Opening Workshop Activities

A major purpose of an opening activity is to help participants get acquainted with each other. Here's an opener that identifies and rewards participants who would make good politicians.

Show and Tell taps into the power of metaphors to reveal players’ underlying assumptions and associations around a topic

The aim of the game is to get a deeper understanding of stakeholders’ perspectives on anything—a new project, an organizational restructuring, a shift in the company’s vision or team dynamic.

This activity helps people ease in a group and brings out their creativity without a lot of effort.

This meeting starter is great because it lets people self-define,  gives them a “personality” outside the typical work environment. Additionally,it gives participants quick snapshots of multiple players (since they see many cards as they’re being passed around), and it creates memorable visuals that give people conversation pieces as the meeting progresses.

The object of this game is to introduce event participants to each other by co-creating a mural-sized, visual network of their connections.

I dread the moment when people ask me, “What do you do?” I don't know how to explain that I am a performance technologist, or an instructional designer, or a facilitator. So I cheat by saying that I am a trainer.

Here's an activity that helps you become more fluent in explaining what you do for a living.

Open your workshop / session / meeting with a visual check-in that enables people to be there as who they are and what's on their mind:

• Every participant selects a picture representing how they are
• Take turns sharing how this cards represents them/their mood/situation

People introduce each other and take the other person's name. Continue until you meet your own name and the you sit down.

Try to high-five the person to your right or left. If you match you stay in the game.

Each person describes how they are feeling in terms of a weather system.