Alternatives:
Consider different ways to introduce participants and their expectations:
- all participants stand in a circle and say their names, and uses their body to make a gesture to relate to their names, and everyone says this participant’s name and makes the gesture
- the participants stand in a circle and throw a ball to each other. The one who receives the ball introduces themselves, their organisation, their expectations, their skills and something they enjoy doing
- ask the participants to write their expectations and concerns on sticky notes and explain them to the group
- ask participants to pair up with someone they don’t know and share their expectations before presenting them to the group
- draw 2 big bags and ask the participants to bring post-its showing what skills and knowledge they bring to the workshop, and what skills and knowledge they want to take away
What can go wrong and some ideas for dealing with it
- a participant may take up a lot of time by telling their life story in the introduction
- prevention: consider how much time this group will need for introductions and check with your co-facilitator or local contact. For Indigenous communities for example, a longer time will be be more appropriate
- prevention: if you know some of the participants already, ask the first person to start who you know will follow the questions and keep to time – you will find most others will follow this lead
- it is your first day, so you need to set the tone to be respectful and not interrupt in a discouraging way
- you may be able to limit the participant’s contribution by body language, eg walking slowly towards them and nodding, or interrupting in a space and saying you look forward to hearing more about that aspect later in the programme (mention the session) and return to the questions posed - a participant may become overwhelmed emotionally – Participants affected by the subject matter
RELATED OPTIONS: Resource 4: Openings, Energisers and Closings
