the power of energizers x magic blends

A Short Introduction &

Best Practice

The Power of Energizers

Marketing Insight & Inspiration

Contents

01 What is an Energizer ? 02 Why Do energizers ? 03 Types of Energizers 04 Let's experiment them ! 05 Energizer DIY

What is an Energizer ?

An Energizer is…

Energizer = energy renewal

+ fun x creativity

Why Do Energizers ?

Why Do Energizers

§ "Physicists understand energy as the capacity to do work. Like time, energy is finite; but unlike time, it is renewable."

Tony Schwartz is the chief executive officer of The Energy Project and the author, most recently, of “Be Excellent at Anything.”

CREA Conf Expo – The Power of Energizers – Magic Blends – Audrey Nécol – 00 33 6 19 73 00 84

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Why Do Energizers

§ 90 minutes – magic number of attention span during which we can work the more effectively.

• Just as we sleep in cycles of 90 minutes at night, our cycles of mental alertness are roughly of 90 minutes too.

• In between these cycles, the brain needs breaks!


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So Why Bother with Energizers ?

§ Energizers, across creative workshops, can be great ways to

• BUILD A POSITIVE ATMOSPHERE WITHIN THE GROUP

• DERIVE CREATIVE ENERGY, IN ORDER TO BETTER FOCUS

• And in so doing… MAKE MODERATOR'S LIFE EASIER !!

8 CREA Conf Expo – The Power of Energizers – Magic Blends – Audrey Nécol – 00 33 6 19 73 00 84

Types of Energizers & When to use them

Types of Energizers depend on the type of Energy you want to infuse through your group


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Tip – when picking an energizer, ask yourself the question – how do I want people to feel like when we finish ?

Warm ups & Ice Breakers Building Team Spirit

Pairing up / Creating sub-teams

Refresh Thinking/ Recharge batteries

Discharge Negative Energy

Group Synchronisation

Creative Presentations Active Listening

Kaboom ! Keep Calm &…

Focus Mind

Focus Mind

The Mystery objects table Everyone puts a personal object on the table. Cover the table with a sheet of paper. All to look at table 30 sec. Have people walk around, get a coffee … then have to write down, in 1 minute, maximum of objects they remember.

Disciples of the World Rhythm Game See video ! a challenging game of concentration. People need to keep the rhythm and sequence of claps going around the circle http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NBx1JqhaCyg&feature=youtu.be

Focus Mind

Word Scramble Moderator jots seven letters at random onto a sheet of paper. Groups of five people work together to form as many words as possible from those seven random letters. Each word requires a minimum of three letters. Points are assigned according to the length of each word, such as 40 points for a seven letter word, 30 points for words with six letters, and so on.

Develop Active Listening Magneto Story or One word at a time game All tell a story a sentence at a time, in a circle The Eye Killer Participants move around the room, leaving no space unexplored. Moderator clap hands, everyone freezes and closes eyes. Moderator touches shoulder of the designated 'Killer' – the killer has to 'kill someone with a wink of the eye, and has to 'kill' as many people as possible without being noticed. The one who guesses who the killer is tells the moderator and wins.

I am… part of the story Participants in a circle, one persons steps in the middle and mimes a person / an object saying what he/she is "I am… the last ticket for the only Lady Gaga concert worldwide". Each participant to step in, mime an object or person matching the story… Adding on and listening to what has happened

Check my beat In circle, one participant says 'here's my rhythm now check my beat' and does a short combination of clap of hands, snaps, sound etc.

Others repeat the person's rhythm, then second one does 'here's my rhythm now check my beat'… around circle etc.

Group Synchronisation 'Hep, taxi !' Have people walk around in the room, all across it, leaving no space unexplored. When clapping hands, people have to stop, stomp with right foot, clap their hand with arm in the air and shout 'hep, taxi!' – we want to hear 1 and only sound !

The Human Machine One person starts to make a gesture and a sound, each participant is a clog of the machine that ends building a machine chosen by the leader – eg. A rainbow making machine

Three Legged Race A classic !

Finger Clap A leader leads the claps as participants pay careful attention to the number of fingers shown. – clap with one finger, 2, none, 5, etc. All must clap in the same rhythm

Group Synchronisation Talking in Circles Before the game, facilitator to tie the ends of a long piece of string together to form a large circle. All of the participants begin by standing in a circle with their eyes closed and holding on to the string with both hands. The participants should try to hold the string at roughly the same height, usually waist level. The facilitator instructs the participants to form the string into different shapes. The shapes start out easy, such as triangles or squares, and then progress to more difficult shapes, such as figure-eights or hexagons. The participants must keep their eyes closed the entire time and must communicate clearly with each other.

Homing pigeons Create pairs and ask each pair to create a baby bird cry that will help them find each other

Scatter all participants in the room, as far as possible. Divide well people

Ask people to close their eyes, then they need to find the other baby bird only with the sound.

Warm Ups & Ice Breakers

Three truths and a lie Everyone writes their name, along with four pieces of information about themselves on a large sheet of paper. For example, ‘Alfonse likes singing, loves football, has five wives and loves PRA’. Participants then circulate with their sheets of paper. They meet in pairs, show their paper to each other, and try to guess which of the ‘facts’ is a lie.

Personal Secrets What was your nickname at school and why? Show us you favourite scar and tell us how you got it. What is the best piece of advice you have ever been given? Give example - don’t always follow the rules, take coat off indoors)

Crossed presentations Ask each pair to draw their partner’s personality (Variation : if time, create a mood board that reflects their partner’s personality). 3 minutes to get to know person next to you – introduce them to everyone Thinking Caps Give people who will attend the meeting advance notice that everyone needs to wear a hat to the gathering. When starting, have everyone talk briefly about the hat he is wearing and how it will help during the meeting. OR stock up on hats at a costume or Halloween store and let people select a hat as they enter the meeting room.

Warm Ups & Ice Breakers BINGO Can be general or tailored to the client/brand. Compete to fill a row of four by getting others in the group to sign one box each that they have done – fastest to get a row shouts ‘Bingo’ and wins a small prize. Good for getting everyone up on feet and interacting.

Patted A cat

Peeled a vegetable

Kissed more than 3 different people (on

lips)

Been for a jog

Avoided Impact of strikes on your daily

routine

Ate chocolate

Worn sunglasses in the sun

Contacted your mum

or dad

Made an environme

ntally friendly gesture

Travelled somewher

e nice

Watched a 'feel good' tv series or

movie

Consumed something rich in aox or vitamins

Complemented

someone on a job

well done

Gave youself a beauty

treatment at home or at a salon

Played sport

Felt like you'd eaten

healthy & tasty

meals all day

Pairing Up

Depending on height Height of best friend (NB avoid ‘partner’

Initial of street name, get into pairs

Come back in next life - If you could come back as an animal what would it be? Stick on chest, stand in order of animal size / alphabetically Calories quiz - Split into 3 x 3s: How many calories do you think there are in a 5-Finger Kit Kat (304), a NutriGrain Bar (140) and a Rich Tea biscuit (39). Total = 483

Car registration / house no - Add all digits on car registration to house no – end up with 1 number

Favourite name - alphabetical order. Split into pairs

Numbers of drinks consumed today.

Best smell. Imagine walk through your front door - what is the best smell you could be greeted with? Get in order, alphabetically

Favourite character on TV – in order alphabetically…

Build Team Spirit

Dance Gig Sharing In a circle, put some music, one person makes favourite dance move, all to replicate it, the person calls another one who creates own gesture, and so on. Massage Get up, stand next to each-other, turn right, massage person in front Wii tournaments (or other games you can find at the facility – baby-foot, snooker, ping-pong…) Paper Iceberg A3 sheet is the iceberg, everyone has to stand on it, moderator to make the iceberg 'melt' by tearing out pieces of paper gradually…

Paper and straws Participants split into teams. Each team forms a line and places a piece of card at the beginning of their line. Each member of the team has a drinking straw or reed. When the game starts, the first person has to pick up the piece of card by sucking on the straw. The card then has to be passed to the next team member using the same method. If the card drops, it goes back to the first person and the whole sequence has to start again.

Human knot Participants stand in a circle and join hands, crossing their own arms. Keeping their hands joined, they move in any way that they want, twisting and turning and creating a ‘knot’. They must then unravel this knot, without letting go of one another’s hands.

Refresh Thinking

Playdough-nary Like pictionary, but with play-dough !

Mime Play In teams, pick a theme, and ask teams to mime / no word / compose still life works of art one by one. Quickest team to have their idea guessed wins

Wrong Name All in circle. Choose and object and put in in the middle. Each participant has to take it and say "this is…" and invent something totally different than waht it is, convincing the others into why this new object is so great / what are its specificities, how it works etc…

Group Statues Ask the group to move around the room, loosely swinging their arms and gently relaxing their heads and necks. After a short while, shout out a word. The group must form themselves into statues that describe the word. For example, the facilitator shouts “peace”. All the participants have to instantly adopt, without talking, poses that show what ‘peace’ means to them.

Discharge Negative Energy Flip-Chart Alphabet Race 2 teams in column facing each a flip-chart sheet containing all letters from alphabet. One pen as the relay, each person from each team has to rush, go write a word on one letter, then give relay to next team member etc. Use thematic contents: eg. City names etc.

Imaginary Rope Pulling 2 teams facing each other in 2 columns. In the middle there is an imaginary rope. Get in position to start pulling the rope. At GO each team to pull the imaginary rope, synchronising their efforts, to win over other team who has to take into account the energy of rival team.

Slow Motion Race / Fight Race in slow motion – rise leg and foot as much as possible, do the longest step you can, still keeping your balance. Do as a relay, with people of similar sizes !

Creative Presentations

Play the concept Give hats / accessories to help people dress up and ask them to 'act' the concept / the idea instead of presenting it.

Mime the concept, Dance the concept, etc No word allowed, the group has to find a way to communicate through their concept via group mime or a dancing routine

Fast Prototyping (see Design Thinking approach for more detail) Have teams build prototypes to present their idea / concept – they have to build a selling pitch to present how the protoptype works. The more' arts&craft-sy', the better

When & Which Energizer Choose ? A Few Rules

§  1. Adapt to your audience •  The wo-wo scale •  Do people know each other ? How well do they know each other ? •  How big is the group ?

§  3. Adapt to the type of creative energy you want to infuse within your group

§  4. Adapt to the settings, time you have etc…

§  5. Adapt to your topic – killing two birds with one stone

§  6. Rarely sacrifice energisers / breaks in favour of more work – everyone needs a pick me up now and again!


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Magic Blends is a boutique innovation consultancy founded in 2011. Our purpose is to offer 360° marketing inspiration for innovation: we research and activate insights from consumers, experts, marketing intelligence, social trends... We then blend, boil down and transform them into exciting stimuli that we inject in creative workshops - fuelling brands with fresh and relevant ideas.

THANK YOU

Contact: Audrey Nécol - Magic Blends Ph: 00 33 (0) 6 19 73 00 84 [email protected]

the power of energizers x magic blends

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