Corporate World (Management Case Studies)
4. Funny (and Not So Funny) Short Stories
5. Stress? No Way!! (Handbook on Stress Management)

You may like to go to the above-mentioned titles (web links) and order your copies on Amazon.com on Internet. The books are available in printed form and also as eBooks.
Or
Persons residing in India may like to write to our email address prodcons@prodcons.comand order your copies.

For More Guidance, Assistance, Training and Consultation

Contact: prodcons@prodcons.com

Training in all the soft skills and various management functions/techniques is imparted by Prodcons Group’s Mr Shyam Bhatawdekar and/or Dr (Mrs) Kalpana Bhatawdekar, eminent management educationists, management consultants and trainers- par excellence, with distinction of having trained over 150,000 people from around 250 organizations.

Also refer: (Prodcons Group) http://prodcons-group.blogspot.com/, (Training Programs by Prodcons Group) http://training-development-function.blogspot.com/, (Productivity Consultants) http://productivity-consultants.blogspot.com/

Line Up by Birth Dates

2011-11-10T00:07:00.000-08:00

The person born on 1st January should be heading the line and the person born on 31st December should stand at the other end of the straight line. Others should arrange in between these two persons in order of their birth dates.
In carrying out the re-arrangement no one will speak with each other at all.
In carrying out the re-arrangement no one will write down anything anywhere.

Allow them 15 minutes to carry out this exercise.

If they fail to complete the group task in the allotted time, extend the time by five more minutes.

If they declare that they have now lined up by their birth dates, check it out by asking them to declare their birth dates loudly. If they have lined up correctly, congratulate them and let them tell you how they achieved such a perfect result.

If they have not been able to carry out the task or they carried out the task incorrectly, let them tell you what went wrong. What they could have done to achieve the desired result?

Wrap up the game by sharing your observations and comments with them. In case they have not been able to figure out how the task could have been accomplished, fill them up with your suggestions.

Our Books Publications (Books authored by Shyam Bhatawdekar and Dr Kalpana Bhatawdekar)

Own your copy/copies of the following bestseller books authored by eminent management gurus and consultants Shyam Bhatawdekar and Dr Kalpana Bhatawdekar:

1.HSoftware (Human Software) (The Only Key to Higher Effectiveness) or HSoftware (Shyam Bhatawdekar’s Effectiveness Model)
2. Classic Management Games, Exercises, Energizers and Icebreakers
3. Sensitive Stories of Corporate World (Management Case Studies)
4. Funny (and Not So Funny) Short Stories
5. Stress? No Way!! (Handbook on Stress Management)

You may like to go to the above-mentioned titles (web links) and order your copies on Amazon.com on Internet. The books are available in printed form and also as eBooks.
Or
Persons residing in India may like to write to our email address prodcons@prodcons.comand order your copies.

For More Guidance, Assistance, Training and Consultation

Contact: prodcons@prodcons.com

Training in all the soft skills and various management functions/techniques is imparted by Prodcons Group’s Mr Shyam Bhatawdekar and/or Dr (Mrs) Kalpana Bhatawdekar, eminent management educationists, management consultants and trainers- par excellence, with distinction of having trained over 150,000 people from around 250 organizations.

Also refer: (Prodcons Group) http://prodcons-group.blogspot.com/, (Training Programs by Prodcons Group) http://training-development-function.blogspot.com/, (Productivity Consultants) http://productivity-consultants.blogspot.com/

Prisoners’ Dilemma

2011-11-09T22:07:00.000-08:00

(If you are interested in authentic management books, go to “Best Books” at: http://best-book-list.blogspot.com) (Refer for the most authentic articles on Building Leadership and Management: http://shyam.bhatawdekar.com
(Refer our High Quality Management Encyclopedia “Management Universe” at: http://management-universe.blogspot.com/)

Prisoners’ Dilemma

“Prisoners’ Dilemma” is an excellent management game/exercise that can be used effectively in the sessions or modules on team work, team building, decision making, win-win approach, trust building, cooperation, communication etc. It is a participative game and is played between two groups.

You as the workshop leader or seminar conductor will distribute the "instruction sheet” or “brief” to each participant of your seminar/workshop. Tell the participants to read the brief carefully.

Start of the brief or the instructions

Brief (Instructions)

Two persons are taken in custody by police as suspects of a serious crime. The police cannot convict them immediately in absence of sufficient evidence. So, the police plans to take down the suspects’ statements in order to fix up the conviction and to decide the sentence/punishment.

The suspects are separated and imprisoned in two different rooms/cells where the police makes enquiries with them. The police takes down their statements separately. One suspect does not know what the other suspect is telling the police.

Based on the statements made by the two prisoners the police decides on the following types of sentence/punishment:

1. If one suspect confesses and the other remains silent, the silent suspect receives 10 year prison sentence and the confessor is released immediately.

2. If both confess, each receives a reduced sentence of 4 years.

3. If both remain silent, each suspect receives a 2 year sentence.

So, to confess or remain silent is the prisoners’ dilemma.

However, one suspect has no clue of what the the other suspect will do- whether he will remain silent or will he confess of having committed the crime.

Now to play this game each one of you will act like one of the suspects. Therefore all of you (participants of this workshop) will be divided into two groups consisting of equal number of participants. We will call these two groups as “suspect/prisoner group 1” and “suspect/prisoner group 2”. Each group as a whole will act as a suspect.

The police are quite lenient and will give you ten opportunities to change your decision before the final sentence/punishment is passed, which will be the cumulative sentence/punishment resulting from all ten decisions.

So you will play the game in ten rounds of decision making. You will be given two minutes for each round of decision making. After first two minutes each suspect group will give its group decision whether it wants to remain silent or it wants to confess to the police. The program leader (the faculty) will act police. The program leader will receive the two decisions of the first round from each suspect group and read them out to each group. Based on the decisions given by the two suspect group, the police will pass the sentence and declare it to both the groups. The groups will note down the outcomes of the first round.

The second round will start after this. The process described for the first round will be repeated for the second round.

Subsequently, likewise, rest of the eight rounds will be played.

At the end of all the ten rounds, the cumulative sentence/punishment will be decided, passed and announced.

End of the brief or the instructions

After the participants of your program finish reading the brief, divide them randomly into two groups consisting of equal number of participants in each group. you can easily management around seven participants in each group. If you have larger batch, you can play the game in two sets of two groups each.

As mentioned in the instruction sheet, you will coordinate the game and finally declare the results.

Now bring the two groups together and discuss the game. Let each group tell you and all the participants why they played the game the way they did. How else they could have played the game for better results. What were their learnings from this exercise?

As the program leader, fill them up with your observations, comments and suggestions. You may like to give them additional theoretical inputs if necessary.

Our Books Publications (Books authored by Shyam Bhatawdekar and Dr Kalpana Bhatawdekar)

Own your copy/copies of the following bestseller books authored by eminent management gurus and consultants Shyam Bhatawdekar and Dr Kalpana Bhatawdekar:

1.HSoftware (Human Software) (The Only Key to Higher Effectiveness) or HSoftware (Shyam Bhatawdekar’s Effectiveness Model)
2. Classic Management Games, Exercises, Energizers and Icebreakers
3. Sensitive Stories of Corporate World (Management Case Studies)
4. Funny (and Not So Funny) Short Stories
5. Stress? No Way!! (Handbook on Stress Management)

You may like to go to the above-mentioned titles (web links) and order your copies on Amazon.com on Internet. The books are available in printed form and also as eBooks.
Or
Persons residing in India may like to write to our email address prodcons@prodcons.comand order your copies.

For More Guidance, Assistance, Training and Consultation

Contact: prodcons@prodcons.com

Training in all the soft skills and various management functions/techniques is imparted by Prodcons Group’s Mr Shyam Bhatawdekar and/or Dr (Mrs) Kalpana Bhatawdekar, eminent management educationists, management consultants and trainers- par excellence, with distinction of having trained over 150,000 people from around 250 organizations.

Also refer: (Prodcons Group) http://prodcons-group.blogspot.com/, (Training Programs by Prodcons Group) http://training-development-function.blogspot.com/, (Productivity Consultants) http://productivity-consultants.blogspot.com/

Energetic Fellowship

2011-11-07T22:55:00.000-08:00

(If you are interested in authentic management books, go to “Best Books” at: http://best-book-list.blogspot.com)

(Refer for the most authentic articles on Building Leadership and Management: http://shyam.bhatawdekar.com
(Refer our High Quality Management Encyclopedia “Management Universe” at: http://management-universe.blogspot.com/)

Energetic Fellowship

We are sure that you as an effective seminar coordinator or workshop leader will like your seminar participants to get to know each other before you start your serious stuff. And if you can make their mutual introductions a fun thing, you can be sure that you have given your program a brilliant start. The game recommended here is not only a great game for the initial exchange of greetings between the participants but it also serves as an excellent icebreaker and energizer/warm-up exercise.

After the attendees/audience of your program gathers in the seminar hall, make the pairs of them consisting of two persons picked up randomly. For random pairing, you may ask them to shout out their serial numbers from 1 onwards and then persons with serial number 1 and 11, 2 and 12, 3 and 13 and so on can be made the partners. Or you may follow any other method for such random grouping.

We all know that the most conventional way of getting introduced to each other is to say “hi” or “hello” to each other and then giving out your name by shaking the hands.

But warn the participants that they will have to do much more than this to get introduced to each other. So, instruct the participants that each pair will have to invent its own creative greeting to greet each other in the pair. Each creative greeting will have three parts to it. You may give them an example by saying that their new greeting can consist a handshake, a hip bump and a high five. Emphasize that what you just suggested was only an example. They should not copy it but try to work out a new greeting consisting of such three parts by mutual discussion between the two partners of a pair.

Now let the partners in each pair use their newly invented greeting and get to know each other. After the first round of greetings is complete, mix the participants with different partners. Each person in the new pair will show the greeting they just made up. Then the newly paired two partners will combine their greetings to make a new one, may be a longer one with more parts to it. Pair up one more time with a new person. Ask the new partners to share those long new greetings and combine the two for a super new or super long greeting.

After this energetic fellowship is complete, request all the participants to clap thunderously and bring them back to your next session of the program.

Our Books Publications (Books authored by Shyam Bhatawdekar and Dr Kalpana Bhatawdekar)

Own your copy/copies of the following bestseller books authored by eminent management gurus and consultants Shyam Bhatawdekar and Dr Kalpana Bhatawdekar:

1.HSoftware (Human Software) (The Only Key to Higher Effectiveness) or HSoftware (Shyam Bhatawdekar’s Effectiveness Model)
2. Classic Management Games, Exercises, Energizers and Icebreakers
3. Sensitive Stories of Corporate World (Management Case Studies)
4. Funny (and Not So Funny) Short Stories
5. Stress? No Way!! (Handbook on Stress Management)

You may like to go to the above-mentioned titles (web links) and order your copies on Amazon.com on Internet. The books are available in printed form and also as eBooks.
Or
Persons residing in India may like to write to our email address prodcons@prodcons.comand order your copies.

For More Guidance, Assistance, Training and Consultation

Contact: prodcons@prodcons.com

Training in all the soft skills and various management functions/techniques is imparted by Prodcons Group’s Mr Shyam Bhatawdekar and/or Dr (Mrs) Kalpana Bhatawdekar, eminent management educationists, management consultants and trainers- par excellence, with distinction of having trained over 150,000 people from around 250 organizations.

Also refer: (Prodcons Group) http://prodcons-group.blogspot.com/, (Training Programs by Prodcons Group) http://training-development-function.blogspot.com/, (Productivity Consultants) http://productivity-consultants.blogspot.com/

The Strategist

2011-09-20T02:34:00.000-07:00

(If you are interested in authentic management books, go to “Best Books” at: http://best-book-list.blogspot.com)

(Refer for the most authentic articles on Building Leadership and Management: http://shyam.bhatawdekar.com

(Refer our High Quality Management Encyclopedia “Management Universe” at: http://management-universe.blogspot.com/)

The Strategist

“The Strategist” is a management game cum role play. It is best suited for the program modules or sessions on “strategy management”, “business plans”, “investment decision”, “cash flow management”, “marketing management”, “product mix decisions” etc.

In this management exercise each participant of the workshop is made to play the role of a strategist for his company. Each participant plays the role of a director of a company and contributes in strategizing company’s future growth plans, investment and cash flow decisions, product mix decisions etc.

To begin the game, you as the program or workshop leader, will distribute to each participant of your program the following written brief:

The brief starts here:

Brief for the Management Game “The Strategist”

You are one of the directors on the board of directors of your company “XYZ Corp”.

XYZ Corp has four strategic business units (SBUs). What each of the SBUs do is given below:

SBU1: It produces and markets a range of products that has a high market share in a low growth rate industry. The market has already matured in this industry. SBU1 is the oldest unit of the company. The unit is highly profitable generating lots of cash but future growth seems quite slow. The unit is a high earner of the company and produces lots of surplus after whatsoever cash it consumes to maintain its operations.

SBU2: The product range of this SBU has low market share in its mature, slow-growing industry. The unit is barely able to break even. The generated cash is just about adequate to maintain the existing market share. The unit employs a significant number of employees who have been loyal employees of the company for quite some time now. Other SBUs of the company occasionally use the resources of this SBU but not on any regular basis.

SBU3: The product range of this SBU is a part of a rapidly growing industry but as of now the SBU has acquired only a small share of the growing market. The future looks prospective though. As per a recent analysis the market share of the products of SBU3 is likely to go up significantly provided the company is willing to invest more in this unit. However, as of now, cash consumption of the unit is much higher than its cash earnings. And one is never too sure what will happen in the future.

SBU4: This unit’s products already have a high market share that too in a fast-growing industry. If the company wants to sustain its leadership position in this sector, this SBU may need extra cash. At this stage it is rather difficult to predict as to when and how soon the growth rate of this particular industry will slide down. The odds are assessed to be marginally in favor of SBU4 as per a recent study. And supporting the unit financially is though to be a prudent decision in order to maintain its supremacy in the market.

You as the director of the company are attending the company’s board meeting right now. The board has to decide on the following points in relation to its four SBUs and your point of view is invited by the board in order to formalize the future strategies for the company. Other directors will also give their points of views and then together the board is to arrive at its final strategic decisions.

Examining the relative growth prospects of company’s line of products/SBUs to zero in on the possible avenues of future development.
Decisions on growth or continuance or closure or selling of the SBUs.
Positioning of the products of the SBUs in the market in terms of their market shares.
Decisions on the extent of future cash investments in each of the SBUs.

At the end of the discussions by you and you colleagues, the board will document its decisions on the company’s future strategies and business plans and make a final presentation.

End of the brief.

After distributing the above-cited brief of the management game, you will ask all the participants to read it carefully. After they finish reading divide the participants in to groups; each group consisting of 5 or 7 participants in each group. The group formation should be done randomly (refer the management exercise “Pass the Message” at the link http://management-games-icebreakers.blogspot.com/2010/08/pass-message.html

Now each group behaves like the board of directors of the company “XYZ Corp”. You may like to allow them around 45 minutes to conduct their board meeting.

After each group finalizes its strategies, ask each group to make a presentation to you and the rest of the participants.

After each presentation, let the participants ask the questions and the presenting group members should answer them.

Wrap up your session by giving extra inputs on the concepts that emerged in this management exercise.

Our Books Publications (Books authored by Shyam Bhatawdekar and Dr Kalpana Bhatawdekar)

Own your copy/copies of the following bestseller books authored by eminent management gurus and consultants Shyam Bhatawdekar and Dr Kalpana Bhatawdekar:

1.HSoftware (Human Software) (The Only Key to Higher Effectiveness) or HSoftware (Shyam Bhatawdekar’s Effectiveness Model)
2. Classic Management Games, Exercises, Energizers and Icebreakers
3. Sensitive Stories of Corporate World (Management Case Studies)
4. Funny (and Not So Funny) Short Stories
5. Stress? No Way!! (Handbook on Stress Management)

You may like to go to the above-mentioned titles (web links) and order your copies on Amazon.com on Internet. The books are available in printed form and also as eBooks.

Or

Persons residing in India may like to write to our email address prodcons@prodcons.com and order your copies.

For More Guidance, Assistance, Training and Consultation

Contact: prodcons@prodcons.com

Training in all the soft skills and various management functions/techniques is imparted by Prodcons Group’s Mr Shyam Bhatawdekar and/or Dr (Mrs) Kalpana Bhatawdekar, eminent management educationists, management consultants and trainers- par excellence, with distinction of having trained over 150,000 people from around 250 organizations.

Also refer: (Prodcons Group) http://prodcons-group.blogspot.com/, (Training Programs by Prodcons Group) http://training-development-function.blogspot.com/, (Productivity Consultants) http://productivity-consultants.blogspot.com/

Original Johari Window Game/Exercise

2011-09-12T23:49:00.000-07:00

For everything you wanted to know on building leadership and management, refer Shyam Bhatawdekar’s website: http://shyam.bhatawdekar.com/

Refer our High Quality Management Encyclopedia “Management Universe” at: http://management-universe.blogspot.com/

Refer high quality Management eNotes http://management-enotes.blogspot.com/

For free tutorials on “Train the Trainers” program, refer: http://train-trainers.blogspot.com/

Original Johari Window Game/Exercise

Joseph Luft and Harry Ingham, creators of Johari Window concept and model had devised an exercise/game to illustrate their "Johari Window".

You, as a management trainer or workshop coordinator, can use that game with lots of advantage to your seminar/workshop participants. This exercise is best used to explain the concept and model "Johari Window". It is a very effective exercise on "self-awareness", "introspection" and "self-improvement". It explains the concepts of "feedback" and "disclosure" as well as the four well-known quadrants of Johari Window.

The exercise is best suited for training programs titled "enhancing professional and personal effectiveness", "creativity unlimited", "personality development", "self-improvement", "Johari Window", "organizational development" etc.

The exercise is explained below:

In this exercise, in all 56 adjectives are selected to completely describe a human being. These adjectives are given below and are arranged in an alphabetic order:

Able
Accepting
Adaptable
Bold
Brave
Calm
Caring
Cheerful
Clever
Complex
Confident
Dependable
Dignified
Energetic
Extroverted
Friendly
Giving
Happy
Helpful
Idealistic
Independent
Ingenious
Intelligent
Introverted
Kind
Knowledgeable
Logical
Loving
Mature
Modest
Nervous
Observant
Organized
Patient
Powerful
Proud
Quiet
Reflective
Relaxed
Religious
Responsive
Searching
Self-assertive
Self-conscious
Sensible
Sentimental
Shy
Silly
Smart
Spontaneous
Sympathetic
Tense
Trustworthy
Warm
Wise
Witty

This list of 56 adjectives is displayed in front of the participants who wish to subject themselves for introspection and feedback. Participants can request for explanation or meaning of the adjectives not clear to them. Each participant is then requested to pick up five or six adjectives out of this list that describe their own personality as per their own assessment. As the next step the participants are requested to pick up five or six adjectives that describe each of their fellow participants. These adjectives are then mapped by each participant onto the four partitions or quadrants of Johari Window in the following manner.

First quadrant: Open self: Adjectives that are selected by both the participant himself and his fellow participants are pooled together and placed in the “open self” compartment of Johari Window. These adjectives are those adjectives or traits of the participant that both he and his fellow participants are knowing.

Second quadrant: Hidden self: Adjectives selected only by the participant himself but not by any of his fellows, are placed into the “hidden self” compartment. This information about the adjectives of the self are known only to the participant and the fellow participants do not know about them. The participant himself will have to bring these traits of his into the open and put them to use.

Third quadrant: Blind self: Adjectives that are not selected by participant himself but only by his fellows are placed into the “blind self” compartment. These are those adjectives that the participant is not knowing but others know about them. The participant can decide to invite the feedback on these from his fellow participants so that he starts knowing about his additional qualities he possess but has not used them so far.

Fourth quadrant: Dark self: Adjectives that were not selected by either participant or by his fellow participants will be placed in the “dark self” compartment. These qualities of the participant were not recognized by anyone who participated in this exercise. the concerned participant will have to take a close look at these adjectives and make a plan of action to develop some of these qualities as per his requirements.

You will now instruct the participants on making a plan of action based on this kind of mapping. They should pick up some of the adjectives/qualities that they found in their hidden self, blind self and dark self and make a plan to start putting them to use. They should specify a time line for implementing this plan of action. Also they should specify how they will use those qualities.

You can provide them necessary guidance to shape up and finalize their plan of action.

Now have a few participants make presentations of their plan of actions to you and to the rest of the participants. Make your comments after each presentation to further improve their action plan.

Wrap up the exercise by wishing the participants best of luck for implementation of their action plans.

Here is your chance of buying the book "Classic Management Games, Exercises, Energizers and Icebreakers"(at price slashed by around 50% till end December 2011):
For owning your copy/copies of the book, visit the following Amazon.com sites:

For eBook format: http://www.amazon.com/Management-Exercises-Energizers-Icebreakers-ebook/dp/B004OEKF0I/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1323836948&sr=1-1

For book in print form: http://www.amazon.com/Classic-Management-Exercises-Energizers-Icebreakers/dp/1461029945/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1323837139&sr=1-1

Our Books Publications (Books authored by Shyam Bhatawdekar and Dr Kalpana Bhatawdekar)

Own your copy/copies of the following bestseller books authored by eminent management gurus and consultants Shyam Bhatawdekar and Dr Kalpana Bhatawdekar:
1.HSoftware (Human Software) (The Only Key to Higher Effectiveness) or HSoftware (Shyam Bhatawdekar’s Effectiveness Model)
2. Classic Management Games, Exercises, Energizers and Icebreakers
3. Sensitive Stories of Corporate World (Management Case Studies)
4. Funny (and Not So Funny) Short Stories
5. Stress? No Way!! (Handbook on Stress Management)

You may like to go to the above-mentioned titles (web links) and order your copies on Amazon.com on Internet. The books are available in printed form and also
as eBooks.
Or
Persons residing in India may like to write to our email address prodcons@prodcons.com and order your copies.

For More Guidance, Assistance, Training and Consultation

Contact: prodcons@prodcons.com

Training in all the soft skills and various management functions/techniques is imparted by Prodcons Group’s Mr Shyam Bhatawdekar and/or Dr (Mrs) Kalpana Bhatawdekar, eminent management educationists, management consultants and trainers- par excellence, with distinction of having trained over 150,000 people from around 250 organizations.

Also refer: (Prodcons Group) http://prodcons-group.blogspot.com/, (Training Programs by Prodcons Group) http://training-development-function.blogspot.com/, (Productivity Consultants) http://productivity-consultants.blogspot.com/

Create Many Words from One Word

2011-09-02T00:27:00.000-07:00

Refer high quality Management eNotes http://management-enotes.blogspot.com/

For free tutorials on “Train the Trainers” program, refer: http://train-trainers.blogspot.com/

Create Many Words from One Word

Basically this exercise is an exercise in creativity. As the program coordinator or workshop leader you can use this exercise in your sessions or modules on "creativity", "creativity and innovation" and similar other programs on the topics related to creativity and innovation. This exercise helps in stimulating the brains of the program participants and inculcating creative thinking in them. It is a kind of brainstorming exercise or brain teaser.

The exercise is a good energizer and a warm up intervention. It can be used even as a good icebreaker. The exercise is carried out individually but the discussions post completion of exercise is quite participative.

Since the exercise serves as an energizer, warm-up intervention and icebreaker, it can be used in any program other than the programs related to the topics of creativity and innovation.

Make a short list of a few words that have some relevance to your workshop or seminar. If your program pertains to management, business and leadership, you can shortlist the words like "management", "business", "leadership", "customer" and "employee" etc. This is only an indicative list of words. You may choose any other five words that are somewhat related to your program.

Write down these words one below the other on the white board in big bold letters so that all the participants can see them clearly.

Ask the participants to make many words out of each of these five words by using the various alphabets that make that word. You may like to give them an illustration. For example, from the word "customer" you can make "us", "or", "cost" "sum" etc by using the alphabets contained in the word "customer".

Now they should start constructing as many words as are possible to be made out of one single word. They should write them down against the parent word in their diaries/note pads. The participants will carry out this exercise individually, without discussing or consulting with each other.

Allow them 25 minutes to complete the exercise. If they request for more time, give them additional 5 to 10 minutes.

Before undertaking the exercise, each participant will be asked to make a guess or estimate of the words they can construct from the letters of each of the five words.

After the exercise is complete, let each individual share with the rest of the group his performance against the estimated performance for each of the five words.

Identify the highest scorer for each of the five words. Declare the names of the highest scorers and request the entire participants to applaud for them. Join in the clapping.

Congratulate the participants for the excellent participation in the exercise and move on to your next session in the program.

Our Books Publications (Books authored by Shyam Bhatawdekar and Dr Kalpana Bhatawdekar)

Own your copy/copies of the following bestseller books authored by eminent management gurus and consultants Shyam Bhatawdekar and Dr Kalpana Bhatawdekar:

1.HSoftware (Human Software) (The Only Key to Higher Effectiveness) or HSoftware (Shyam Bhatawdekar’s Effectiveness Model)
2. Classic Management Games, Exercises, Energizers and Icebreakers
3. Sensitive Stories of Corporate World (Management Case Studies)
4. Funny (and Not So Funny) Short Stories

You may like to go to the above-mentioned titles (web links) and order your copies on Amazon.com on Internet. The books are available in printed form and also as eBooks.

Or

Persons residing in India may like to write to our email address prodcons@prodcons.com and order your copies.

For More Guidance, Assistance, Training and Consultation

Contact: prodcons@prodcons.com

Training in all the soft skills and various management functions/techniques is imparted by Prodcons Group’s Mr Shyam Bhatawdekar and/or Dr (Mrs) Kalpana Bhatawdekar, eminent management educationists, management consultants and trainers- par excellence, with distinction of having trained over 150,000 people from around 250 organizations.

Also refer: (Prodcons Group) http://prodcons-group.blogspot.com/, (Training Programs by Prodcons Group) http://training-development-function.blogspot.com/, (Productivity Consultants) http://productivity-consultants.blogspot.com/

Hot Hat or Hot Basket

2011-08-28T22:27:00.000-07:00

"Passing the hat" is an intelligent game/exercise that you as the program coordinator or workshop leader can use for review of your entire program at the end of the program or you can also use it at the end of every session/module of your workshop or seminar. Through such review method, you can check out the extent of learning by the participants of the topic(s) under review by giving the participants active role and responsibility in the review sessions. This game also facilitates the recap of the entire program or any particular session/module. The participant's learnings also get reinforced by this kind of

review.

The game/exercise is a good energizer and it is quite participative. It gives you an excellent feedback on how well the participants are responding to your way of facilitation or teaching and then, you can bring out suitable modifications in it.

You will have to announce about usage of this method of review by you right at the beginning of your seminar/workshop. You will also need to give them the details of this methodology (which will become clear to you as you read on). This announcement is sure to make them sit up and pay more serious attention in your program- that's your and participants' big advantage.

Whenever during your workshop you decide to review the level of absorption of the learnings by the participants, you can ask the participants to write review questions for the topic(s) under review. Each participant will write one review question related to some aspect of the session/module you just concluded and which is under the recap now. They should write their names on the papers on which they wrote the questions. They should write the question without consulting each other.

Go with a hat or a basket around the seminar room and ask each participant to drop his review question that he would have written on a standard sized piece of paper, into the hat/basket. Now this hat or basket has become hot with questions and so, we will call it "hot hat" or "hot basket".

Shuffle the contents of the hot hat/basket well. Now randomly choose any one participant, go near him and ask him to pick up one piece of paper and let him read out loudly. And ask him to answer that question. Make sure that the piece of paper he picked up was not written by him. If he does so, ask him to choose another question.

Keep picking up many participants randomly one after other and let each one pick up a question not written by him and answer it. Encourage rest of the participants to fill in any gaps in the answer given by that particular participant.

If you still feel that the answer was not complete, add your own explanation.

When you realize that all the important and significant aspects of the topic(s) under the review have been taken care of, you can conclude the session by congratulating the participants for having done an excellent job of the recap. Let them celebrate their success by loud clapping by all them and you too can join in.

Our Books Publications (Books authored by Shyam Bhatawdekar and Dr Kalpana Bhatawdekar)

Own your copy/copies of the following bestseller books authored by eminent management gurus and consultants Shyam Bhatawdekar and Dr KalpanaBhatawdekar:

1.HSoftware (Human Software) (The Only Key to Higher Effectiveness) or HSoftware (Shyam Bhatawdekar’s Effectiveness Model)
2. Classic Management Games, Exercises, Energizers and Icebreakers
3. Sensitive Stories of Corporate World (Management Case Studies)
4. Funny (and Not So Funny) Short Stories

You may like to go to the above-mentioned titles (web links) and order your copies on Amazon.com on Internet. The books are available in printed form and also as eBooks.

Or

Persons residing in India may like to write to our email address prodcons@prodcons.com and order your copies.

For More Guidance, Assistance, Training and Consultation

Contact: prodcons@prodcons.com

Training in all the soft skills and various management functions/techniques is imparted by Prodcons Group’s Mr Shyam Bhatawdekar and/or Dr (Mrs) Kalpana Bhatawdekar, eminent management educationists, management consultants and trainers- par excellence, with distinction of having trained over 150,000 people from around 250 organizations.

Also refer: (Prodcons Group) http://prodcons-group.blogspot.com/, (Training Programs by Prodcons Group) http://training-development-function.blogspot.com/, (Productivity Consultants) http://productivity-consultants.blogspot.com/

Desert Survival

2011-08-19T23:05:00.000-07:00

For everything you wanted to know on building leadership and management, refer Shyam Bhatawdekar’s website: http://shyam.bhatawdekar.com/

Refer our High Quality Management Encyclopedia “Management Universe” at: http://management-universe.blogspot.com/

For free tutorials on “Train the Trainers” program, refer: http://train-trainers.blogspot.com/

Desert Survival

“Desert Survival” is a highly loaded management exercise. It is a combination of individual and group exercise. It invokes lots of participation from all those who are involved in carrying out the exercise. You as a workshop facilitator or program leader can use this group exercise best for sessions on intra-group communication, information sharing, perceptions and paradigms, group dynamics, group process, group think or group norm, conflict management, change process, flexibility, team work, team building, synergy from team work etc.

Divide the entire participants in groups of 6 to 7 participants in each group. Follow the random group formation method described in the previous management exercises. You may refer the exercise titled “Pass the Message” for this purpose.

Instruct each group to appoint a group facilitator or group coordinator if they think it is necessary.

Give to each participant the printed exercise brief that carries the instructions on how to tackle the exercise. The exercise brief is given below.

Exercise brief starts here:

Instructions: It is approximately 10 am in mid May. You and your group members are all on board a chartered, twin-engine plane that is destined for a small town situated around couple of hours from Cairo. Presently the pilot is on the speaker to let you know that you are currently flying over the Sahara desert and that the reported temperature is a high of 112 F.

After a smooth flight of around an hour or so hour, the flight turns highly turbulent and the airplane starts nosediving. You sense that the cabin pressure is getting intolerable. The passengers get terrified and look outside the windows and noticing the growing desert below further aggravates their fear. You can see nothing but sand everywhere.

The pilot just indicated that you were approximately 60 miles away from the nearest known habitation, when the plane begins to experience the problem. And just after this announcement the plane crash lands in Sahara desert and goes into flames. Before the plane caught fire your group was able to salvage 15 items from the airplane.

You notice that other than your entire group of 5 members, the co-pilot and one crew member, all others including the pilot have been killed in the accident. In all seven persons have survived the crash. Now the challenge lies in surviving the desert.

Below are listed the 15 items left intact and undamaged after landing. Your task is to rank order them in terms of their importance in allowing you and other 6 members to survive the desert. Place the number 1 by the most important item, the number 2 by the second most important and so on through number 15, the least important.

First do this exercise of prioritization of items individually. You will not discuss with any one of your fellow group members or any other participant of the program.

As a second step, now get into an internal discussion among all of your group members in your own group and re-decide on the rank-ordering of the 15 given items. Arrive at a consensus and only then decide the ranking of the items. If there is conflict among the group members, resolve that conflict before arriving at the group decision on the ranking of each item.

Name of the salvaged 15 items are given below:

- Compass
- Flash light
- Book
- Plastic raincoat
- Air map
- Compress kit with gauze
- Pistol
- Parachute
- Jack knife
- Quart of water
- Vodka
- Sunglasses
- Salt tablets
- Overcoat
- Cosmetic mirror

Exercise brief ends here.

After above-mentioned 15 items have been ranked in order of their priorities in each group individually by each participant and also as a group, give each group the correct ranking of these items as per the official solution of this exercise. You can send an email to prodcons@prodcons.com and request for the official solution.

Instruct each participant of the program to work out as to how many cumulative points the participant is away from the official solution. Now also instruct them to work out in each group as to how many cumulative points each group (as a group) is away from the official solution.

Now let each individual work out as to by how many cumulative points he improved when he agreed with the group solution. It is found invariably that if the group process is carried out effectively, every member of that group will have improved his performance by working as a group or team.

Display the improvements (in terms of cumulative points as well as in terms of percentage improvement) achieved by each participant after working as a part of the group or the team.

Now, draw the participants into a discussion on what experiential learning they had in tackling the exercise. Let them reflect on quality of communication, group process, consensus building process, group think, conflict resolution process, flexibility or rigidity shown by fellow participants, team building process, connection between the quantum of synergy achieved and the quality of team process etc.

Wrap up the discussions with you observations, analysis and inputs.

Here is your chance of buying the book "Classic Management Games, Exercises, Energizers and Icebreakers"(at price slashed by around 50% till end December 2011):

For owning your copy/copies of the book, visit the following Amazon.com sites:

For eBook format: http://www.amazon.com/Management-Exercises-Energizers-Icebreakers-ebook/dp/B004OEKF0I/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1323836948&sr=1-1

For book in print form: http://www.amazon.com/Classic-Management-Exercises-Energizers-Icebreakers/dp/1461029945/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1323837139&sr=1-1

Our Books Publications (Books authored by Shyam Bhatawdekar and Dr Kalpana Bhatawdekar)

Own your copy/copies of the following bestseller books authored by eminent management gurus and consultants Shyam Bhatawdekar and Dr KalpanaBhatawdekar:

1. HSoftware (Shyam Bhatawdekar’s Effectiveness Model)
2. Classic Management Games, Exercises, Energizers and Icebreakers
3. Sensitive Stories of Corporate World (Management Case Studies)
4. Funny (and Not So Funny) Short Stories

You may like to go to the above-mentioned titles (web links) and order your copies on Amazon.com on Internet. The books are available in printed form and also as eBooks.

Or

You (persons residing in India) may like to write to our email address prodcons@prodcons.com and order your copies.

For More Guidance, Assistance, Training and Consultation

Contact: prodcons@prodcons.com

Training in all the soft skills and various management functions/techniques is imparted by Prodcons Group’s Mr Shyam Bhatawdekar and/or Dr (Mrs) Kalpana Bhatawdekar, eminent management educationists, management consultants and trainers- par excellence, with distinction of having trained over 150,000 people from around 250 organizations.

Also refer: (Prodcons Group) http://prodcons-group.blogspot.com/, (Training Programs by Prodcons Group) http://training-development-function.blogspot.com/, (Productivity Consultants) http://productivity-consultants.blogspot.com/

Change One Word

2011-08-16T00:12:00.000-07:00

This exercise is a kind of fun game for achieving the serious objective of review or recap of the workshop or seminar. You, as the program leader or coordinator, can use it gainfully towards the end of the entire program or even at the end of some of the important sessions of the program when you wish to check the level of understanding of the sessions by the participants.

The exercise makes an individual sit up and work seriously and then contribute towards the group effort. Therefore, it is an individual as well as group exercise. It is a good motivator and energizer.

You may also use it as an icebreaker as one of your initial sessions of the program to let the participants voice their expectations from the program or for setting up the ground rules (code of conduct) of the program.

The participants continue sitting in their normal seating positions in the seminar room.

Depending on the topic of your session(s) or your entire program which you wish the participants to recap through this exercise so that you can also review their understanding of the subject(s) covered by you, you will ask the first participant sitting nearest to you to shout out a phrase consisting of two words that relates to the topics/subjects under review. The two words should point at one of the concepts or techniques or piece of knowledge covered by you in your session(s). Let us look at an example as given below:

Say you have conducted a few sessions on "Time Management" and you now wish the participants to recap their learnings related to time management and you also want to find out their level of absorption of knowledge on time management. So, you instruct the participant to speak out one phrase of two words related to some aspect of time management.

Say, the first participant says "Task Prioritization".

Now the next participant will have to change one word of this phrase and make another phrase by choosing one new word and combining it with one word of the earlier phrase.

Say, the next participant says, "Task Analysis". Now it the turn of the third participant to construct another phrase of two words in the same manner i.e. changing one word of the earlier phrase.

Say, the third participant says, "ABC Analysis".

Then let us say that the fourth participant says, "Analysis Urgency".

Another one may say, "Urgency Importance"

And this way each and every participant keeps contributing towards the session's recap and review.

You can carry on till all the participants have contributed. If you find that you need to continue the second round, by all means do so till all the aspects of the topic under review and recap are fully covered by the participants.

Now if you find that certain aspects of the topic are still not recalled by the participants, add them from your side. Conclude the review session by thanking the participants for their excellent understanding of the topic. In case they fared badly, give your constructive critique and re-explain the parts of the topic not absorbed by the participants.

Our Books Publications (Books authored by Shyam Bhatawdekar and Dr Kalpana Bhatawdekar)

Handshakes and Laughs

2011-08-11T04:43:00.000-07:00

This is an excellent fun game and can be administered to a normal group size of 20 to 25 participants as well as to an even larger group. It is a great icebreaker and energizer. You as a workshop or seminar leader/coordinator can use it at the beginning of your program. It is a highly participative game or exercise. It is one good way for mutual introductions and fellowship.

Ask each of your seminar participants to choose a number to themselves from 1 to 3 if the group size is 20 to 25 (if the group size is large, you can ask them to choose from number 1 to number 4). They should not reveal their chosen numbers to anyone; they must keep it in their minds.

Now ask them to mingle around the seminar hall. Without talking each person should shake hands with each other. Number of shakes (of hands) should be done equal to the number the participant chose. And as the participant is shaking hands he should laugh the same number of times that is equal to the number he chose by saying, "Ha, ha, ha (If he chose number 3)." The shaking partners should exchange their names with each other as a part of getting introduced to each other.

If the two participants shake hands and laugh (ha, ha) the same number of times, they will stay together and move around to try and find others of like shakes and like laughs.

If the number of shakes and laughs are different, the participants go their own way to find their type of shakes and laughs.

Finally, the entire participant group will end up in maximum of 3 or less distinct groups.

That indicates the end of the activity.

Ask entire group to laugh out loud.

Thank them and move on to your next session.

Our Books Publications (Books authored by Shyam Bhatawdekar and Dr Kalpana Bhatawdekar)

Creative Numbers

2011-08-09T00:32:00.000-07:00

If you are conducting a seminar or workshop on "creativity" or "creativity and innovation", you can use this exercise with benefits. It involves solving a few brain teasers involving some numbers. It allows participants to brainstorm. The exercise can be taken up individually by the participants or they can also do it in small groups. This also serves as an excellent energizer particularly after the lunch break. It is a also a very effective icebreaker.

If you wish to conduct this exercise in small groups, then divide the participants in small groups of two to three persons in each group formed randomly. Otherwise, you may as well allow each participant to tackle the exercise individually.

The exercise has three parts to it:

Part 1: Write down the equation given below on the white board or on the flip chart and show it to your participants:

5 + 5 + 5 = 550

Now instruct the participants to add one straight line to make it a correct statement.

Invite as many solutions as possible and conclude the exercise when you get the most correct solution.

Part 2: Now write down the number given below on the white board or on the flip chart and show it to your participants:

It is the Roman number for 9. Instruct the participants to add a line to convert this odd number into an even number.

Invite as many solutions as possible and conclude the exercise when you get the most correct solution.

Part 3: Now write down the numbers given below (in the given sequence) on the white board or on the flip chart and show it to your participants:

8, 11, 15, 4, 14, 9, 1, 7, 6, 10, 3, 12, 2

Tell them that these numbers range from 1 to 15 but the numbers 5 and 13 are missing.

Request them to suggest the reasons for lining up the numbers in this particular sequence. Also, simultaneously request them to place the two missing number 5 and 13 in their appropriate places in the lineup of the numbers.

Let them continue to give as many answers to these two questions as they come out with till the time someone comes out with the correct answers.

Having done, thank the participants for their wholehearted involvement.

Take their feedback on the exercise and let them share their experiences in tackling these creativity and brain teasing exercises.

Fill them up with some relevant creativity concepts like out of box thinking, brainstorming and lateral thinking etc.

Our Books Publications (Books authored by Shyam Bhatawdekar and Dr Kalpana Bhatawdekar)

Introductions by Way of Mutual Interests and Tastes

2011-08-07T23:52:00.000-07:00

For everything you wanted to know on building leadership and management, refer Shyam Bhatawdekar’s website: http://shyam.bhatawdekar.com/

Refer our High Quality Management Encyclopedia “Management Universe” at: http://management-universe.blogspot.com/

For free tutorials on “Train the Trainers” program, refer: http://train-trainers.blogspot.com/

Introductions by Way of Mutual Interests and Tastes

You as a trainer or workshop/seminar coordinator can use this exercise for the introduction of participants with each other in a very interesting manner. The exercise can be conducted by you at the beginning of your seminar or workshop. It is a very effective icebreaker. It is a participative exercise.

In this exercise, you will facilitate uncovering the interest and taste of each participant on variety of subjects/objects one by one i.e. by taking one subject/object at a time and then keep grouping and re-grouping the persons with similar tastes and interests in one group. Then, you will let the participants get introduced to each other in their own way by discussing the topic of their common interest with each other.

We will now explain it little more elaborately.

To start with, as an example, you can write on the white board or project a PowerPoint slide on the screen giving say four or five choices of the types of food.

1. Indian food
2. Italian food
3. Chinese food
4. Mexican food
5. American food

Now, ask the participants, "How many of you like the Indian food the most among the five types of food listed? Please raise your hands." The participants who like the Indian food as their first choice will form the first group and requested to sit together forming a circle in the seminar room.

Now repeat the same question and find out, by using the above-mentioned method, the persons who like the second listed food type i.e. the Italian food the most. These persons will form the second group.

This way you are likely to divide the entire participants into a maximum of 5 groups. Let each group sit together forming a circle.

Now allow them say, 5 to 7 minutes to get introduced to each other in each group by a proper handshake and by exchanging information about each other. Encourage them to discuss around the topic of their common interest/taste; the topic being the type of food.

You can re-group the participants the second time by selecting out another topic, say the type of movies:

1. Comedy
2. Family
3. Romance
4. War
5. Mystery

Now the group formation will be somewhat different; the members in each group may not be the same. This way the participants will get a chance to know additional participants.

Repeat the group formation afresh by suggesting another topic, say, the type of music:

1. Country
2. Jazz
3. Classical
4. Rock
5. Soul

This time the group formation may come out to be still different. More participants are now likely to get to know each other.

You may stop this exercise when you find that all the participants have met and got introduced to each other.

Having done, thank the participants for their wholehearted involvement. You may like to get their feedback on the exercise and move on to the next session of your seminar/workshop.

Our Books Publications (Books authored by Shyam Bhatawdekar and Dr Kalpana Bhatawdekar)

Own your copy/copies of the following bestseller books authored by eminent management gurus and consultants Shyam Bhatawdekar and Dr KalpanaBhatawdekar:

1. HSoftware (Shyam Bhatawdekar’s Effectiveness Model)
2. Classic Management Games, Exercises, Energizers and Icebreakers
3. Sensitive Stories of Corporate World (Management Case Studies)
4. Funny (and Not So Funny) Short Stories

You may like to go to the above-mentioned titles (web links) and order your copies on Amazon.com on Internet. The books are available in printed form and also as eBooks.

Or

You (persons residing in India) may like to write to our email address prodcons@prodcons.com and order your copies.

For More Guidance, Assistance, Training and Consultation

Contact: prodcons@prodcons.com

Training in all the soft skills and various management functions/techniques is imparted by Prodcons Group’s Mr Shyam Bhatawdekar and/or Dr (Mrs) Kalpana Bhatawdekar, eminent management educationists, management consultants and trainers- par excellence, with distinction of having trained over 150,000 people from around 250 organizations.

Also refer: (Prodcons Group) http://prodcons-group.blogspot.com/, (Training Programs by Prodcons Group) http://training-development-function.blogspot.com/, (Productivity Consultants) http://productivity-consultants.blogspot.com/

Follow Instructions

2011-02-16T00:09:00.000-08:00

Order your copy/copies of the hard bound printed book "Classic Management Games, Exercises, Energizers and Icebreakers" authored by Shyam Bhatawdekar by writing to prodcons@prodcons.com

Order its eBook at: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004OEKF0I

For everything you wanted to know on building leadership and management, refer Shyam Bhatawdekar’s website: http://shyam.bhatawdekar.com/

(Refer our High Quality Management Encyclopedia “Management Universe” at: http://management-universe.blogspot.com/)

This is a real fun exercise that can be used by you as the seminar or workshop leader in your programs on communication, communication skills, pitfalls of communication etc. This exercise is an excellent icebreaker and energizer.

Distribute to the participants of your program a handout containing the 20 instructions given below. Each participant will have to read the instruction one by one, follow the instruction, do the activities as specified by these instructions and thus complete all the instructions.

Instruct them to carry out the instructions as fast as possible since you wish to see the person(s) who can do them in the fastest way. Tell them that you will declare the winner(s) at the end of the exercise.

Exercise Instructions:

1. Read every thing before doing anything, but work as rapidly as you can.

2. Put your name in the upper right hand corner of this paper, last name first.

3. Circle the word “name” in sentence 2.

4. Underline the words “upper right hand” in sentence 2.

5. Now draw a circle around the title of this page.

6. Sign your name under the title.

7. In sentence 5, draw a circle around the title of this paper.

8. Write the name of India’s capital.___________________________________

9. Underline all of sentence 7.

10. Draw an “X” in the lower left hand corner of this paper.

11. Draw a circle around the “X” just you drew.

12. Write the name of your city/town/village.

13. Draw a circle around the phrase “capital city” in sentence 8.

14. Speak out loud your name when you get to this point.

15. If you think you have followed instructions to this point, call out loudly “I have”.

16. Close your eyes and raise your left hand over your head.

17. Write your designation. ___________________________________

18. Count out loud in your normal speaking voice backward from 10 to 1.

19. Now that you have read the instructions carefully, do only what sentence 1 and 3 ask you to do. Ignore all other instructions.

20. Please do not give this test paper to any colleague, make no comments or explanations. If you have read this so far, pretend that you are still writing. Let us see how many persons really follow instructions carefully.

End of exercise instructions

After about 10 to 15 minutes, you will be in a position to start a discussion among the participants about what all happened in undertaking this exercise. Let the participants share their experiences.

Also, share your observations with them. Draw out the relevant conclusions related to communication skills and pitfalls of communication. Wrap up the exercise.

(If you are interested in management case studies, management anecdotes or funny little stories of the corporate world, you may like to refer them at: http://corporate-case-studies.blogspot.com/ or http://management-anecdotes.blogspot.com/ or http://shyam.bhatawdekar.com/)

(For free tutorials on "Train the Trainers" program refer: http://train-trainers.blogspot.com)

Treasure Hunt

2011-02-07T23:45:00.001-08:00

Order your copy/copies of the hard bound printed book "Classic Management Games, Exercises, Energizers and Icebreakers" authored by Shyam Bhatawdekar by writing to prodcons@prodcons.com

Order its eBook at: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004OEKF0I

For everything you wanted to know on building leadership and management, refer Shyam Bhatawdekar’s website: http://shyam.bhatawdekar.com/

(Refer our High Quality Management Encyclopedia “Management Universe” at: http://management-universe.blogspot.com/)

If as a faculty or as a workshop or seminar leader, you are conducting the sessions on team work, team building, consensus building, creativity, time management etc you can use “Treasure Hunt” with advantage. It is also a good management exercise to check the knowledge assimilation level of the participants on the topics that you have imparted the through your program. You can also administer this game for the new recruits in an organization to check up their understanding level about the organization they joined.

As a management game, “Treasure Hunt” consists of a set of clues that lead to a treasure. The treasure will be in the form of a prize. The prize can range from a minor gift to a major gift to the winner depending on the scale of the game and availability of the budget. It is a group game and invokes lots of participation. It works as an energizer too.

Form groups of 4 to 5 persons per group picked up randomly. The method for grouping the participants in a group randomly is given in the management exercise titled “Pass the Message” at http://management-games-icebreakers.blogspot.com/2010/08/pass-message.html.

The clues need to be in form of small tasks or assignments around the topics that you as a faculty have included in your seminar or workshop or if it is an induction program you are conducting for the organization for its new recruits, the clues can touch the different aspects of the organization like its physical facilities, functions of various departments, organizational policies/systems/processes, its products etc.

The groups formed by you are now are pitted against each other for the game. Set out the time limit for completing the game. Also, a set of rules can be laid down such as:

·Groups are not supposed to take help from any person outside the group.

·Groups are to follow the prescribed route.

·Each place will either have a person who will have the clue or the clue will be hidden

somewhere and the groups will have to find it out to proceed to next clue.

·There will be marshals everywhere to judge the actions of the groups.

Start by giving each team the first clue or first set of clues. At the end of the clue give a hint of where and from whom the groups can get the second clue or second set of clues. Only when one clue or one set of clues is solved the first task is reckoned to be completed after which the group can move further to the next clue.

The assignments or tasks of solving the clue(s) should be such that the individual skills and the group skills are tested equally.

The first round of clues would be at a simpler level. If a set of many clues is given at one time, the group can choose which clue to crack first depending upon the capability of the group members and considering the time management aspect.

Once the different clues in the first level are solved the groups will get a second set of clue as their next level task or assignment from a place and person whose hint would have been given at the end of the first set of clues. The second level assignments can be tougher than those in the first level. Collating these clues the teams would have to solve the second level of the game and look out for the place and person from where they can get the next level of clues.

Solving the second level would again provide them a set of clues that would lead them to third and final level. The team solving this level in the best possible manner and within the given time limit will be the winner. Levels can be added or deleted depending upon necessity.

All the participants will join you in congratulating the winner group who finally hunted the treasure and thus the prize or gift.

Now, start discussions among the various groups to share as to where they missed out and where they did well and why. They should also come out with suggestions on how they will like to play the same game again.

Share your observations about each group and various participants with a positive critique. Fill them in with additional inputs you wish to provide and wrap up the session.

(If you are interested in management case studies, management anecdotes or funny little stories of the corporate world, you may like to refer them at: http://corporate-case-studies.blogspot.com/ or http://management-anecdotes.blogspot.com/ or http://shyam.bhatawdekar.com/)

(For free tutorials on "Train the Trainers" program refer: http://train-trainers.blogspot.com/)

Run Your Company

2011-02-06T23:44:00.000-08:00

Order your copy/copies of the hard bound printed book "Classic Management Games, Exercises, Energizers and Icebreakers" authored by Shyam Bhatawdekar by writing to prodcons@prodcons.com

Order its eBook at: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004OEKF0I

For everything you wanted to know on building leadership and management, refer Shyam Bhatawdekar’s website: http://shyam.bhatawdekar.com/

(Refer our High Quality Management Encyclopedia “Management Universe” at: http://management-universe.blogspot.com/)

As a faculty or a seminar leader, you can use this management game for bit longish type of seminars spanning at least for two or more than two days. It is definitely very useful for the management courses that run for over few weeks or few months. This management exercise is also a great energizer or motivator for the participants.

It is a simulation exercise. With the involvement of the participants of your program, you can choose from among the real companies which your program participants will like to run or manage as its top managers.

Then divide the entire participants randomly into small groups consisting of say 6 members in each group. The method of forming the groups randomly is described earlier in the exercise titled “Pass the Message” at http://management-games-icebreakers.blogspot.com/2010/08/pass-message.html.

Each group will designate one member from the group as the company’s CEO. Other 4 members will take the roles as chief of marketing, chief of manufacturing, chief of finance and chief of human resources etc. Each group will now decide on the company which that group will like to own and manage. Remember, the company each group chooses to run are from the list of companies that were shortlisted earlier (refer the earlier paragraph) and all of them are real companies.

Explain to them that each group will have to collect the data and information of these companies from the information available publicly on the internet or in the annual reports of the companies or any other formally published literature. They should collect the information for at least past 3 to 4 years.

Data and information on the companies will be collected on the following items:

·Vision, mission and objectives

·Strategies

·Products

·Financial data (balance sheets, profit and loss statements etc)

·Human resources

etc.

Having obtained this kind of data and information, each group will work out the future strategies for the company that each group has decided to management. They may even revise the vision, mission and objectives of the company. After formulating the strategies etc, each group will work out the detailed short term and long term plans for the company in the areas of financial budgets, profitability projections, products and product mix, marketing, manufacturing, inventories, human resources and anything else the group can conceive.

The groups may have to work quite extensively on this exercise and may have to stretch their working hours beyond the usual seminar or course timings.

Announce the date and time when all the groups will make their presentations to you.

As a faculty, you may have to closely supervise their progress and provide the required guidance. Your facilitation will go a long way in making this game a success.

After all the groups have prepared themselves for the presentation, organize their presentations to you on the earlier announced date and time.

After every presentation, allow sufficient time for questions and answers when the participants and you can ask questions to the presenting group.

Sum up the entire presentation by sharing your observations, critique, advice and additional inputs with the participants.

(If you are interested in management case studies, management anecdotes or funny little stories of the corporate world, you may like to refer them at: http://corporate-case-studies.blogspot.com/ or http://management-anecdotes.blogspot.com/ or http://shyam.bhatawdekar.com/)

(For free tutorials on "Train the Trainers" program refer: http://train-trainers.blogspot.com/

Alphabetic Introspection

2011-02-02T23:53:00.000-08:00

Order your copy/copies of the hard bound printed book "Classic Management Games, Exercises, Energizers and Icebreakers" authored by Shyam Bhatawdekar by writing to prodcons@prodcons.com

Order its eBook at: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004OEKF0I

For everything you wanted to know on building leadership and management, refer Shyam Bhatawdekar’s website: http://shyam.bhatawdekar.com/

(Refer our High Quality Management Encyclopedia “Management Universe” at: http://management-universe.blogspot.com/)

As a program coordinator or workshop leader, you can use this management exercise for your sessions on personality development, improving internal motivation, inculcating wellness, enhancing personal and professional effectiveness, becoming a winner etc.

You can use this exercise as a starter of your program as a warm-up or energizing exercise or as an icebreaker.

Give each participant of your program a big blank white or colored card sheet of at least A3 or even bigger size. Let each them write his name on top of the card sheet.

Now, ask your participants to choose as many alphabets from A to Z as they want and start writing their good qualities or their strong points starting from those alphabets on the card sheet given to them. They can take one alphabet at a time and start introspecting as to which of their qualities start from that alphabet. After they are finished with one alphabet they should take up the next alphabet and start introspecting as to which of their qualities start from this next chosen alphabet.

They should do this for all the alphabets they chose for themselves.

Now on each one of their card sheets each one will have written all of the qualities one could think of for himself. Let them display their card sheets on the walls all over the place.

Now, instruct the participants to visit this exhibition keeping pen and writing pad with them. Tell them to read the qualities or strong points of their fellow participants by moving from one card sheet to other card sheet. In the process they will see many good qualities which others possess but they do not. Advise them to note down such of these qualities that they will like to develop for themselves in future. After everyone has finished doing this, tell them go take their seats.

Initiate a discussion on the exercise they just undertook- what did they feel about it, how they were benefited by it and what else they experience in undertaking the exercise.

Top it up by sharing your observations with them with any additional inputs you wish to give.

(If you are interested in management case studies, management anecdotes or funny little stories of the corporate world, you may like to refer them at: http://corporate-case-studies.blogspot.com/
or http://management-anecdotes.blogspot.com/ or http://shyam.bhatawdekar.com/)

(For free tutorials on "Train the Trainers" program refer: http://train-trainers.blogspot.com/)

Productivity and Creativity in Action

2011-02-01T23:56:00.001-08:00

Order your copy/copies of the hard bound printed book "Classic Management Games, Exercises, Energizers and Icebreakers" authored by Shyam Bhatawdekar by writing to prodcons@prodcons.com

Order its eBook at: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004OEKF0I

For everything you wanted to know on building leadership and management, refer Shyam Bhatawdekar’s website: http://shyam.bhatawdekar.com/

(Refer our High Quality Management Encyclopedia “Management Universe” at: http://management-universe.blogspot.com/)

It is a very simple management game or management exercise and very effective. It also invokes lots of participation from the participants of the seminar or workshop you are conducting as a faculty. It also works like a warm up exercise or energizer and also as an icebreaker.

Objective of this exercise is to help participants appreciate what it takes to improve the productivity. It emphasizes the need to have creativity or out of box thinking and team work.

Explain the participants that you are going to ask them to perform a task together as one team. They will have to work together to achieve the highest productivity possible. Productivity level will be measured by the total time they will take to complete the task. Therefore they should do the task in the minimum possible time. The task assigned will be to pass an object (choose any object) from participant to participant starting from the first participant to the last participant in the seminar hall. Each participant will have to touch the object at least once and at least by one hand for the task to be reckoned as completed. You will note down the time taken to complete the task.

Give the object to the first participant and give them a signal to start doing the task by passing the object. As soon as the past participant receives the object, note the time and share that with the participants and urge them to improve their productivity in the second round of performing the task.

Now the participants are likely to work faster with greater smartness and enthusiasm. They may end up taking much less time. Tell them by what percentage they improved in the second round.

Coax them to improve their performance still more and allow them to undertake the same task the third time. Note down the time taken. It may have improved further.

After repeating this exercise for several rounds they will reach a stage where further improvement seems very difficult or if at all they achieve it, it will be very marginal.

At this stage, advise them to discuss among themselves what better methods could they apply in achieving further improvements not just by inches but leaps and bounds. Let them come out with new methods and let them do the same task by using those methods. Motivate them to become still more creative to think about the real out of box thinking to come out with radically different methods to dramatically improve their productivity.

After they have tried all of this, stop the game and start the discussion. Let them point out the essentials of achieving higher productivity levels through their recent experiential learning.

Add your inputs and round up the exercise.

(If you are interested in management case studies, management anecdotes or funny little stories of the corporate world, you may like to refer them at: http://corporate-case-studies.blogspot.com/
or http://management-anecdotes.blogspot.com/ or http://shyam.bhatawdekar.com/)

(For free tutorials on "Train the Trainers" program refer: http://train-trainers.blogspot.com/)

Move the Wall

2011-01-31T23:49:00.000-08:00

Order your copy/copies of the hard bound printed book "Classic Management Games, Exercises, Energizers and Icebreakers" authored by Shyam Bhatawdekar by writing to prodcons@prodcons.com

Order its eBook at: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004OEKF0I

For everything you wanted to know on building leadership and management, refer Shyam Bhatawdekar’s website: http://shyam.bhatawdekar.com/

(Refer our High Quality Management Encyclopedia “Management Universe” at: http://management-universe.blogspot.com/)

As a workshop leader or seminar faculty, you can use this management
exercise “Move the Wall” to invoke a thought among the participants of your
program to help them to differentiate between the “area of concern” and the
“area of influence". This topic will relate to your sessions on
personality development, proactiveness, self or internal motivation, how to
become more effective etc.

This exercise is a very effective energizer and icebreaker also.

Divide the participants of the program randomly into two equal groups. To
know the method of random grouping, refer to the previous management exercise
titled “Participative Quiz”.

Ask the members of the first group to stand facing one wall of the
seminar room at an arm’s length from the wall. Similarly ask the members of the
second group to stand facing the other wall of the seminar room at an arm’s
length from the wall.

Now, ask all of them to close their eyes and push the wall with full
strength.

You should generate excitement, motivating the members of both the groups
to keep pushing the wall with all their strength.

You can also add humor to the entire activity by telling the first group
that the second group has already moved the wall by a few inches. Then go to
the second group and tell them because of the efforts of the first group the
wall has actually started moving.

After a few minutes you should ask the participants to open their eyes,
go back to their seats and relax because they had done such a gigantic task.

Now ask each group to make improvements in the housekeeping and layout arrangements of the seminar room or any other improvements they wish to bring in the seminar hall. Divide the area of the room into two equal partitions and assign one half of the room to first group and the other half area of the room to the other group.

Let them not only discuss their improvement plans but also make the
actual physical changes in arrangements, layout and housekeeping etc.

After they finish this part of the exercise, ask them to revert to their
seats.

Once the participants are back to their respective seats, take the
feedback– whether the wall had actually moved or not in the first part of the
exercise. The answer here would be obviously a “no".

Also take their feedback on the second part of the exercise. Everyone
will confirm that they could bring about the improvements in the seminar hall
by applying their own influence and they did not need an external agency to do
so.

You can now explain the participants the concepts of “area of influence”
and “area of concern” and the importance of focusing on the “area of influence”
and not worry, complain or crib about the “area of concern or constraint”
though they do exist all around us. The wall here denoted the “area of concern”
or “area of non-influence” and though it existed, the participants could still
bring about improvements in the seminar hall.

You should re-emphasize that one should try to focus on “area of control”
or “area of influence” rather than wasting time on issues on which we have no
control and wrap up the session.

Participative Quiz

2011-01-27T23:44:00.000-08:00

For everything you wanted to know on building leadership and management, refer Shyam Bhatawdekar’s website: http://shyam.bhatawdekar.com/

(Refer our High Quality Management Encyclopedia “Management Universe” at: http://management-universe.blogspot.com/)

As a trainer or workshop or seminar conductor you may feel the need to carry out the recap of the learnings by the participants of your program. You may also feel like warming up or energizing the group when you are part way through the course. “Quiz” is an effective participative management exercise for revising or recapitulating the course content and energizing the group by involving them.

Divide the entire participants into two groups randomly. You can ask all the participants to shout out their serial numbers as 1 and 2- first participant shouts out 1, the second shouts his number as 2 and then the third one shouts 1 and the fourth one as 2 and so on till all participants shout out their numbers as either 1 or 2. Then all those whose number is 1 form the first group and all those whose number is 2 form the second group. The groups may like to appoint their coordinators for each group.

Give to the coordinators of the two groups a pile of blank cards. Motivate them to write as many questions as they can in 15 minutes covering the program content that you have delivered to the participants till this exercise is administered. Ask the groups to write their group number on the top right hand side of each card.

You as the seminar leader will now alternately select a valid question from one group and direct that question to the other team. The process continues until all valid questions written by both teams have been asked and answered.

The teams score one point for every question they answer correctly and another point for every one of their questions which is selected as valid by you as the trainer. Whenever the group required to answer a question is not able to answer that question, the same will be addressed to the group that wrote that question. If they are in a position to answer they will earn one point for that. When both the groups are unable to answer any question, you should intervene and supply the answer for the recap to be complete.

Now if you find that some important parts of the topics covered by you have not been recapitulated, you can ask the questions based on those topics to the groups. Whosoever will raise the hand to answer those questions will be given the first opportunity to answer. Allot the points for each answer to the respective group.

Total up the points scored by each group and announce the winner group. Every participant will clap thunderously for the winner group.

(If you are interested in management case studies, management anecdotes or funny little stories of the corporate world, you may like to refer them at: http://corporate-case-studies.blogspot.com/ or http://management-anecdotes.blogspot.com/ or http://shyam.bhatawdekar.com/)

(For free tutorials on "Train the Trainers" program refer: http://train-trainers.blogspot.com/)