in this issue
	Trainer Kit Update Beautiful Music Posters Rule! The Liquid Metaphor Group Decisions

Beautiful Music

Here's a way to integrate music into a training class. You will need 4 pieces of recorded music, all instrumental. Choose a variety, like heavy guitar rock, classical waltz, funky electronic, and new age mellow. Each piece you choose should create a distinct emotional mood. Your selections should be relatively unknown so that the mood created is linked to the music, not to a memory of when listeners heard the music. You will be playing a one-minute section of each piece. Before beginning, instruct participants to listen to the music and write down on a card words that describe the piece, identifying as many words as possible for each piece. They should identify each piece by number or artist (not by name, as that can provide clues about the mood). Play the first selection while participants record descriptive words. At the end of the selection, have them turn over the card for that piece. Play the next selection and have them describe that piece on a new card. Continue until all pieces have been played. Have participants count off by fours (if you had four music selections). Instruct them to work with their like numbers (all 1's together, 2's together, etc.) and discuss the mood created by their assigned selection (Team 1 discusses music 1). Allow 2-3 minutes. Then have teams expand their discussion by talking about a department or work group with the mood of their music. What would be the advantages/disadvantages? How would such a mood be created? Would you want to work in that type of department and why/why not? This activity can work well in manager training, communication skills, project management, leadership, and team building.

Posters Rule!

Here's an activity for those who teach software training. It helps learners recognize and explore different application functions. Prepare by identifying the key screens for the application and making screen shot posters of each key page. For example, if teaching a course on an accounting program, you might select the following screens: Reports, Banking, Create Invoices, Receive Payments. Choose as many screens as you need, print them, and expand them to poster size to mount on the wall. You will then build activities around the posters. For example, as learners enter the room, give each person a card with a task written on it (Find out which customers are past due; Check the balance in your checking account; Record payment received from a customer; Pay your phone bill). Once all have arrived and have task cards, instruct them to find the poster with the screen that will allow them to complete the task on their card. You can use this activity even before they have learned about the program. Another way to use the posters is to have them go to the poster that represents the part of the application they are most comfortable with. Then move to the poster that they will use most often. Then move to the poster that is most confusing to them. The nice thing about this activity is that it gets the learners out of their chairs, which doesn't happen often in software training. Another benefit is that the constantly see the important screen shots in the classroom, not just when they happen to be at that point in the training. This familiarity increases the comfort they will feel when using the application back on the job.

The Liquid Metaphor

This activity is a discussion starter for team building, and can be used to discuss group communication. You will need 4 clear plastic cups. Fill one cup with water, another with olive oil (the good stuff that has a little color to it), the third with JelloŽ , and the last with pudding. Place the cups on a table in the front of the room, visible to all participants. Tell the group that these cups represent communication, the communication on their team, within their departments, or whatever is appropriate for the class. Ask them, if their communication were like the cup of water, what would that mean? How would that sound? What would people feel like? Explore the cup of water for several minutes, and then move on to the oil. Ask the same questions for each cup. After describing each cup, ask them, Think about the best team you've been on. Which cup best represents that team? Which cup best represents communication on your current team? Which cup would you LIKE to represent your team's communication? These questions can lead to goal setting for improved communication and some very interesting discussions about individual communication needs. You can also set up this discussion earlier in the day by having participants silently describe the communication on their team on a card. Then, after discussing the "cups" of communication, have them revisit their earlier writing and use that to determine which cup best represents their team.

Group Decisions

This activity helps people analyze how they go about making decisions and how they would help a group come to consensus. Tell them that they are a consultant brought in to help a team make a decision. Their job is to give the team a way to come to agreement about the vendor they will choose to deliver training on Project Management to 60 people (or choose another decision relevant to the group). Emphasize that they are not supposed to make the decision, simply provide the team with a way to come to agreement. Explain that the team is considering three different vendors. Two team members want vendor A; Two want vendor B; Three want vendor C; One has no opinion. Provide them with a comparison of the three vendors on key areas (cost, reputation, availability, quality, etc.). Then give teams 15 minutes to discuss their strategy. Have teams present their work. As they do, comment on any solutions that try to lead the team to a pre- determined "right" decision. Debrief the exercise by asking questions such as, Did you as a team analyze the vendors to decide which was the best? How did that impact the recommendations made? What process did you follow to come to consensus on your recommendations? How confident are you that your recommendations will work? One reason I like this activity is because it forces people to focus on the process they use to make decisions rather than on the decision itself. Too often people rush to a decision without a good structure for analyzing their options. This experience might cause people to slow down a bit and make better decisions in the future. For a copy of the handout we use in this activity, visit our web site link below. Group Decisions Handout »