Communicate with Confidence/Project Report

              Icebreakers And Openers
To get and keep an audience's attention, you must
give people some active involvement within the first 20
minutes of your program. Icebreakers and openers
encourage group involvement. As a presenter, you're
responsible for creating a positive atmosphere that
encourages people to participate. Icebreakers and
openers do this by relaxing the audience and preparing
them to participate.
Icebreakers are unrelated to your subject matter.
Their purpose is to help people get to know each other.
Use t h em if it is important for participants to get to talk to
each other.
Openers are more content oriented. They may act
as part of your introduction to the subject matter, and
help focus audience attention. They may also help give
you a better idea of audience concerns.
Benefits
• set the climate, tone and pace of program
• help put you at ease as you get to know people in the
group and as they accept some responsibility for
program success
• allow participants to become acquainted, not just to
I hear each other's names
• involve shy people
• relax the group and make people more spontaneous
• achieve instant involvement
• help build group identity and cohesiveness
• help energize the group
• focus audience attention on the here and now.
• develop your credibility as a learning facilitator, not a
lecturer
• help people fulfil social needs of learning
Choosing and using Icebreakers and
openers
• Choose an activity appropriate to people's know­ledge
of each other, and their sense of adventure.
• Decide how long to spend, ^ consider your total pro­gram
length.
• Search your objectives for clues to how much inter­action
you need for each topic
• Choose an exercise you can explain quickly and
easily. Many adults are nervous about interacting
with strangers in an educational setting. Their private
thoughts may block learning.
• Give written instructions along with a verbal descrip­tion,
it possible. Consider openers and icebreakers
with an element of competition to motivate the group
" First to the coffee" could be the prize.
• Gam group support for an activity by inviting people
to participate. Be honest about why you feel the activ­ity
is important Say about an icebreaker, for example,
" I'd like to take a little time to get to know you and
allow you to get to know each other. " For an opener
say something like " This is a big topic and I want to be
sure I'm spending my time in your areas of interest
Use the following chart for evaluating an ice­breaker
or opener.
Element Low Moderate High
1. time required
2. threat potential
3. possible group dissatisfaction
4. novelty
5. fun and excitement
6. creativity
Forming groups
• People tend not to feel threatened about an activity if
they work as part of a group.
• Consider how you'll form groups:
• You can number people off and ask all the " ones,"
" twos" and so on to form groups.
• You can hand people color coded papers or pictures
as they come in, then ask them to regroup by color
• You can ask people to select their own groups. This
method has both pros and cons It can make adults
more comfortable but it usually takes more time.
Examples of Icebreakers
Round table introduction In this popular opener,
people introduce themselves by name and offer informa­tion
such as their occupation, type of farm and family size
This works well with groups of 12 people or fewer If most of
the people are not at ease with public speaking, private
thoughts such as " What will I say?" may reduce the ice­breaker's
effectiveness.
Interview palre Ask people to form pairs and interview
each other for five minutes. Each person then introduces
his or her partner to the whole group, if it's a moderate size
In a large group, they can p i n another pair and make their
introductions in quartets
Puzzles Word and picture puzzles are both excellent for
groups.
word puzzle A farmer dies and leaves his three children