Squares And Circles
Stuck for a fun way to review or close your next training. Whether it’s virtual or face-to-face, ‘Squares and Circles’ will work perfectly.
First, let’s try the mechanics of the activity.
Using the image above:
- Place your index finger on any square (not the Surprise Square).
- Move your finger left or right from your square to the nearest circle in that row.
- From that circle, move your finger up or down to the nearest square.
- From the square you are currently in, move your finger diagonally to the nearest circle.
- Move your finger either down to the nearest square or right to the nearest square – Do not move diagonally.
You should now be in the ‘Surprise’ Square!!!
So how to use this as a Review or Close for your next training. The following is for Virtual Training (below is the tweak for face-to-face training).
Preparation
- Create a slide like the one above (or download the template towards the end of this tip).
- Prepare something for the ‘Surprise’. For a … – Review, a slide that says in big text, ‘You’ve Won A 15-Minute Break’. – Close, it could be an additional free resource that everyone takes away or that you forward as part of the follow-up. – Close, you could simply say, “The surprise is, you now have all the tools and techniques to successfully do [Insert topic or their training]. Have fun and see you next time.”
How to Facilitate Squares and Circles
There are several ways to use this activity and your choice will be governed by the number of people you have on-line. You can …
- Pre-fill the squares and circles eg for our recent ‘Breathe Life Into Your Systems’ virtual training, we closed by adding ideas introduced during the training into squares and activities and examples into the circles (see the example to the right). The whole group then selected the starting square. I asked why that idea was key and what will they do about it – which they answered via their microphone (with a larger group, I would have used chat). As I read out the instructions, they used the drawing tool to go from shape to shape. Again I asked what they remembered about what was in the shape and an action they could use to apply this in their next training. The surprise was – “you now have the ideas and tools to bring ALL of your systems training to life”.
- Empty Square and Circles. You can send the template via chat and ask each person to add Ideas/concepts/terminology to squares and tools/techniques etc to circles. Allow time for learners to do this and then ask them to share a few things they have added to squares in chat. Read a few of these out as they appear in chat. Then do the same for the circles. This helps if anyone struggled to find something for every shape. Walk through the process. If it’s review, the surprise could be the ’15-minute break’, if it’s the close it could be a job aid that you send as follow-up. This could also be done by sending the template and then learners work in breakout rooms to discuss and complete the template before coming back to the main room and everyone going through the activity process.
nb you can simply ask learner to find a blank sheet of paper, display the template and ask learners to draw it before asking them to add ideas and techniques into the squares and circles etc.
Using this activity face-to-face
- Pre-print the grid as a handout – either empty or pre-filled. Learners can work individually or as small teams (as with the virtual examples above). You read out the instructions as above.
- Learners work in small teams using a flip chart sheet. You display the Squares and Circles grid slide and they draw this onto their flip chart. They discuss and fill ideas/concepts/terminology to squares and tools/techniques etc to circles. You read out the instructions as above.
The great thing is, whether it’s virtual or face-to-face, learners leave with a full summary of ideas and techniques on a single sheet of paper (or photograph if they worked in a team on a flip chart sheet).
Call To Action
Add some fun into your very next training by using this activity rather than a trainer lead review or trainer lead close.
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