Practical activities
Use as designed or adapt to meet your needs.
Since 1982, have always designed my own learning activities.
I hope you find this growing resource across many key topic areas of value.
The summary and examples below give an insight into the resource.
A summary of 112 practical activities
More added each month - you will get an emailed update
Coaching and mentoring
Ten coaching definitions
Coaching pairs listening task
Coaching question setting
DOC - Desire, Opportunity and Capability - task
Mentor-ings activity
Mentoring generalisations
Sixteen Mentor and mentoring definitions
Conflict management and negotiation
Negotiation 1-2-3 definitions and preconditions for success
Twenty successful negotiation definitions and seventy preconditions
Divide the loot
Managing difficult conversations - for real
Managing difficult conversations - a card allocating feedback task
Managing difficult conversations - a three round issue raising task
Negotiation and influence task
Conflict generalisations
Reds and blues task sheet
Reds and blues - 80 direct quotes from previous applications
Controlled pace negotiation brief
Customer service
Customer service generalisations
Fame and shame task
Four customer journeys
Six types of customer
Generalisations around customer complaints
Building customer relationships
Interpersonal skills
Six principles of behaviour
Difficult conversations - a very real task
Alphabet names - a synergy exercise
The challenges of challenging conversations
Active listening triads
Feedback cards
Self awareness task sheet
Managing difficult conversations: Learning from different perceptions
Seven emotional competencies
Using the six types of assertion
A positive feedback activity
The feelings wheel
A nonverbal communication activity
Leadership
Five leadership questions
The 48 laws of power
Four types of poor leader
Leadership generalisations
Three leadership words activity
Leadership qualities task
Roles and responsibilities of leadership
Spaghetti towers
Leadership quotes activity
Situational leadership task sheet
Leadership values activity
Three elements to leadership trust
Servant leader summary and task
Team working
A team SWOT
Alphabet names
Nine tough issues for a real team
Two teams
Team diagnostic brief
Your team: Now and then
Cross team working task
The Zin Obelisk
Learning from work
Four steps to a better network
Generalisations around learning from work
Learning quotes
A DOC (Desire, Opportunity and Capability) self development activity
Eight learning skills
Learning log generalisations
Sources of learning
Learning log generalisations
Are you humble?
Three steps to self awareness
Organisational effectiveness and change management
Culture: Meaning what, and measured how?
An organisational SWOT task
Change: What works?
An EDI task
Eight generalisations around change
Change: Four quotes
What is inclusivity?
A spectrum for reasons for organisational failure
Redundancy generalisations
Corporate standards task
Six principles of organisational agility
Fifty signs of an unhealthy organisation
Fifty more signs of an unhealthy organisation
Yet another fifty signs of an unhealthy organisation
Ten fundamental organisational questions
Three words task
Project management
Project management: A first activity
Eight generalisations around project management
Two models: SPICE and PROJECT
Stakeholders task
Project success and failure
Project management diagnostic brief
Ten good questions
Everything else
Best and worst decisions
Eight generalisations around discipline and grievance
Meetings task
Time management generalisations
Personal values card sort
The 'T's managing poor performance activity
Generalisations around meetings
A classic Problem solving task
Recruitment interviewee generalisations
Recruitment interviewer generalisations
Twelve powerful one to one meeting questions
Problem solving and decision making generalisations
Generalisations around presentations
Generalisations around discipline and grievance
A sample practical activity
Positive feedback – an essential and too rarely seen skill
The ability to give people deserved positive feedback in the workplace is a very important skill to develop. This activity will give you a chance to do just that – with at least a degree of reality. It will hopefully prompt you to do more of this.
This is what you do…
Take a sheet of A4 lined paper, and write your name clearly at the very bottom.
Pass your sheet to the person to your left, and receive the sheet of the person to your right.
Next, at the very top of the sheet, write two positive statements about the person whose name is at the bottom of the page. Be guided by these two prompts:
Something you have seen that person do that has impressed you.
Something about that person/their personality you like.
You may not have spent long with some or all, nonetheless you have had long enough to form sufficient impressions to do this for everyone in the group.
Having written your feedback at the very top of the sheet, fold the paper so when you pass this to the person to your left they cannot see your comments.
Bear in mind you have comments to write on all in the group, so ensure your folds are not too large.
Keep commenting, folding and passing on as the sheets get smaller, and make sure you write positive feedback on yourself when your sheet is returned to you.
When you have all finished, and only then, open up all sheets together in a flourish.
This might be the most feedback you have had since leaving school.
When we are ready there are two serious questions to work on...
What did you learn from this?
What will you do as a result when you get back to work?
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