Energisers, a hate/love relationship.
How to use them valuably to help you succeed at your goals
Have you ever found yourself leading a Design Sprint or creative workshop with a team of strangers who need to collaborate effectively, on a complex challenge? If not, here’s a heads up for you. If yes, then I’m pretty sure you can relate to the following scenario…
Facilitator: “Good morning everyone! Before deep diving into the activities of the day, let’s get started with a fun energiser!”
Since I found myself being the facilitator in the example above, more than once, this article aims to talk about these little awkward moments called energisers that you might often be challenged to join, or lead, in Design Sprints and creative sessions. The term “energiser” has now become a buzzword interchangeably used as icebreaker, warmup, deinhibitizer. Although there are some subtle differences in terminology within the design community, what all these terms and activities have in common - in my own words - is the goal of bringing a light, positive impact to the team in a very short time. The aim is to make participants smile and embrace what’s next in the process with a collaborative attitude.
While facilitating, I developed mixed feelings towards energisers. On one hand they can smooth out any frictions within a new team and boost energy and bonding, but when done badly they can quickly feel unnecessary; undermining the activities at hand and potentially killing the vibe - an embarrassing moment you’ll just want to forget. To ensure the sparkling outcome they positively leverage, I believe a few variables should be taken into account by the facilitator to ensure you’re picking the right energiser, at the right time. So here are some tips I’ve collected - based on personal experiences - that can hopefully turn energisers into tools you can rely on…
Why you should use them: awkward is good. 👌
“Why do I need to play a game or have fun when my scope is to solve a complex business challenge? Why should I lose even 5 minutes to do something else? This is a waste of time.”
Often, when I work with clients for the first time and I’m just about to start introducing the team to an energiser, I get the feeling that this is exactly what is crossing their minds - indeed it might feel like a waste of time at the beginning but I can assure you they are not. By observing several teams in action, I have noticed how energisers promote group interaction and increase positive energy in different ways: physically, mentally and most of all, emotionally. They encourage participants to step out their comfort zone and expose themselves out of the traditional, professional boundaries; as pure individuals with likes, dislikes, a favourite ice-cream flavour, children, pets and travels they’re planning to do.
Exposing yourself to strangers might feel uncomfortable, but it’s this shared awkward feeling that enables energisers to become so powerful. They create an equal, safe platform where participants are enhanced to share a tiny portion of themselves, resulting in a much quicker and greater sense of investment and belonging within the team.
How do I choose which energiser to use and when? Think about your goal. 🎯
The tricky steps of using energisers are selection and timing. Not all energisers that can be found on the internet or creative facilitation books can fit your team and depending on when you decide to place them in the agenda, you’ll most likely get a different result. In my experience, I suggest that energisers should generally not last more than 10 minutes and shouldn’t be used more than twice per session. The best way to learn how to juggle these tools is made by practice, iteration and taking risks by trying out new things. This means that sometimes outcomes will be very good, exceeding your own expectations, and others will likely fail miserably. Consider also that some energisers might work very well with one team and disappoint you with another, don’t give up at the first try!
Rely on your critical capacity to observe the team and participant personalities. Are they extroverted or introverted? How keen are they to share elements of their personal life? Can they easily and equally accomplish the task you have in mind? Try to imagine how they might react to the activity you are planning in order to anticipate potential weak points. Also, play it safe in the beginning. Go step-by-step. Use the ones you are most familiar with first, then try the new ones out once you feel more self-confident and get a better feeling of the kind of participants involved.
Think about your goal as a driver to make your choices. Ask yourself: what do I want to get out of this? What’s the goal I want to achieve by using this energiser instead of the other? Following are some categories I created as examples, to hopefully help you reflect on what it means to pick the right energiser by using your goal as a driver.
Nice to meet you: Your team is newly formed and participants need to introduce themselves to each other for the first time. As a facilitator you want to set a positive tone from the get-go, allowing people to bond quickly as they’ll be working together and enjoying the ride. This kind of energiser is called an “icebreaker” and helps to deal with the frictions of novelty. My favourite on this category: 2 Truths and a lie.
Wake up!: Your team has just come back from lunch break with happy full stomachs and the hidden dream of taking a nap. Instead of having a siesta together, you’d like to disrupt this sleepy feeling with some physical dynamic movement. This kind of energiser enhances participants to feel alert and is great for low energy moments during the session, or for the end of the day when people start to flag. My favourite on this category: The mirror.
Team up with your enemy: Your team is facing some internal tensions and conflicting point of views. You’d like to find a way to stop this cycle of negative vibes and enhance positive collaboration. In this case, there’s nothing better than putting “enemies” together in the same team to join forces towards a common goal. These energisers allow quick, fun competitions in two or multiple teams so that sub-groups of participants can achieve a friendly collaboration boost to overcome challenges together. My favourite on this category: Pictionary.
OMG, I can’t draw: Time to ideate and sketch your ideas out. Some participants feel insecure about their drawing skills so end up filling in papers with words and text instead. You’d like them to try and visualise what they have in mind. These energisers can help participants to reduce insecurities on the matter. They push them to try something out in a very short time and often the shiest participants end up being impressed by their own results. My favourite on this category: Blind drawing.
Non-sense, please: Your team is stuck and struggles to find a way out of a problem. You need something to disrupt the current dynamics to move on and look at the problem from a different angle. These energisers, based on random silly games, move the attention of the participants out of any correlation with the challenge they are facing, freeing up their mind for few minutes and opening up new perspectives. My favourite in this category: Muddling Messages.
Conclusion
People learn better when engaged and having fun. Energisers help your team open up and feel involved in a rather special way, leading the session towards outstanding outcomes beyond average. They are powerful tools that keep participants receptively proactive within the process while encouraging them to cope with the stress of working towards a common goal in a short time. As a facilitator you should take advantage of these tools and dedicate attention, selecting the right ones in order to ensure their effectiveness and avoid unpleasant surprises.
To help you orientate your selection, think about the specific objectives you want to meet and make sure the activity is comfortable for everyone involved. Use energisers wisely when you see a purpose in them.
Practice doesn’t make perfect in facilitation since every time there are so many variables you can’t predict, although, together with some purposeful reflections beforehand, they will help you fail less and be amazed by the powerful results energisers can unfold. I’m sure.
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Thanks for reading! 💛 If you have feedback to share, feel free to say hello 👋
