Question 3.5

Study the scenario and complete the questions that follow:

Icebreaker Debate

Helen attends a two-day workshop for trainers in the workplace. Helen has recently joined Emiac in the Human Resources department and will be looking after the training and development function of the company. She has previously lectured at Eduvos for a year. Helen has a B.Com degree and is a qualified skills development practitioner a skills programme she completed as part of her current occupationally directed Education, Training, and Development practices (ODETDP) level-5 diploma (a qualification she is doing via distance learning at Star Training). The topic of the first day of training is planning your training and its content. The class was divided into two groups to discuss the use of training games and ice breakers. Each group was given the task of creating a game to introduce training to the other group. The training topic was interviewing techniques. Helens group decided that they should share their previous experiences of games they enjoyed as part of training. Helen suggested a role-play demonstrating a stress interview. John commented that nobody likes role-plays as they are boring, acted out, and usually the outgoing individuals will overshadow the rest and take over the activity. He prefers researching and reading books about new topics; he does not like to be on display. Peter argued that training is already about reading content which he dislikes; he likes to see things happen and try things out. He loves games that challenge him. The group decided on a tower game, in which one team member must explain movie names to other team members in 30 seconds. Each team has a pre-built tower of wooden blocks, and the more movies they got in 30 seconds, the less blocks they had to remove from the tower. The team created a complicated sliding scale of how many blocks must be removed per turn (minus the correct answers). Helen felt the game was too complicated and it was difficult to relate it to interviewing techniques. The other members argued that the ice-breaker is only to get the group awake and alert for the training to follow. The idea is to get their minds off work, then the training can move into the actual topic once the game is finished. Back in the training session the facilitator set the ground rules for the feedback from the groups. Helens group presented their game using the top end of the U-shaped room layout to conduct the game. The facilitator asked how the game tied to the topic. He stated that it looks like the team first decided on the game and then on how to work it into the training. It should be the other way around first understand the training content, revisit the training outcomes set, and then find a game to meet the requirements. The value of training games lies in the ability to reinforce learning while providing a break from a lecture by the facilitator. It gives the facilitator the opportunity to listen to the interaction of the students and get everyone involved. The facilitator proceeded to hand out notes on ice-breakers. Source: Allaway, M. (2021)

3.5 The group playing the game created by Helens group enjoyed the game. Make a suggestion for how the game can be used in future in training by linking it to a human resources concept to be trained. Be creative in your answer to link the game to and organisational concept. (3 Marks)