... and one request for help! Opening wow activity?

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... and one request for help! Opening wow activity?

Posted by Paul Norrington on March 11, 2021 at 2:52pm in Design

Hi again.

Tips please!

I'm designing a flagship leadership development programme (all virtual of course) - 30 senior leaders, 2-3 sessions per week for 3-4 weeks and I'm looking for new ideas for a real WOW moment to kick things off with the whole group - something that creates a lot of energy and excitement and leaves them thinking: Hey - now this programme is going to be something else.

We have plenty of breakouts, quizzes, team challenges etc lined up for throughout the programme. Just after something a little different.

I'm sure you get the gist!

Paul

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Replies

Jo Cook March 17, 2021 at 11:53am

Hi Paul,

Great question - and hard to answer! These things always depend on the tech, their comfort with it, the audience generally, how well/much you know about them and each other, how much time you have and all sorts of other things.

Do you have Kassy LaBorie's book Impact and Engage? There are ideas in there.

I would consider if you want a balance between content kick off or personal intro. And if it's about using the chat/webcam/audio or another platform like Padlet/Menti etc to enable it. And, if they need some kind of pre-reading/reflection/work to get them in the right place to do your wow activity!

I know I haven't answered the question really, but hope that helps a bit. Do you have some more details/thinking that might help us give you some suggestions?

And what kind of things have people done and found great, or been part of?

Interact & Engage!: 50 Activities for Virtual Training, Meetings, and Webinars: Amazon.co.uk: Kassy…

Buy Interact & Engage!: 50 Activities for Virtual Training, Meetings, and Webinars Illustrated by Kassy LaBorie, Tom Stone (ISBN: 9781562869366) from…
- Paul Norrington > Jo Cook March 17, 2021 at 12:14pm
  
  Thanks Jo.
  
  We are planning to use Beekast (a new one for me) for asynchronous collaboration and a few live activities. There's some funkier stuff in there (at least more funkier than Teams - not difficult :-)) so maybe the answer lies within there.
  - Jo Cook > Paul Norrington March 17, 2021 at 12:18pm
    
    That's a new one on me too! It does look interesting :D
    
    I think it's considering initially what you want people to feel, how you want them to be together and what the outcome of the wow activity is. Then looking at what cool stuff can enable that.
    
    It might not help for this activity, but this is a really interesting book that might help with some thinking around the topic. Laura Overton sent it to me, as it's about how people gather, in all sorts of different ways, why they do and how to get the most out of it. It's not specifically about training, but it's giving me lots of food for thought :D
    
    The Art of Gathering on Amazon.
    
    The Art of Gathering: How We Meet and Why It Matters: Amazon.co.uk: Parker, Priya: 9780241973844: B…
    
    Buy The Art of Gathering: How We Meet and Why It Matters by Parker, Priya (ISBN: 9780241973844) from Amazon's Book Store. Everyday low prices and fre…
- Steve Wilhite > Jo Cook August 4, 2021 at 9:49pm
  
  Just checked and found that Impact and Engage is in Percipio/Skillsoft. Great resource!
  - Jo Cook > Steve Wilhite August 5, 2021 at 9:15am
    
    Oh that's brilliant! Glad you are finding it good, Kassy is very lovely and knowledgeable :D
Jo Cook June 10, 2021 at 4:34pm

Hi Paul, have you run your session? What activity(ies) did you end up with in the end, and did they work as you wanted them to?
- Paul Norrington > Jo Cook June 10, 2021 at 8:20pm
  
  Hi Jo.
  
  Jolly decent of you to check in with me :-)
  We went for a combination of things spread over a couple of sessions
  
  -breakouts, get to know each other and find 5 things in common in 10 mins. Short report back from each group. Gave them inspiration for coming up with a team name which was a later exercise.
  -unannounced drop-in from the CEO to say hi and position the programme
  -bring an object that has some personal meaning for you. Share the object and stories behind in breakouts. Decide in breakouts which two objects / stories to share in plenary. Spotlighting essential for this part.
  -live cartoonist was capturing key moments (which they didn't know until the end of the first session.
  
  Would love to hear back from you and the group - what have you done that could build on these ideas to take the wow-ometer to the next level?
  - Jo Cook > Paul Norrington June 14, 2021 at 10:37am
    
    My pleasure - that's what a community is all about :D
    Sounds like you used some great activities! It’s definitely about what’s right for the group and the outcomes. I like the idea of finding things in common and the cartoonist sounds like great fun!
    I’m interested to know people’s ideas too, to extend this, complement them, or perhaps a different take and new ideas!
  - Dawn Sillett > Paul Norrington July 29, 2021 at 1:20pm
    
    Hello Paul, that sounds amazing! Top marks for getting the CEO to pop in :) and I really like the '5 things in common'.
    - Paul Norrington > Dawn Sillett August 4, 2021 at 9:37am
      
      Thanks Dawn :-)