Designing Active Training Activities

The three major ingredients of any design include objective, method and format. How the objective, method, and format combine together is the basic recipe for the design. The objective is to compare the “old contract” that described the historical employee‐organization relationship to the “new contract.” The method employed is jigsaw learning, and the format is pairs. When the objective, method, and format for a single design have been chosen, several details remain that include time allocation, buy‐in, key points and/or instructions, materials, settings and endings. Economy is the trademark of a good design, and with a little care, most designs can serve double duty. Many creative trainers have a few exercises in their repertoires that they use over and over again with different topics because the exercises are easily adaptable. Through a simple change in design, activity had gone from a competitive to a noncompetitive experience.