Why Great Training Starts Before the First Slide

Almost 40 years ago I had the pleasure of learning how to deliver training the right way, the Xerox way, and one of my teachers was the great Emmett Reagan. He was responsible for teaching every Xerox instructor how to conduct his or her training program for years.  Emmett was a longtime “Xeroid” and when he spoke about training, you listened.  One of the first things Emmett taught me was not just how, but why to run an icebreaker in a training program. 

The “how” to run an icebreaker is the easy part.  It can be as simple as writing a couple of questions on a flipchart and moving around the room soliciting responses, or segmenting the room into groups of two and having each participant interview and then introduce the partners they have just met.  The combinations of icebreaker activities are endless, but the results and impact on the mood of the room are fairly predictable. 

But Emmett Reagan also taught me “why” to run an icebreaker.  When you bring people from different companies, or departments together, who don’t know each other, the success of your training program or meeting often depends on the level of participation from the group.  An icebreaker is designed to help warm up these relationships, but wait, there’s more.

A good icebreaker can teach you a lot about the personalities in the room.  Spotting the social personalities gives a speaker a head start on who to guide questions to if none are being asked.  That head start applies to learning where the more aggressive personalities may be as well as a handful of other personality roles to watch out for when bringing people together.  But wait, there’s still more.

A good icebreaker can teach you better ways to communicate and connect information to participants.  I’ve never run an icebreaker without slipping in a question about hobbies.  You would think a question like that is asked for the enjoyment of the individual, but in fact, it provides extremely important information to me.  I can’t tell you how many times I’ve reached a roadblock trying to communicate a particular concept to a participant, only to reach out and connect my topic to his or her hobby. 

Yes, there are many great reasons to run an icebreaker to warm up a room of participants.  So why is it that icebreakers seems to be one of the first things cut from the agenda?  I can tell you in one word; “time.”  Icebreakers take time to complete, and even the pros like Rob Jolles fall into the trap of believing that the twenty minutes or so a good icebreaker can often take can be better used by filling that slot with more curriculum and counting on facilitation skills to warm up the room.

I think I conned myself into believing that for a while now until a few weeks ago.  I was conducting a program that had participants coming in from all over the country and I thought the time would be well served spending a short period of time letting them get to know each other and me.

Coincidently, the mood went from a quiet, reserved environment, to a high energy, intense participation program.  That’s because in a sense, the group had bonded.  The questions from the group were endless because they didn’t just feel safe with me; they felt safe with each other.  At the end of the program, participants from different companies were exchanging contact information, and building study groups with the intent of having conference calls once a month to reinforce what had been learned, and to support each other in the implementation of the ideas taught.  That wasn’t my idea; it was theirs!

Isn’t it funny how we often move away from helpful habits, not because they are no longer useful, but because we tire of the repetition of the habit.  Something as simple as an icebreaker, that was taught to me fourty years ago, is just as relevant as ever.  The next time you have a training program, or a meeting, don’t sacrifice the time necessary to warm up the room.  Emmett was right; it’s time well spent.           

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