How to Keep Your Training Sessions Lively

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© 2010 Impact Learning Systems International www.impactlearning.com 1

How to Keep Your Training Sessions Lively egardless of the length or topic of a training session, participants will enjoy the learning

experience more if the atmosphere is lively and upbeat. And chances are good that the more

they enjoy the experience, the more engaged they will be in their own learning.

You don’t have to invest an extraordinary amount of time and energy in order to make your sessions

lively. Following are some simple measures you can take.

Start with an icebreaker activity to loosen up participants. Even if participants know each other

well, an icebreaker activity will help participants to relax and to establish camaraderie. If

participants don’t know each other, an icebreaker is essential for getting them to interact with

one another.

Include some physical movement. At various points in the training, find an excuse to get the

participants moving. Even if they’re just getting up to walk across the room for an activity, the

energy level will go up.

If the training session is longer than two hours, include some fun energizer activities. These

can be extremely simple and they don’t have to have any relevance at all to the training

material—even jokes, trivia, or word games will work. The objective is to give their brains a

break for a few minutes by totally switching gears.

Include small group activities or discussions. One of the most interesting yet common

phenomena of training is the participant who won’t speak at all in front of the large group but

who will blabber away when put in a discussion group of two or three people. Using small

groups for activities and discussions can greatly help in livening up a training session.

Build fun and novelty into the session where possible. For example, roll a pair of dice to

determine the length of a break (one minute for every eye showing on the dice). Here’s another

one: Prior to the training session, write the name of some prizes on small strips of paper and

then tape them to the bottoms of the chairs. At some point in the training, ask participants to

look under their chairs to see what they’ve won just for being there.

Play upbeat music during breaks. You can use a tape, cd, or radio to liven up the session with

music. As soon as you announce a break, turn the music on and keep it on until the participants

are all back in their chairs and ready to resume the training. This simple measure is sure to give

them a boost of energy.

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