Management Games and Icebreakers: September 2010

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Sunday, September 26, 2010

Tag the Emotion

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/)
“Tag the emotion” is an appropriate game with a flavor of role play and group participation. Yet, it is also an individual exercise. This can be best used by you as a program leader or workshop facilitator in your sessions on emotional intelligence (EQ), body language and transaction analysis (TA).

Get a volunteer or pair of two volunteers from the group who will be willing to enact a scene on any one human emotion. Let him/them decide which emotion will be enacted; this decision will be kept confidential and therefore will not be known to you and the rest of the participants.

Instruct the audience to identify the emotion or feeling enacted by the volunteer(s). After the enactment of the emotion and it’s labeling is over, ask the participants if they were able to identify the emotion just enacted. Let them share their answers with everyone. Check it out with the actor(s) whether the answers given by the participants are correct.

Now call upon another volunteer(s) to do a role play or enactment of another emotion or feeling. Ask the audience to tag that emotion too. Facilitate a discussion among the participants in the manner described earlier.

Try to cover as many important emotions as possible by repeating the above-mentioned exercise. If you wish to see a comprehensive list of all the emotions/feelings, refer: http://emotion-feeling.blogspot.com/

After all the important emotions/feelings have been covered, ask the participants if it is important to develop and apply the skill of tagging the emotions of self and others and why? What do the human emotions convey? Are they important? Do they, at times, see that the spoken words and emotions expressed by the same person do not complement each other- what is more important; emotions or spoken words? Facilitate such discussion among the participants.

Supplement the participants’ discussion with the theoretical inputs you wish to give on the topics of emotional intelligence (EQ), body language and transaction analysis (TA). Wrap up the session.

Get Hold of the Related Books

You can order the following books on "management games and icebreakers" as printed books and eBooks from Amazon online:

Classic Management Games, Exercises, Energizers and Icebreakers
Classic Management Games, Exercises, Energizers and Icebreakers (Volume 2)
Classic Team Building Games, Exercises, Energizers and Icebreakers
101 Classic Management Games, Exercises, Energizers and Icebreakers

Related Reading: (Repository of a large number of articles in management and leadership): http://shyam.bhatawdekar.com and http://management-universe.blogspot.com

Additional Reading Opportunities

Alphabetic List of of Management Topics and Their Site URLs
(The term "management" here does not limit itself to just about business management but it encompasses management of all kinds of things like life management, home management, family management, health management, travel management, food management and so on).

Home Pages for All the Topics

1. (Home Pages for Brief Introduction to All the Business Management Topics) http://management-universe.blogspot.com/, http://management-universe-enotes.blogspot.com/ and http://shyam.bhatawdekar.com

2. (Home Page for All General and Psychological Counseling) http://counselingfamily.blogspot.com/

3. (Home Page for All Home Tips: Home and Family Management) http://home-tips-tricks.blogspot.com/

4. (Home Page for All Products: Products Knowledge Management) http://products-all.blogspot.com/

Topics Starting with Numbers

(5S Housekeeping) http://5s-housekeeping.blogspot.com/
(5S Housekeeping at Home: Home Management) http://5s-housekeeping-home.blogspot.com/

Topics Starting with Alphabets

A
(ABC Analysis or Pareto Analysis or 80/20 Rule) http://abc-pareto-analysis.blogspot.com/ or http://shyam.bhatawdekar.net/index.php/2011/07/20/abc-analysis-or-pareto-analysis/
(Activity Based Costing- ABC) http://activitybased-costing.blogspot.com/
(Advertising) http://advertising-mass-communication.blogspot.com/
(Anecdotes in Management) http://management-anecdotes.blogspot.com/
(Anger Management) http://controlling-anger.blogspot.com/
(Articles, blogs and knols of Shyam Bhatawdekar: Home Page) http://writings-of-shyam.blogspot.com/
(Assertiveness) http://assertiveness-skill.blogspot.com/
(Assessment Centers) http://assessment-centers.blogspot.com/
(Authentic and Free Management Notes) http://authentic-management-notes.blogspot.com/
(A to Z of Management Systems) http://a-z-management-systems.blogspot.com/
(A to Z of Quality Techniques) http://a-z-quality-techniques.blogspot.com/

B
(Balanced Scorecard) http://balanced-scorecard-system.blogspot.com/
(Basic Statistics) http://statistics-basic.blogspot.com/
(Behavioral Safety) http://behavioral-safety.blogspot.com/
(Benchmarking) http://benchmarking-system.blogspot.com/
(Body Language or Non-verbal Communication) http://body-language-communication.blogspot.com/
(Books- Best Books) http://best-book-list.blogspot.com/
(Books- Best Management Books) http://best-management-books.blogspot.com/
(Boundaryless) http://shyambhatawdekar.blogspot.com/
(Brainstorming) http://brainstorming-technique.blogspot.com/
(Branding- Personal/Professional Branding http://professional-branding.blogspot.com/ or http://shyam.bhatawdekar.com/
(Business Ethics and Ethics in Management) http://business-management-ethics.blogspot.com/
(Business Plan) http://business-plan-preparation.blogspot.com/
(Business Process Reengineering- BPR) http://business-process-reengineering-bpr.blogspot.com/

C
(Career Planning within Organizations) http://organizational-career-planning.blogspot.com/
(Case Method) http://case-method.blogspot.com/
(Case Studies in Management) http://corporate-case-studies.blogspot.com/
(CEO Roles, Qualities and Competencies) http://ceo-qualities.blogspot.com/
(Change Management) http://manage-change.blogspot.com/
(Child Development: Stories for Children) http://stories-children.blogspot.com/
(Children’s Behavior Problems: Family Management) http://child-behavior-problems.blogspot.com/
(Coaching) http://coaching-skill.blogspot.com/
(Communication) http://communication-for-business.blogspot.com/
(Competencies- Life Management) http://shyam-bhatawdekar.blogspot.com/
(Competency Matrix/Competency Mapping: Success by Building Competencies/Skills) http://competency-matrix-mapping.blogspot.in/
(Competency Mapping) http://competency-map.blogspot.com/
(Competency Matrix) http://competency-matrix.blogspot.com/
(Conflict Management) http://manage-conflict.blogspot.com/
(Corporate Governance) http://corporate-governance-policy.blogspot.com/
(Cost Management) http://cost-management-control.blogspot.com/
(Cost of Quality- COQ) http://cost-of-quality.blogspot.com/
(Counseling at Workplace)http://counseling-skill.blogspot.com/
(Counseling: Psychological) http://counselingfamily.blogspot.com/
(Creativity- Out of Box Articles) http://wow-idea.blogspot.com/
(Creativity and Innovation) http://creativity-management.blogspot.com/
(Critical Thinking skills) http://critical-thinking-skills.blogspot.com/
(Cross Cultural Etiquette and Manners) http://cross-cultural-etiquette.blogspot.com/
(Customer Orientation) http://customer-orientation.blogspot.com/
(Customer Relationship management- CRM) http://customer-relationship-crm.blogspot.com/

D
(Daily Management) http://daily-management.blogspot.com/
(Decision Making) http://decision-making-role.blogspot.com/
(Delegation) http://delegation-skill.blogspot.com/

(Democracy) http://democracy-liberation.blogspot.com/
(Design for Manufacture) http://design-for-manufacture.blogspot.com/
(Dining Etiquette and Table Manners) http://dining-manners.blogspot.com/
(Discipline at Work) http://discipline-at-work.blogspot.com/

E
(Effectiveness and Efficiency) http://effectiveness-efficiency.blogspot.com/
(Effectiveness Management: HSoftware) http://humansoftware.blogspot.com/
(Efficiency Techniques: Work study: Motion and Time Study) http://work-study-measurement.blogspot.com/
(Efficient Work Methods or Practices) http://efficient-work-methods.blogspot.com/
(Email Etiquette) http://email-etiquette-manners.blogspot.com/
(Emotions) http://emotion-feeling.blogspot.com/
(Emotional Intelligence) http://emotional-quotient-intelligence.blogspot.com/
(Empowerment) http://employee-empowerment.blogspot.com/
(Enterprise Resource Planning- ERP) http://erp-management.blogspot.com/
(Entrepreneurship and Entrepreneur) http://entrepreneurship-entrepreneur.blogspot.com/
(Entertainment Management- English Movies) http://popular-movies.blogspot.com/
(Entertainment Management- Hindi Movies) http://hindi-movies-choice.blogspot.com/
(Executive Etiquette and Manners) http://executive-manners.blogspot.com/
(Exit Interview) http://exit-interview.blogspot.com/

F
(Financial Ratios and Financial Ratio Analysis) http://financial-ratios.blogspot.com/
(Financial Services) http://finance-related-services.blogspot.com/
(Free and Authentic Notes on Management) http://authentic-management-notes.blogspot.com/
(Functions of Management) http://functions-of-management.blogspot.com/
(Food Management: Recipes, Easy to Cook) http://easytocook-recipes.blogspot.com/
(Food Management: Recipes, Exotic) http://tastetherecipes.blogspot.com/

G
(Games and Icebreakers for Trainers) http://training-games.blogspot.com/
(Gemba Kaizen) http://gemba-kaizen-improvement.blogspot.com/
(General Knowledge Management- GK) http://general-knowledge-gk.blogspot.com/
(General Knowledge Management- Top 5/Top 10 of Everything) http://top-five-everything.blogspot.com/
(Genuine Professional- Long Article) http://professional-genuine.blogspot.in/
(Global Mindset) http://global-mindset.blogspot.com/
(Goal/Target Setting) http://goal-target-setting.blogspot.com/
(Good Boss) http://good-boss.blogspot.com/
(Great Professional) http://professional-genuine.blogspot.in/
(Group Discussion) http://group-discussion-gd.blogspot.com/
(Group Discussion for Job Seekers and Students) http://group-discussion-gd.blogspot.com/
(Group Dynamics) http://group-dynamics-process.blogspot.com/

H
(Health and Safety Management) http://safety-health-management.blogspot.com/
(Health Management- Cholesterol Control) http://controlling-cholesterol.blogspot.com/
(Health Management- Homeopathy) http://homeopathy-medicines.blogspot.com/
(Health Management- Exercises) http://exercises-plan.blogspot.com/
(Health Management- Quit Smoking) http://quit-smoking-plan.blogspot.com/
(Health management- Swine Flu and Its Prevention) http://swine-flu-precaution.blogspot.com/
(Health Management- Walking) http://walking-plan.blogspot.com/
(How to Be a Good Boss?) http://good-boss.blogspot.com/
(How to Get Promoted?) http://get-promoted.blogspot.com/
(How to Save Money?) http://save-money-ideas.blogspot.com/
(How to Save Money?- Long Comprehensive Article) http://manage-moneysaving.blogspot.in/
(Home Management- Home Page for All Home Tips) http://home-tips-tricks.blogspot.com/
(HR Dynamics) http://hrm-dynamics.blogspot.com/
(HR Strategies and Functions) http://strategic-functions-hrm.blogspot.com/
(Human Capital Architecture) http://human-capital-architecture.blogspot.com/
(Human Relations) http://human-relations-aspect.blogspot.com/
(Human Resource Management- Comprehensive Coverage of HRM) http://human-resource-management-hrm.blogspot.com/
(Human Resource Planning) http://human-resource-planning.blogspot.com/
(Human Software- HSoftware) http://human-software-hsoftware.blogspot.com/

I
(I Am Liberated- Life Management) http://i-am-liberated.blogspot.in/
(I Am OK, You Are OK) http://life-positions.blogspot.com/
(Icebreakers and Energizers) http://management-games-icebreakers.blogspot.com/
(Internal Motivation or Self Motivation) http://internal-motivation.blogspot.com/
(Interpersonal Relations) http://interpersonal-relations.blogspot.com/
(Interview Skills) http://interviewing-skill.blogspot.com/
(Interview Preparation for Job Seekers) http://interview-preparation-jobs.blogspot.com/
(Interview Questions) http://interview-question-bank.blogspot.com/

J
(Johari Window) http://johari-window-model.blogspot.com/
(Just in Time Management- JIT) http://just-in-time-management.blogspot.com/

K
(Kaizen) http://kaizen-improvement.blogspot.com/
(Knowledge Management) http://knowledge-management-initiative.blogspot.com/

L
(Lead Time Management) http://lead-time-management.blogspot.com/
(Leadership) http://lead-max.blogspot.com/ and http://shyam.bhatawdekar.com
(Lean Enterprise) http://lean-organization.blogspot.com/
(Learning Organization) http://learning-organization-profile.blogspot.com/
(Life Management- Latest HSoftware Model) http://life-effectiveness.blogspot.in/
(Life Management- I Am Liberated; Freedom from Shackles and Burdens) http://i-am-liberated.blogspot.in/
(Life Management: Success in Life) http://success-complete.blogspot.in/
(Life Management: My Exotic Dream: World Peace and Other Good Things of Life)

http://exotic-dreaming.blogspot.in/

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Be Quick

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 yet very effective management exercise or game. It is a group or participative exercise. You as a program leader or workshop facilitator can use it for your sessions on productivity, work study, method study, work measurement, business process reengineering (BPR), creativity, innovation, layout planning, team work, team building, leadership and motivation. It is also a good warm up game, an icebreaker and an energizer.

Instruct the participants that all of them form a manufacturing and selling organization. Each participant represents one department of the organization. The complete process of manufacturing and dispatching an item as desired by the customer gets completed only when that particular item passes through each and every department (i.e. the participants). Touching the item by one hand by a participant indicates that the department has completed its operation as part of the total process. The item is then passed on to the next participant (department) who also touches it by one hand signifying that he also completed the task assigned to him for that item. This way the item gets circulated from the first participant through the entire chain of participants one by one. The task is reckoned to be completed only if every participant touches the item by his one hand. Otherwise the task is thought to be incomplete.

As soon as all the participants have done their part of the activity on the item i.e. touching the item by one hand at least once and thus have completed the task properly, you will record the time taken to complete the entire task.

You can use any item (for example, a note pad) for the purpose of playing this game.

Before starting the exercise, you must tell them that they should complete the task as quickly as they can. The time taken by them to complete the task will be recorded by you and announced to them.

After the first round of the task completion, tell them the time taken by them and make a comment, “Well, that’s too much time taken by you all. Why don’t you undertake the exercise again and do it quicker to reduce the time?”

Repeat the same comment even after the second round and third round or even fourth round.

By now they would have achieved significant improvement in their timings but you must say, “I think you guys have potential to do it still better. Just think about the ways and means by which you can achieve some dramatic results.”

Let them think about news methods of doing the same task and for each method share with them the time taken by them and as recorded by you. All you know, they might come out with some brilliantly creative and innovative ways of doing the same task.

After some time when you find that they have exhausted their ideas, give them you own piece of mind on how else the task can be done with minimum efforts and minimum time.

Let them discuss the game they just played for a while and wrap it up by giving any new inputs you have planned for the session.

Get Hold of the Related Books

You can order the following books on "management games and icebreakers" as printed books and eBooks from Amazon online:

Classic Management Games, Exercises, Energizers and Icebreakers
Classic Management Games, Exercises, Energizers and Icebreakers (Volume 2)
Classic Team Building Games, Exercises, Energizers and Icebreakers
101 Classic Management Games, Exercises, Energizers and Icebreakers

Related Reading: (Repository of a large number of articles in management and leadership): http://shyam.bhatawdekar.com and http://management-universe.blogspot.com

Monday, September 20, 2010

Link in a Chain

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 yet very effective management exercise or game. It is a group or participative exercise. You as a program leader or workshop facilitator can use it for your sessions on supply chain management, cross functional process management, internal and external customer care, link in a chain concept, team work, team building, leadership and motivation. It is also a good warm up game, an icebreaker and an energizer.

Instruct the participants that all of them form a manufacturing and selling organization. Each participant represents one department of the organization. The complete process of manufacturing and dispatching an item as desired by the customer gets completed only when that particular item passes through each and every department (i.e. the participants). Touching the item by one hand by a participant indicates that the department has completed its operation as part of the total process. The item is then passed on to the next participant (department) who also touches it by one hand signifying that he also completed the task assigned to him for that item. This way the item gets circulated from the first participant through the entire chain of participants one by one and the last participant delivers it to you. You will act like a customer in this game. It is essential that each participant should have touched the item by one hand at least once before it is handed over to you- the customer. Only then the process is thought to be complete.

The organization has promised the customer (i.e. you) fastest possible delivery and that’s how you have agreed to buy the item from this organization.

Now before this game starts, you would have called out two participants sitting in two corners of the seminar hall one by one and secretly instructed them to sabotage the game by not passing the item to the participant sitting next to them. When the item reaches these participants, they should keep holding the item for an inordinately long period. The first participant of these two participants can hold it with him for three to four minutes before it is passed on to the next participant. But the second of these two participants should just not pass the item at all. The item should stop there with him. He should keep holding it and not pass it forward even if the other participants coax him or threaten him to pass on the item.

Now start the game by giving any item selected by you (say a note pad) to the first participant sitting nearest to you. As per the instructions the item will get circulated in the seminar hall from one participant to another till it gets stuck for some three to four minutes with the participant whom you had instructed to sabotage the game. When it gets stuck there, you as the customer will remind to the last participant of the entire group (acting as dispatch department of the organization) to find out why it is getting delayed and why you are not getting the item the fastest possible as promised. Perhaps the group may start putting pressure on the participant who was delaying the process by holding the item and not passing it on. Same thing will happen when the item once again gets stuck up at the second participant whom you had instructed to sabotage the game.

There will be a lot of pressure from the participants who are next to him but he would not pass on the item. You as the customer will get cheesed off and cancel the order. The game concludes here.

Ask the participants to discuss the happenings of the game. Why customer cancelled the order? How come just about one or two departments (participants) could create havoc in the whole process? Why the entire chain of departments which was pretty strong became totally dysfunctional and inefficient? Did leadership, motivation and creativity work and why not?

Sum up your session by giving relevant inputs on supply chain management, cross functional process management, internal and external customer care, link in a chain concept, team work, team building, leadership and motivation.

Get Hold of the Related Books

You can order the following books on "management games and icebreakers" as printed books and eBooks from Amazon online:

Classic Management Games, Exercises, Energizers and Icebreakers
Classic Management Games, Exercises, Energizers and Icebreakers (Volume 2)
Classic Team Building Games, Exercises, Energizers and Icebreakers
101 Classic Management Games, Exercises, Energizers and Icebreakers

Related Reading: (Repository of a large number of articles in management and leadership): http://shyam.bhatawdekar.com and http://management-universe.blogspot.com

Thursday, September 16, 2010

Negotiate and Sell

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 management exercise is in the form of a role play. This role play can be used by you as the workshop facilitator or program leader of sessions on sales management, selling skills and negotiations. It is a group exercise.

Divide the participants of your program in at least three groups randomly (you can have more than three groups as well). For random formation of groups, use the method given in the management exercise titled “Pass the Message”.

One group will act as a “buyer” group or “buyer” company. Each of the other groups will act as the “supplier” group or “supplier’ company. “Buyer” is interested in buying a number of units of some product “X” from the open market and all the “suppliers” producing and selling that item “X” have shown interest by sending their proposals to the buyer quoting their commercial terms and conditions.

You being the program leader will distribute the exercise or role play brief to the buyer company. You will also distribute another brief to each of the seller (supplier) companies. The briefs given to each of the suppliers will be unique in their contents. Therefore if there are three groups acting as sellers you will have to prepare three different briefs.

Formats of the buyer brief and seller (supplier) briefs are given below. In this illustration, three suppliers are assumed. Product to be bought by the buyer is named as “X” and instead of giving the prices of the product “X” offered by the three suppliers in numerical terms; these has been specified as $M1, $M2 and $M3. Replace M1, M2 and M3 by some numerical values.

After giving the briefs, ask the four groups to reflect over it and conduct an internal discussions before they meet up for negotiations. Each supplier group will meet up with the buyer group one at a time, turn by turn. The supplier groups can meet the buyer group any number of times they wish to meet depending upon the buyer’s decision to do so.

After the sale has been made, share with all the participants all of the finally negotiated terms and conditions from the three suppliers and the one which finally won the order from the buyer.
Let the participants discuss the entire exercise and you should give additional appropriate inputs on negotiations and selling and wrap up the exercise.

The exercise briefs start now:

BUYER BRIEF (for “ABC Engineering” company)
Your company “ABC Engineering” supplies automobile components to the growing automobile manufacturers. With severe competition setting in, it has become imperative to cut down on costs, reduce rejection and rework and improve the overall productivity. In addition to taking other measures to do so, you have made up your mind to fit a special equipment called “X” to boost the productivity on at least 4 machines to start with. You have another 6 machines which are good candidates for this productivity boosting fitment called “X”. However, you wish to wait and see the results after fitting the first 4 “X”. You do have some constraints on money to be spent.

You have received quotations from three parties. Today you have invited representatives of these suppliers for discussions and negotiations along with you and your colleagues. Someone had told you recently that “Productivity Specialists” (one of the three suppliers) is more established supplier but you are keeping your mind open.

Quotations from the parties are as given below:

Price: $M1 per “X” from “Productivity Specialists” (Other two parties have quoted a price of $M2, and $M3 each which are significantly lower than offered by “Productivity Specialists”).
Delivery terms: Four weeks from “Productivity Specialists” and three and two weeks respectively from other two parties.
Warranty: Two years unconditional from “Productivity Specialists” (As against one year of other parties)
Payment terms: 40% advance, remaining within two weeks of delivery. Other parties have quoted 25% and 20% advance payment.

Following terms are acceptable to you:

Maximum Price: $M4 per “X” which is lower than M1 but may be higher than M2 and M3 (Willing to pay slightly more than M4 if satisfied on other requirements and terms).
Delivery: One week.
Warranty: As much as possible (However, you are satisfied with even one year warranty as other parties have offered).
Payment terms: Not more than 10% advance but keeping the advance payment to the minimum.
Excellent after sales service since you do not want any breakdowns of the equipment “X”.

Your priorities are:

The equipment “X” should be very reliable.
There should not be any breakdown of product “X” and if at all there is one, the same should be set right within 48 hours.
Quickest possible delivery (literally on yesterday basis).

You are prepared to place the order on “Productivity Specialists” in case you and your team are satisfied on the above-mentioned points.
SELLER (SUPPLIER) BRIEF (one brief for each of the suppliers with appropriate terms and conditions offered by them as reflected earlier under “Buyer brief”. Following brief is for “Productivity Specialists” as an illustration)
You are sales in-charge of your company. After one meeting with the purchase manager of “ABC Engineering”, a medium sized firm manufacturing automobile components for the automobile companies (which is a growing sector), you have given them the following quotation for your product “X”. During the first meeting not much information was given by “ABC Engineering” except that they wished to fit a few of their machines with your equipment “X” so as to improve the overall productivity of their factory:

Price: $M1 per “X” (based on the client’s projected requirement of 3 to 4 units of “X”).
Delivery terms: Four weeks.
Warranty: Two years unconditional.
Payment terms: 40% advance, remaining within two weeks of delivery

You along with your team have been called by the top management team of “ABC Engineering” for discussions and negotiations.
Before the negotiation meeting you have contacted your company’s head quarters (corporate office) and they have advised and authorized you as follows:

To reduce the price only under extreme case by $m1 per “X” and not more than that.
Delivery can be made earlier than four weeks minimum being one week.
You must try to get maximum advance possible. Can go down to not less than 10%. It should have some relationship to price etc.
You can negotiate further and lower the price by a further $m2 provided you can secure an order for at least two more units of “X”.

At present you have no clue as to how many machines in all they want to fit with your productivity boosting equipment “X”.
All you know is that they are very serious about the improvement of the productivity of the plant.
You are required to negotiate to get the best possible terms and conditions, maintain the leadership position of your company and above all satisfy your this customer the best possible way.
You are quite keen to secure this order but definitely not at the cost of loss to your organization.

Get Hold of the Related Books

You can order the following books on "management games and icebreakers" as printed books and eBooks from Amazon online:

Classic Management Games, Exercises, Energizers and Icebreakers
Classic Management Games, Exercises, Energizers and Icebreakers (Volume 2)
Classic Team Building Games, Exercises, Energizers and Icebreakers
101 Classic Management Games, Exercises, Energizers and Icebreakers

Related Reading: (Repository of a large number of articles in management and leadership): http://shyam.bhatawdekar.com and http://management-universe.blogspot.com

Sunday, September 12, 2010

Rewards and Punishment

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/)
Rewards and punishment are time tested methods of motivating people. Every program/seminar leader or workshop facilitator wishes to maintain a high degree of motivation and enthusiasm among his participants. So if you, as a program leader, also wish to create such an environment of interest in the seminar hall, you can use “Rewards and Punishment”.

“Rewards and Punishment” is a good motivator, energizer and icebreaker.

You can announce at the beginning of the program that you wish to introduce a system of rewards and punishment in your workshop.

The punishment side will be very simple. It is mainly to remind the participants that they have to maintain punctuality. Every participant should make sure that he comes to the seminar hall in time at the beginning of the day and also after every break; it could be tea or coffee break or lunch break or any adhoc break announced by you. The person who arrives late will be sumptuously clapped by the rest of the participants to indicate to him, “Buddy, you are late but we still welcome you.” Ask any one participant to keep a count of number of times such claps are received by the erring participant(s).

Second part of the punishment will be to punish the person who disturbs the proceedings by receiving a phone call on his cell phone inside the hall (at the start of the program, instruct the participants to switch off their mobiles or keep them on the silent or vibrate mode) and also who disturbs by walking in and out of the hall while the session is running. Issue a “red” card to such a defaulter. A count of “red” cards issued will also be maintained erring participant wise.

Now we come to rewards part. At the beginning of the program, make an announcement that participants who will participate and contribute the most and the best will be given some surprise gifts by you. You being the program leader are the sole authority to give the rewards. The rewards will be given by you by giving a “green” card to the participant who deserves it. The persons who make a good contribution in the seminar by sharing good ideas, asking good questions, answering good answers, participating enthusiastically etc will be allotted “green” cards by you as an appreciation.

At the end of the workshop, each participant will be asked to report to you and to the rest of the participants the number of “green” cards he was rewarded. Present the top three earners of “green” cards some nice little gifts as part of valediction of your program.

Get Hold of the Related Books

You can order the following books on "management games and icebreakers" as printed books and eBooks from Amazon online:

Classic Management Games, Exercises, Energizers and Icebreakers
Classic Management Games, Exercises, Energizers and Icebreakers (Volume 2)
Classic Team Building Games, Exercises, Energizers and Icebreakers
101 Classic Management Games, Exercises, Energizers and Icebreakers

Related Reading: (Repository of a large number of articles in management and leadership): http://shyam.bhatawdekar.com and http://management-universe.blogspot.com

Thursday, September 9, 2010

Flying Airplanes

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 management game is basically a fun game and acts as an icebreaker and warm-up session (energizer) of your training program, workshop or seminar. This is apt for a situation where the participants of the program are strangers to each other or know each other just slightly; they do not know each other’s names and other details. The game helps them to get introduced to each other at the beginning of the program.

You are the program leader or workshop facilitator. Give each participant a blank paper. Preferably the papers should be of different colors to make the event colorful.

Ask each participant to make an airplane out of the paper given to him. If any participant does not know how to make the paper airplane he can take assistance from his neighbor. Ask each person to write his full name in bold letters on the airplane made by him; let the participants use colored markers available in the seminar hall. Each participant should also write one of his favorite hobbies on it or any other message he wishes to write on it.

Now ask all of them to fly their airplanes throwing the airplanes made by them in the air in the hall. The participants will catch hold of one of the flying airplanes or pick it up after its landing. Then the participants keep flying the airplanes caught by them and this goes on for three to four rounds. No participant is allowed to keep his own airplane with him. So, finally each one will have someone else’s airplane with him after all the rounds of flying the airplanes are over.

Ask the participants to meet everyone in the hall, shake hands with each one and make introductions until each participant finds and meets the person whose airplane he is holding in his hand. The two now make a pair.

Each pair exchanges the introductions in detail to know each other’s organization or department, educational qualifications, schools/colleges/universities, hobbies/interests and any other relevant information.

All the participants take their seats such that the persons forming pairs sit together as a pair. Each pair is called upon by you in front of the audience and the persons in the pair give the introduction of the partner in the pair to rest of the participants and to you. You may like to read about a similar way of introductions in the management exercise titled "Innovative Introductions".

You can thank the participants for the excellent session you had with them and proceed towards your next session.

Get Hold of the Related Books

You can order the following books on "management games and icebreakers" as printed books and eBooks from Amazon online:

Classic Management Games, Exercises, Energizers and Icebreakers
Classic Management Games, Exercises, Energizers and Icebreakers (Volume 2)
Classic Team Building Games, Exercises, Energizers and Icebreakers
101 Classic Management Games, Exercises, Energizers and Icebreakers

Related Reading: (Repository of a large number of articles in management and leadership): http://shyam.bhatawdekar.com and http://management-universe.blogspot.com

Wednesday, September 8, 2010

Closing the Store

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’s a beautifully simple yet very impactful management exercise. As a workshop facilitator or program leader, you can use this exercise in your sessions on communication and communication process to emphasize the need for absolute clarity of communication- an ambiguous communication can be severally interpreted by different people in the audience and obviously the people acting on one and same communication will understand it as per their own interpretations and act in different ways. Such a communication can kill effective implementation of any plan in any organization or society.

The exercise also leaves one with a surprise effect and therefore, the concept you wish to impart gets imprinted on the minds of the participants of the program permanently. It also acts as an energizer.

To begin with, give to each participant of your workshop the following exercise brief and ask them to read the brief carefully and to carry out the exercise as per the instructions given in the exercise brief.

Exercise brief starts now:The story: A businessman had just turned off the lights in the store when a man appeared and demanded money. The owner opened a cash register. The contents of the cash register were scooped up and the man sped away. A member of the police force was notified promptly.

Instructions: Read the statements below about the above story. Circle the appropriate answer to show if the statement is “True (T)”, “False (F)” or “Don’t know (?)”.

1. A man appeared after the owner had turned off his store lights: T, F, ?
2. The robber was a man: T, F, ?3. The man who appeared did not demand money: T, F, ?4. The man who opened the cash register was the owner: T, F, ?5. The store owner scooped up the contents of the cash register and ran away: T, F, ?6. While the cash register contained money, the store does not state how much: T, F, ?
7. The robber demanded money of the owner: T, F, ?
8. After the man who demanded the money scooped up the contents of the cash register, he ran away: T, F, ?
9. The robber opened the cash register: T, F, ?
10. After the store lights were turned off a man approached: T, F, ?
11. The robber did not take the money with him: T, F, ?
12. The story concerns three persons: the owner of the store, a man who demanded the money and a member of the police force: T, F, ?

Exercise brief ends here.

After all the participants complete this exercise, read out each of the 12 statements one by one and ask the participants to raise their hands for answering “True (T)”, then for answering “False (F)” and after that for answering “Don’t know (?)” for that particular statement. Count the hands for “True”, “False” and “Don’t know” for each statement and also work out the percentages.

The audience will be surprised to see that participants picked up almost all the options for the answers to almost each statement meaning each one understood almost each statement in a different manner. Interesting, isn’t it?

Let the participants discuss why such a situation arose.

Share your observations and provide supplementary inputs on the topic.

Get Hold of the Related Books

You can order the following books on "management games and icebreakers" as printed books and eBooks from Amazon online:

Classic Management Games, Exercises, Energizers and Icebreakers
Classic Management Games, Exercises, Energizers and Icebreakers (Volume 2)
Classic Team Building Games, Exercises, Energizers and Icebreakers
101 Classic Management Games, Exercises, Energizers and Icebreakers

Related Reading: (Repository of a large number of articles in management and leadership): http://shyam.bhatawdekar.com and http://management-universe.blogspot.com

Tuesday, September 7, 2010

Assemble a Story

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 seemingly very simple yet pretty loaded individual and group management exercise. It can be used by you as a program facilitator or workshop leader as an icebreaker and particularly for your sessions on creativity, creative thinking, leadership, team work and team building.

Get the participants of your program to sit on the chairs kept in a circular shape in your seminar room or even outdoors. Create a relaxed environment and then brief the participants.

Tell them that one person in group will start out by telling to rest of the participants a story but he can speak only one complete sentence of his story at a time. As he finishes his first sentence, the person sitting next to him will extend first person’s story’s first sentence by adding to it one more sentence from his side. Then the third person takes over and adds one more sentence to construct the further part of the story. Thus every participant will keep adding his one sentence to the story that gets formed till his turn comes. This goes on and on till you feel that it’s time to conclude the exercise. You can check up with participants if they will still like to continue.

To begin the exercise you can coax the participants to volunteer to give a kick start to the story. Let some initiators emerge this way and then you can choose one of them to start telling the first sentence of the story.

After the participants declare that they are finished with story formulation or you assess that it's time to conclude, request the participants to share their experiences in tackling this exercise. Where did they miss out and where they did brilliantly? Was it a simple exercise or a difficult one? Did it tax their brains- in what ways?

Give your observations, analysis and inputs.

You can repeat this exercise by giving to entire group of participants around 10 minutes to discuss among themselves before they start making and telling another story in the manner described earlier. During these given 10 minutes they can work out an outline of a different story they wish to tell as a group but the participants are not allowed to write down anything. Then allow each participant to speak out his one sentence turn by turn to narrate the complete story the way they had thought of.

After this second round of story telling, get the participants once again to share their experiences and to tell you the differences between the first round and the second round of story formation and story telling.

Facilitate their discussions with your inputs and wrap up the session.

(As a variant, you may ask the participants to assemble a poem also; that will also be as much fun).

Get Hold of the Related Books

You can order the following books on "management games and icebreakers" as printed books and eBooks from Amazon online:

Classic Management Games, Exercises, Energizers and Icebreakers
Classic Management Games, Exercises, Energizers and Icebreakers (Volume 2)
Classic Team Building Games, Exercises, Energizers and Icebreakers
101 Classic Management Games, Exercises, Energizers and Icebreakers

Related Reading: (Repository of a large number of articles in management and leadership): http://shyam.bhatawdekar.com and http://management-universe.blogspot.com