The Truth About Icebreakers 02 – missed opportunities

The truth about Icebreakers (and energisers) Part 2

In Pt.1, The Golden age of Ice Icebreakers, Paul challenged us to rethink our approach to icebreakers and energizers and consider better ways of reaching the same objectives. In this installment he considers the missed opportunities of using the traditional approach and encourages us achieve more by being outcome focused.

Missed Opportunities from Icebreakers

So how can we re frame “icebreakers” and “energizers” so that they enhance the learning experience of our learners and add some powerful insights for the trainer?

What would it be like if we deliberately designed icebreakers to deliver something useful?

Here are some thoughts about where they might be used:

• First thing to engage the learners in the topic of the day
• After break to embed a key learning point from before break
• After break to introduce a new element of the day
• After lunch to reinforce the mornings learning

Better, but not great…

We need to think deeper. And we need to think about how we give our learners the best possible opportunity to learn as much as they can / want to.

So let’s start to think about the emotional aspect of learning. We now know that learning and emotional connection are fundamentally linked. We have known for some time, for example, that when we remember something, the emotion we held when we stored it comes back with the memory. (Think anchoring) And so it is with learning.

I recently watched a very traditional trainer delivering a lengthy and unimaginably dull session on aggression in language. What they said was actually quite interesting but they created an emotional environment for the learners that said Dull, Dull, Dull. When asked some time later what learners could recall from the session they all said simply that it was boring.

Result?

State created by the trainer and re-lived by the learner every time they recall the session.

As deliverers, and even more so as designers, this is very powerful stuff and we can use this to really enhance our learner’s experiences.

For example: if we want people to be curious when they recall their learning, they will need to curious during the learning process. If we want people to feel energised when they recall their learning, they will need to feel energised during the learning process.

So now we can deliberately design an emotional element into our icebreaker sessions. Now we can choose what we want the learners to get from the session but also how we want them to feel during the process and, therefore, how they will feel when they recall the learning.

In the 3rd and final part of this short series on icebreakers and energizers, we’ll move into the real world and explore how this translates into a course opening session for, lets say, a one day coaching programme.

Icebreaker image by Juska Wendland
Anchor image by scottx

Paul and Ally are working on an exciting 6-part (online) course to help your learners fully engage with your training - sign up for the 'early bird' list for advanced notification and more info

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