Learn from the best of the best!

Written by highly regarded experts in the field--including Zane L. Berge, Jay A. Conger, Robert Hargrove, James M. Kouzes, Julie O'Mara, Barry Z. Posner, Fran Rees, William J. Rothwell, and Edgar H. Schein--What Smart Trainers Know offers you a comprehensive guide to the HRD profession's most critical issues. In thirty-five mini-chapters (each of which can be read in approximately fifteen minutes) the book provides a handy resource for new practitioners who want to develop a broad working knowledge of the field. The book also offers seasoned professionals the opportunity to examine the latest thinking from a wide range of noted experts.

Emphasizing practical applications of theory, this collection covers all the basic needs of HRD practitioners in five key categories:

These brief, interactive games and activities raise your participants' awareness and prepare them to learn something new. Designed to be fun and energizing, the activities help people overcome the initial anxiety common among new acquaintances or in group situations.

This collection is conveniently divided into two categories: 1) icebreakers, which encourage mixing, and 2) group challenges, which energize and build team cohesion.

Use these games to:

• Promote interaction
• Introduce your topic
• Ease anxieties regarding sensitive or emotional issues
• Form partnerships or teams during the session
• Help people feel comfortable with the environment, the topic to be discussed, and one another
• Gain control of a group
• Get meetings started on a stimulating note

Each game is presented in a concise and easy-to-follow format. You'll get details such as objectives, materials required, preparation, activity instructions, variations, discussion questions, group size, time required, and reproducible worksheets or material templates.

Use these icebreakers today to energize your group for the work ahead!

How do you get your participants involved and then hold on to their attention? Lorraine Ukens--a highly regarded author of activity resources -- offers sixty innovative, enjoyable, and effective activities designed to make learning unforgettable. Use these training tools to teach valuable lessons in:

• Change
• Communication
• Conflict management
• Decision-making
• Diversity
• Goal setting
• Leadership
• Negotiation
• Planning
• Problem solving
• Team dynamics
• . . . and more!

All the necessary forms and handouts are here, and they are reproducible to facilitate ease of use. Make training experiences interactive--and make learning memorable -- with the help of this must-have treasury of games!

"Trouble on the Inca Trail" presents you with numerous challenging situations that require you to choose from a set of possible actions that offer the best chance for survival. To begin, you embark on the simulated adventure alone, determining your own choices, and then you take the journey as a team member making the decisions by group consensus. Afterward, compare your choices with what the group selects and determine whether the group performs better than any one individual alone. "Trouble on the Inca Trail" tests your knowledge and survival skills. Through this challenging and fun-filled simulated activity, you will learn how to work with others to solve problems and hone your team synergy and action-planning skills.

Strengthen team bonds with friAndly competition

Take your team to a higher level of performance with a healthy dose of competition. These stimulating activities provide lessons in determination, teamwork, and planning-all critical elements in achieving high performance.

Each game includes everything you need to conduct the activity, including instructions, materials required, time required, and reproducible worksheets or material templates. Each is categorized into one of these topics: change, communication, conflict resolution, data analysis, decision making, leadership, perception, problem solving, strategic planning, and time pressure.

These simple games will help you:

• Encourage members to cooperate and use all members' abilities
• Motivate individuals to maximize their contribution
• Demonstrate the benefits of cooperative competition
• Prepare your team to meet future challenges
• Emphasize teamwork as a means to a solution over winning

Use these games to enhance cooperation, resourcefulness, decision making, efficiency, and initiative in your team today!

Start your training on the right track and keep it there!

Build teams that move mountains!

Activity participants enjoy a simulated mountain adventure. In this imaginary setting, they must arrive at consensus in order to succeed, and they experience the magic of group power: synergy. Participants face fatigue, dehydration, an avalanche, and more. First, they make decisions on their own. Then, joining the group, they compare answers and attempt to agree on the best course of action.

Participants will:

Build teams that move mountains!

Activity participants enjoy a simulated mountain adventure. In this imaginary setting, they must arrive at consensus in order to succeed, and they experience the magic of group power: synergy. Participants face fatigue, dehydration, an avalanche, and more. First, they make decisions on their own. Then, joining the group, they compare answers and attempt to agree on the best course of action.

Participants will:

In this exciting activity, participants face a simulated "jungle survival." They must reach agreement in this imaginary setting in order to succeed, and they learn why consensus produces the best decisions.

When their plane makes an emergency landing in the jungle, participants need to decide which of 15 items on the plane--including tallow candles, a pistol, safari hats, and other objects--would be most essential to their survival. First, as individuals, participants rate the 15 items. Then participants collaborate as a group and attempt to decide on the best course of action. When they cooperate, they experience the spark of synergy as never before!

Use this gripping simulation to:

Get 'em started and keep 'em going ? quick! Choose from the 75 hands-on activities in this book to:
* Raise the comfort level of your participants
* Jumpstart a training session
* Energize a presentation
* Stimulate group discussion The key word here is quick! While there are tons of books containing icebreakers and energizers, many of the activities are too involved for the limited time available. This book solves that problem
. "A great way to get your session off to an active start is by adding Energize Your Audience! to your bookshelf. Lorraine Ukens has that special knack of writing exercises that immediately capture and energize your audience. And, isn't that what you want in an icebreaker?"
-Steve Sugar, coauthor, Games That Teach Teams
"Energize your audience. Easy to say and hard to do. This is a great resource to help deliver your message by capturing participants' attention so you can be heard."
-Ed Rose, author, 50 Ways To Teach Your Learner and Presenting and Training with Magic
"Energize Your Audience! is a treasure trove of energizing, creative, and easy-to-facilitate activities. Guaranteed to delight, motivate, and engage any training group, this collection is a 'must-have' on every trainer's bookshelf." -Karen Lawson, CSP, Lawson Consulting Group, Inc.
All of these exercises are reproducible and can be easily facilitated in 15 minutes or less, leaving most of your valuable time to focus on the topic of the training session. Keep your participants alert and actively engaged in the learning process with the help of this invaluable resource!