Infusing humor into educational lectures and employee meetings requires planning. Seasoned presenters typically kick off their programs with icebreakers. These interactive activities include word or guessing games that elicit a lot of laughs and energize the participants. Speakers who stage these fun presentation games always ensure that their audience picks up some wisdom from these lively activities, such as the importance of teamwork.
Two Truths and a Lie
"Two Truths and a Lie" is a classic game to introduce audience members to each other, the Group-Games website reports. Everyone sits in a circle. Each person takes a turn divulging three statements about himself, even though one of those remarks represents a lie. For example, the untrue comment might be that he once lived in Hawaii even though he never set foot in that state. The other participants vote on which of the three statements is incorrect.
Word Scramble
"Word Scramble" captures the spirit of collaboration while stretching everyone's vocabulary skills, according to the Leadership-With-You website. The instructor 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.
Introductions
Alphabetic introductions require quick thinking and creativity, says the Leadership-With-You website. The audience breaks into groups of four participants, and every team member chooses one letter of the alphabet. Players spend five minutes writing down every adjective that starts with their letters and describes themselves. For instance, someone who chooses the letter "E" might write extraordinary, enigmatic and ecstatic. Duplications of letters are permitted, so more than one program attendee might work with the letter "E."
Silhouettes
In-house meetings are an ideal venue for a "Who's who?" activity involving silhouettes, says Presentation Magazine. The object of this icebreaker game is for audience members to guess which colleague in the meeting room is represented by a silhouette on stage. In advance, the presenter creates individual outlines using tracing paper or a photo-editing software such as Photoshop. Total preparation time is about 10 minutes for each silhouette.