A to Z Review

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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.

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

Hot Hat or Hot Basket

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Hot Hat or Hot Basket

"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.

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

Change One Word

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/

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

Participative Quiz

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.

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