Change One Word

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Change One Word

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.

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:

1. Classic Management Games, Exercises, Energizers and Icebreakers
2. Classic Management Games, Exercises, Energizers and Icebreakers (Volume 2)
3. Classic Team Building Games, Exercises, Energizers and Icebreakers
4. 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