What feedback comment makesyour day when you run a courseor workshop? I’m sure ‘Thetrainer was brilliant/superb/fantastic’ (complete your ownsuperlative) hits the rightbuttons. I like those too, but it isalso a pleasure for me to read onthe ‘happy sheet’: ‘energiserswere well timed’ or ‘energiserswere appropriate for learning’.

An energiser is a form of activitydesigned to stimulate andenliven a group. It may also beused to relax a group, so perhaps‘energiser’ is always not the rightword to use. However, it is

rooted in facilitator and trainerjargon, so we’ll use it here.A well-timed, appropriateenergiser may achieve itspurpose and make learning orother group activity easier; but, used inappropriately, it may annoy and embarrass participants, and make thefacilitator look foolish.

I shall never forget the veryearnest elderly lawyer whocollared me, after a (successful)team building energiser, to askwhy I played ‘children’s games’with adults. It was a goodreminder that not everyonewants to be ‘energised’ by others – they can do very well on their own.

In this module we shall look atsome of the good and badpoints about energisers, whenthey are appropriate and howwe can best use them to help usachieve our workshop aims.

For Issue 2, Kimberley Harewrote a module about creating agreat state for learning, aboutmaking people feel good whilstthey are learning. She listed anumber of factors that canpositively influence the state oflearners – for example, excitingpre-workshop notes, awelcoming environment, and

appealing to different learningstyles and different senses. Alastair Olby (in Issue 15)outlined how the facilitator’sstate influences the state of participants. He explained thatstate is created by two factors:focus and physiology.

Energisers help to change the focus and physiology of participants, and can be viewedas another way, a technique, to create a change of state in our participants, from a non-productive state to aproductive one.

However, energisers are not asubstitute for good exercises. If you design your workshopwith a variety of exercises thatinvolve and stimulate all styles of learners, varying the pace sothat there are times of greatenergy and times of calmerreflection, you may not need to use any energiser.

Delivery

TRAIN the TRAINER • Issue 19

● Energisers help change thestate of our participants.

● Energisers are no substitutefor good design. Well-developed learning exercisesand good pace are a betterway to maintain constantenergy.

● Match energisers to yourtopic and audience, andintroduce them atappropriate times.

● You should have a variety ofenergiser types in yourtoolkit.

● Seek to refresh yourenergiser toolkit constantly.

Key learning points

Changing state does notalways mean changing agroup from bored and listlessto enthusiastic. The group may be overexcited, and acalmer state may be moreappropriate for the nextsituation.

Tip

TRAIN the TRAINER • ©Fenman Limited 2004

Using energisers toenhance yourworkshopsJohn Brooker

Author

John Brooker leads Yes! And... , which makes change and innovation easier for organisations, teams and individuals.

They facilitate, advise, train and coach people to find success, in a positive and inspiring way.

Telephone: 020 8869 9990 or 07866 431046 • E-mail: hi@yesand.co.uk • Website: www.yesand.biz

As a professional trainer and facilitator, you should bespending a good deal of time seeking out interestingnew energisers, trying to build up an equal rangeacross the quadrants. By tuning your antennae to thistask, you will discover new ones in unlikely places.

Some sources I have used are these:

● Fun e-mails with a novel twist, sent by friends. Aparticularly successful one was a series of lateralthinking arithmetic questions, which I adapted toask a group.

● Improvisation comedy books with some funexercises, such as Playing Along by Issy Gesell.1

Make sure that you can relate the exercises to yourlearning activity.

● Books on team activities and icebreakers. You canfind numerous examples at online bookstores bytyping those terms into the search engine. Most ofthese are American; I feel uncomfortable at thethought of doing some of them, but that may be apersonal issue.

● Books on a variety of topics such as Tai Chi ormeditation.

● Children’s toys – the Early Learning Centre andJohn Lewis are good sources. Crazy Kittens is a verysuccessful energiser, although not one I use at thestart of a session.

● Websites about the brain or psychology – such aswww.youramazingbrain.org.uk – have a range ofuseful puzzles.

● Participants – set them the challenge of developingenergisers for themselves. This has provided somerich material amongst the mundane.

You might also like to develop your own energisers.Use the matrix on Page 2 as a basis to prompt ideas;or consider these points (with thanks to KimberleyHare for sourcing them) that Professor MihalyCsikszentmihalyi has found, through his research, tobe the most rewarding aspects of the challengespeople set themselves:

● designing something new

● discovering something new

● exploring new places

● solving problems

● learning something new.

How might you use these ideas to develop newenergisers?

In conclusion, energisers are a proven way to changethe state of a group, but should be just one techniqueto achieve this. They are not a substitute forinteresting and productive exercises, or a crutch to usewhen your own state is not resourceful. You canenhance their impact and your credibility if they areappropriate, well timed and varied.

Refresh your toolkit

Games children play?

It’s all about state

Useful sources

References

1 Issy Gesell, Playing Along, Whole Person Associates (USA), 1997.

ActivityWhen did you last put a new energiser in yourtoolkit? Set yourself a task of introducing a newone for each course or workshop that you run.

As a professional trainer

and facilitator, you should be spending

a good deal of time seeking out

interesting new energisers

“”

Size of group can influence the energisers you do.Some need at least eight people to work. Be on theconstant look out for Active / Change physiologyenergisers that just two or three people can do.

Tip

Conclusion

The following is a model inspired bya version seen in the Open UniversityMBA programme on Creativity andInnovation. Use it to find out if youhave the correct range of energisersin a workshop and if you havesufficient types of energisers in yourtoolkit.

What does the model tell us? 1 Energisers may be split on two

axes:

• Change physiology /Change focus

• Active/Passive.

2 The two axes form quadrants into which we can allocate our energisers:

• Active / Change physiology

• Passive / Change physiology

• Active / Change focus

• Passive / Change focus.

We allocate them by their primarypurpose, for example:

• Roller Coaster. The team pretendsthey are riding a roller coaster in an active exercise that creates tremendous energy; its main aim being to change physiology.

• Tai Chi Hands. People follow the movements of each other’s handsjust millimetres apart. It is quite passive and tends to change physiology and focus (one could almost call it an ‘active meditation’).

• Tantrix. A commercial puzzle game that really stimulates people.

• Meditation. A number of energisers use meditation techniques.

By allocating each energiser to aquadrant, we can see at a glance ifwe have energisers in all quadrants.Do not be constrained by theposition within the quadrant – theuse of the model is not a science.

Why is it important to have a range of energisers? As mentioned inthe Tip on Page 1, we want to beable to move the group from aninappropriate state to an appropriateone (a more resourceful state inNeuro Linguistic Programmingparlance). If participants have justarrived in the workshop, fresh froman angry telephone call or a stressfuldrive, and full of adrenaline, it isunlikely that a boost of adrenalinefrom an Active / Change physiologyenergiser will enhance their state.It’s also important to have a range ofenergisers because some people get:

• tired of constant Active / Change physiology energisers

• bored if you repeat an energiser they have done (although one company requests that I do the same one every year at their planning meeting)

• more energy from some exercises than others – using a sweeping generalisation, I find introverts prefer Active / Change focus exercises, certainly before they fully trust the group.

From my experience of providingtraining in many different countriesthroughout Europe, The Middle East and Africa, I have found thatenergisers work with all cultures.Some, where close physical contact is required, may, however, be inappropriate. I have been surprised,though, by the different approach totackling energisers in some cultures. I witnessed two groups of Russianbankers silently take one minute todo an energiser that UK groupsfrequently take ten noisy minutes todo. It might make a good researchproject for someone.

Some people don’t enjoy energisers,fearing they will be embarrassed or look childish – witness the lawyer I mentioned earlier. The golden

Using energisers to enhance your workshops

TRAIN the TRAINER TRAIN the TRAINER

Types of energiser

ActivityTake the energisers in your toolkitand allocate each to a quadrant.Do you have a balanced selection?

ActivityTry this piece of basic research onpreferences. Explain the matrix toone of your groups, give them asticky dot and have them expresstheir preference for types ofenergisers by sticking the dot in the appropriate quadrant. Usingthis method, I have found varying splits between Active / Changephysiology and Active / Changefocus.

Cultural factors

Obstacles

rule is to give them the choice of participating. (My lawyer wouldleave the room when I did anenergiser.) However, you canencourage them to participate in the various ways:

● Build up trust, ensuring that nobody is made to look stupid or feel embarrassed.

● By the way you ask them to do the energiser; for example: ‘This one may be difficult forsome, but previous participantshave told me that (pause) ifyou participate, you will enjoyit’. That recognises doubts, and embeds the command ‘participate, you will enjoy it’ in a subtle way.

● Explain that you do this with senior management all the time (if you do).

● Make the energiser short.

How do you know when toprovide an energiser? Certainlythere are ‘ritual’ times: at the startof the workshop, 30 or so minutesafter lunch when all the chemicalshave kicked in, and just beforethey leave.

If you have a group of people who don’t know each other, it can be helpful to provide themwith an energiser as they enter the room. In Britain, people willoften sit quietly and ignore eachother. If that happens, I will askthem to pair up, introduce eachother and talk about a favouritefilm, book or TV programme. On top of the music I play, thisdiscussion sets up a level of noise so that new entrants to theroom are met by an atmosphereakin to walking into a buzzingrestaurant, rather than a doctor’swaiting room.

You may want to change the focusbetween one topic and the next.This is a time when you can makeyour energisers appropriate. Forexample, before conducting asmall-group exercise involvingdrawing, I like to have peoplework in pairs to draw a face, eachdrawing one line at a timewithout talking. We then have adiscussion about how they felt,whether they were frustrated,whether they worked welltogether. This sets them up for theexercise, in which they mayexperience similar feelings buthave more understanding to copewith their frustrations.

A further example is to uselinguistic exercises to preparepeople for a fast idea-generationsession, helping them to generateideas and articulate quickly.

Another factor is the developmentof trust. I have found people whoare nervous about energisers quite happily participate in oneslike Roller Coaster after the grouphas been working for a while. Useriskier energisers later in theworkshop.

Otherwise, the timing ofenergisers comes down toexperience – judging that there isa desire for movement or changeof focus. You’ll know when youhave it right.

Sometimes a group may appearto need an Active / Changephysiology-type energiserbecause they are not active; infact they appear to be in a stateof hypnosis. At this time theymay be in the appropriate stateto consolidate their knowledge.Instead of an Active / Changephysiology energiser, you couldhave them conduct an exerciseto reflect on their learning – acrossword or quiz – or get themto pair up and go for a walk, todiscuss what they have learned.

Tip

Experience

Once trust has developed

Change physiology

Change focus

Active

Roller Coaster Tai Chi Hands

MeditationTantrix

Passive

If you are working with a groupon a regular basis, note theenergisers you use, so that youdon’t repeat them.

Tip

One argument you may receivefrom experienced trainers is this:if an energiser is appropriateand you have designed it in, it isreally an exercise. Fair cop.When the lines blur betweenenergiser and exercise,remember the adage, ‘If itworks, do more of it’.

Tip

Energisers help

to change the focus

and physiology of

participants

“

”

Timing

Before you startthe workshop

Between topics