Before I start on today’s topic I just want to remind you guys to read my previous blogs from the beginning to understand all. This will make my life easy as I will spend less time on explaining the details. I tried to complete one topic in one sitting and in one post so the reader could understand it all. All this is still connected and it is better to start from the first post to the last.
Being a Facilitator we need to think and prepare in advance for upcoming events. So far I have prepared you for basic group development techniques. Now I want to make it a bit more fun for you and I. What I mean is I will share some of the tasks and exercise along with energizers and icebreakers that you can use during your projects and these can be used at any stage of the project. These are as there name suggests small exercises to refresh your minds and than get back to working. I hope these few exercises will get you started. For new readers these will be enough and for experienced readers/facilitators these will be a nice flashback. So lets get started…
Dear readers I cannot stress enough at this stage to Reflect after every session or task. This is where Facilitation is different and productive. So when you use these exercises also try to Reflect individually and in groups. And don’t forget to share as much as you can.
The first exercise is a creative thinking exercise which you will be doing today (I did this in the start of my studies). I am the group that is is meeting for the first time and no body knows each other. The easy way is to introduce oneself to the group and you are done. But there is no fun and creativity in it. Am i right? So this small innocent exercise will give you both. What you need to do is to spend 3 minutes on the ways to describe your self in three sketches/word/phrases. In 3 minutes and in 3 drawings think about to tell about your qualities and your importance/role/what can you do in the group and this is where you get to create. After 3 minutes everybody stops drawing and than anybody can start and introduce him/her self in 1 or 2 minutes depending upon the time. That is it!
This does not mean that this exercise is only for the introductions. You can use it for your brainstorming sessions and at anytime during the projects just to refresh your minds. You can just think about trees and draw something about them. At the end it should be taken as a refreshing and fun time.
As an example if you want to tweak this exercise here is what you can do too.
Tell Us about Yourself
Pass around a bag of candy. Tell the participants to take as many as they want. Once all the participants have candy, tell them that for each candy they took they have to say one thing about themselves. For instance, if a participant took 10 candies, they would have to say 10 things about themselves.
Note:
You can also pass around a roll of toilet tissue. Ask the participants to take as many individual sheets or squares as they think they might need (do not tell them the purpose of the sheets).
I will share some more exercises and tasks in the later posts so for the time being I want this post to be short and easy to digest. And I also want you guys to adopt this task in your groups from the beginning and for today just practice it within your group or if you are alone than in front of the mirror. I will see you in the next post till than enjoy and have fun!!!
//IMRAN