Training Aids:

Presented by Michelle Ellsworth and Shelly Conroy of e-Training Solutions, Inc.

Shelley Conroy and Michelle Ellsworth are owners of e-Training Solutions, Inc. - a full-service training organization that provides classroom instruction, consulting services, instruction design and development, and e-learning solutions for the multi-family industry. Both women have been featured presenters for national events including the Multi-Housing World Conference and Sales and Marketing Magic Brainstorming Conference. Together, their combined training experience spans over 30 years. Their "tag team" training is described as energetic, engaging, upbeat, knowledgeable, and informative. They appeal to audiences large and small and at all levels within an organization.

Often with an inspirational flavor, Shelley and Michelle moves their audiences to challenge past limitations, create winning visions, reach for higher goals, and succeed at the art of living a successful and fulfilling personal and professional life.

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1) Openers

Crowd-Breakers (for large groups)

  • Cold Hands, Warm Introductions

In this fun activity, participants learn interesting tidbits about their peers while racing against melting ice.

Pair Participants randomly with others they don’t know very well. Then give each pair one piece of ice. (Make sure ice cubes are about the same size and shape.) Explain that the object of the crowdbreaker is for Participants to discover as many things as possible about their partners... while melting the ice as quickly as possible. Participants must learn basic things about each other such as name, position, property, hobbies, and talents–but also something odd, such as the color of their toothbrushes. If there’s time, each person should find out one little-known or interesting fact about his or her partner.
Tell Participants creative ice-melting techniques will be rewarded. They might rub hands, place it in their mouths, under their arms...wherever there’s warmth. When a pair’s ice cube is melted, have them signal, and keep a list of finishers in order. When everyone is finished, have Participants introduce their buddies to the large group, sharing what they discovered.

Give awards to the pair who melt their ice cube first, the person who’s found the most interesting fact about his or her partner, and the pair who found the most creative way to melt an ice cube.

  • Junk Mixer

Do you have a problem with cliques within your group? Or, are there new employees in your class? If so, use this crowd breaker to get class members talking with each other.

Collect ordinary small household items, such as a button, eraser, rubber band, Popsicle stick, thimble, pencil or emery board. You'll need one item for each class member. List the items on a sheet of paper with a line beside each item. Make one photocopy of the list for each participant.

Put each item in an envelope. As participants arrive, hand them each an envelope and a photocopied list. Explain that each group member must somehow wear his or her item. Instruct participants to find out who's wearing each item and write that person's name on the list.

Ice-Breakers (for small to medium sized groups)

  • Designer T-Shirts

Bring a white T-shirt or white hat for each participant. Have some extras available for visitors. After participants put their names or initials on the inside tags, have them stand in a circle and put their shirts in the center. One by one, have participants each pick one shirt (not their own) from the pile. Provide fabric paint, glitter, buttons, needles, thread, and scissors.

Tell participants they each have 30 minutes to decorate and customize the shirt they selected. Designs can incorporate the shirt owner's favorite property management moto, property or company symbol, sport, and so on. If participants don't know the owner, they should introduce themselves and ask a few questions. When participants are finished, have each designer hold up his or her creation, explain the design's significance, and present the T-shirt to its owner.

  • Label on Your Forehead (Great for Diversity or Leasing)

Cut strips of paper about an inch wide and 6 inches long. Place a 3-foot-long piece of string or yarn on each strip, taping the string to the paper. On the paper, write the names of various types of personalities such as shy, obnoxious, lonely, sad and funny.

Then, tie the strings around each person's head with the label showing on his or her forehead. Make sure no one sees his or her own label. Have participants mill around talking with each other. Tell participants they may not tell each other what their label is, that they must treat others according to the labels. As participants talk, have them try to guess the label on their own foreheads by watching the way people treat them.

  • Snap! Crackle! P…uzzle! (Perfect for Marketing Class)

Mix and match pieces of cereal boxes to mix and match the participants in your class. Cut off the front panel of several cereal boxes—one for each group you want to form. Then cut up each panel into puzzle shapes—one for each person you want in that group. Mix together all the pieces from all the cereal boxes; then give one piece to each person. On "go," have participants race to find the people with the pieces necessary to complete their puzzle. When all the cereal box panels have been assembled, have groups discuss the following questions:

  • What was your favorite cereal as a child?
  • What's your favorite cereal slogan or jingle?
  • What cereal name are you most like, and why?
  • If you had an ad slogan or a "list of ingredients" for yourself, what would it be, and why?

End the discussion time with snacks—cereal, of course.

• Practice Makes Almost Perfect (Computer Classes, Maintenance)

You'll need newspaper and a wastebasket.

Set the wastebasket in the center of the room. As participants arrive, have them wad the newspaper and shoot baskets into the wastebasket.
Say: Go ahead and shoot a few baskets. Take your time and warm up. Challenge the people around you to a trick shot or two.

After everyone's arrived, ask: How did practicing help you shoot better shots? Did you get better after you had time to practice? Would you become perfect at shooting baskets if you practiced a lot? What else have you done that's required time and practice to get better?

  • Hula Heads (Use for Teambuilding or Orientation)

This game requires little prep and will build unity in a group whose members don’t know each other well.

You’ll need at least two Hula Hoop plastic hoops. Have participants form small groups of five to 10 people. Have groups stand in a circle, holding hands. Place a hoop around one person’s neck. The object of the game is to have each team send the hoop around the circle, passing it from head to head, without participants touching it with their hands. After a few practice rounds, have teams race against each other to see who can get the hoop around the circle the quickest.

  • Common Ground (Diversity, Teambuilding, Leadership)

Form equal-sized teams of three to six. Give each team a sheet of paper and a pencil. Tell teams their challenge is to list everything they can think of that all team members have in common. For example, team members might all belong to the same company, prefer the same kind of music, or like the same brand of tennis shoes. The only rule is that they can't list similar body parts, such as "We all have two arms, a brain, and a nose."

Tell teams they have three minutes to create their lists, so they need to work quickly. (Groups of five or six may need more time, but don't allow more than four to five minutes.) To add to the urgency and excitement of the game, inform teams when there's one minute as well as 30 seconds remaining.

When time is up, find out which team has the longest list and ask team members to read the similarities they listed. Then ask teams who had similarities not already listed to share them. To conclude, have the entire group discuss the following questions. Ask:

How easy was it to discover something in common with another team member? with every team member?

What does this reveal about the extent to which we're alike? the ways in which we're all different?

How can our similarities draw us closer together? How can our differences help us grow closer?

Variation Idea: Challenge teams to list things members don't have in common - things that make each person unique. For example, participants may have been born in different states, might go to different resturants, or might like different music. You might also challenge your entire group to list as many things as it can that members all have in common

  • Target Practice(Any Topic – Goal Setting)

Typically, we set goals at the end of a discussion. But we can use goal-setting to start a discussion, as long as we make those goals tentative. In fact, the process of modifying a tentative goal can lead to lively debate.

For example, let's say you're beginning a leasing program. You could ask participants to set a tentative goal: "We want 100 percent of group members to close 80% of all qualified traffic by the end of this program." Then ask participants:

Is this a reasonable goal or should it be modified?

Use participants' responses to generate discussion. Don't stop until the group has reached a consensus. The process can serve as a springboard into talking about Goal Setting how-to's.

  • Just for Fun (Any Topic)

Use the following questions to inspire interesting and fun discussions:

  1. What three things would you put in a time capsule that your descendants would dig up in 100 years?
  2. Which one of Superman's powers would you choose for yourself? Explain.
  3. Finish this sentence: "One thing I want to do before I die is..." How can you make that "one thing" happen?
  4. If you could listen in on a conversation between any two people in history, who would they be? Why?
  5. How would your life be different if music were outlawed? Movies? Television?
  6. What's something you'd never order at a restaurant?
  7. What's something you'd never do, even if someone offered you $1 million to do it?
  8. If you could make up a nickname for your Instructor, what would it be?
  • Making Impressions (Make-Ready)

Give each person a sheet of paper and a crayon. Tell participants they have ten minutes to collect ten “impressions” of both the inside and the outside of the meeting area. Have participants place their sheets of paper over objects such as carpet, a heater grate, or a keyhole and rub their crayons on the paper. Tell participants to list each item they make an impression of on the back of their papers. When participants return, have them take turns guessing what objects the impressions are of. Then ask:

  1. How could you determine the pattern that would appear on your paper?
  2. How could you avoid patterns that you didn’t want on your paper?
  3. How can we make positive impressions on our prospects and residents?
  • String of Stress (Stress Management)

Supplies: a ball of string or yarn, scissors, music, and a fun snack

Have participants sit in a circle. Say: Today we’re going to talk about the stress in our lives. Let’s pass around this ball of string. When it comes to you, name all of the stresses in your life that you can think of. For each stress you name, pull out about a foot of string. Once you’ve named all the stresses you can think of, cut off the string. Start the string and scissors around the circle.

Once everyone has shared and has a length of string, have participants form trios. Select a person in each trio to be tied up first by his or her trio partners, using that person’s string. (Be sure participants don’t tie string around someone’s neck.) Then the second person can be tied up by the third person in the trio. You can tie up the last person in each trio using his or her string.

Once everyone is tied up, invite participants to a celebration across the room featuring music and treats. Turn on the music, and invite participants to join in the fun.
Stop the music. While participants are still tied up, ask:

  1. How do you feel about being all tied up?
  2. How are the effects of the string similar to the effects of stress in your life?
  3. How does stress take away your sense of freedom?
  4. Is it possible to live so that stress doesn’t have this effect on you? Why or why not?
  5. What’s the best way to deal with stress? Why is that hard to do?
  6. How can we help each other reduce the stress in our lives?

Start the music again, and have participants work together to set each other free from the string. Turn the music down low, and ask participants to pile the string in the middle of their trio and discuss together ways to be stress reducers for each other this week. At the end of the meeting, let participants enjoy the snacks.

  • Brushes with Greatness (Leadership)

You'll need wrapped candies to give as prizes.

Have participants get into groups of three or four.
Say: Tell the members of your group the name of an important person you'd like to meet and why.
After a few minutes, say: Now talk with your group about your "brushes with greatness"—about important people you or someone you know have already met. For example, (describe your own brushes-with-greatness experience). Remember, if your grandmother's next-door neighbor's cousin knows someone, that counts.

Allow a few minutes for participants to recall their brushes with greatness. Then invite groups to share. Give prizes to the groups with the most examples, the least examples, and the most far-fetched examples.

Ask: How did your life change as a result of your brush with greatness? Why do we want to meet important people?

3 Rules of “the Game” by Thiagi

  1. Anything that you can teach by using any method, you can teach by using training games.
  2. Training games can be designed rapidly and inexpensively.
  3. Training games engage the learners and produce effective results.

4) Closers

What's a story without an ending, a mystery without a solution, or a joke without a punch line? Incomplete, frustrating, blah...and certainly unsatisfying. It's like a journey without a destination. Unfortunately, that's how some of our meetings seem as we end with a cheery, "Well, that's about it; see you next week" and then watch participants drift out the door. A strong case can be made for the position that the ending is the most important part of a meeting.

  • Full Service Promise

Supplies: newsprint, a marker, tape, index cards, and pencils

Tape a sheet of newsprint to the wall. Have participants brainstorm ways to serve their co-workers and supervisors and write these on the newsprint. Encourage participants to be creative. For example, someone might say, “Bring lunch on Friday for your team,” “Go with maintenance on a few service request” or “Organize your desk drawer.”

Give an index card and a pencil to each participant. Have each person pick one idea from the list to do during the week. Have each person write his or her idea and name on the index card. Collect the cards. Close by saying: Next week, we’ll briefly review the cards to see how you did in following through on your plan to serve.

Remember to save the cards and review them at your next meeting.

  • Commitment Closing

Invite the participants to make a personal commitment or renew their commitment to practicing their new skill or policy. Ask them to concentrate silently; then write their commitment on a 3x5 card to hand in or take home; or to make their commitments verbally in pairs.

  • Last Impressions Count Too!

An effective ending has a direct relationship with the meeting's goal. If the goal is for participants to build team relationships, an opportunity for participants to work through problems they may have with other group members is a good ending. The way a meeting ends can also set the tone for future gatherings. An upbeat ending will make participants want to come back. Some groups end with a mini-party to celebrate an obscure or imaginary holiday, such as National Applesauce Week or the anniversary of the first pizza. Ending meetings the same way each time builds a sense of community. Some Instructors like to end all their meetings the same way - with a special song, a cheer, a conversational moto or a favorite game. However you choose to end your meeting, let the ending punctuate your meeting with an exclamation point, not a question mark.
  • Group Hug

This is a good way to close a meeting in which group members have felt close. Have the group members stand, form a line and place their arms around the people on either side of them. Instruct the person at one end of the line to begin rolling, with his or her arms still around the people beside him or her, into the rest of the group-cinnamon-roll style. Once the group has wound up tightly, say: One, two, three, hug! The group all squeezes at the same time, giving one gigantic, mass hug.