Training Games that Make Learning Fun

Stamp out boring training sessions and meetings.

Do your employees fall asleep during your training sessions. Need some creative ideas? Here are some places to get them.

One of our subscribers to our newsletter, Employee Morale Tips, wanted some customer service training games for an upcoming training session, so I asked professional speakers and trainers to send in their ideas.

Here are some exciting ideas and sources of information to spice up your training sessions.

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Customer Service Training Idea

Contributed by "Mitch Krayton, Your Digital Wiz"

"I did this once at a conference, and it really got the group's attention..."

We had a session that was to start at 9am. I planned to make a big point with impact about service.

Come 9am nothing happens. After a few minutes they grow restless. I waited until the group got noisy... then I made my entrance.

I said,

    "Hi!"

and began to intro myself, pause and then said,

    "I couldn't help but overhear the commotion. Is there a problem?"

and they begin to shout out their thoughts.

I asked the folks about their

• Feelings about starting late,
• About no announcement,
• About wasting their time,
• About having people not get what they expected at 9am.

Then I make my point...THAT is what customer service is all about.

I had their attention (and their buy-in) for the full session.

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Jeopardy Power Point Game

Contributed by Tom Terrific

Another fun activity is to put together a Jeopardy Power Point Game.
Do a Google search and it will give you all sorts of templates.

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Video Source

Contributed by Karen Wright

I've gotten lots of very funny commercials from the internet that I just use to punctuate my speaking topics. Folks love them, and they are royalty free, as far as I know. Stupidvideos.com is where I get most of mine.

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Training Game Books

* Click on each book title or look for the book covers on our Book List on the right column, and click on the cover to see more details, or to purchase from Amazon.

Contributed by Marty Fahncke, Chuck Reeves,  Terry Jo Gile,

Games Trainers Play (McGraw-Hill Training Series) by Ed Scannell

101 Games for Trainers: A Collection of the Best Activities from Creative Training Techniques Newsletter by Bob Pike with Christopher Busse, and

Preventing Death By Lecture! by Sharon Bowman.

Quick Team-Building Activities for Busy Managers: 50 Exercises That Get Results in Just 15 Minutes by Brian Cole Miller.

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Improv Training Ideas

Contributed by Rachel Prosser

The Applied Improvisation Network is a resource site for those who are interested in using improv games.

Improv is good to use when you’re aiming to get people to listen, and be changed.

This thread has some tips for energizing the group, but there’s more on the site.

http://appliedimprov.ning.com/forum/topic/show?id=1503280%3ATopic%3A3227

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Web  Game Resources

Contributed by Susan Gamel Otto

As you probably know, there are tons of books on games and activities “out there.”  It can be very time consuming and frustrating finding the right activity. 

One place you might want to try is www.NASAGA.org North American Simulation and Gaming Association. 

It’s free to join and if you ask the listserv group your question, you usually get some good answers/suggestions. There is also a conference in October where you can meet a lot of great people and pick up some great ideas and games. 

 You may also want to try Thiagi’s site.  It has over 150 ready-to-use training games and activities .

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Another Game Website

Contributed by Noel McNaughton

There are some useful acronyms, puzzles, games and ideas at: http://www.businessballs.com/

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Do you have any resources for training games? Please add them by posting a comment.

Comments

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It can be very time consuming and frustrating finding the right activity. it is very interesting blog.thank u for sharing.i am very happy to read.