6 ways to form small groups for training sessions
Small groups are essential to a well-designed training program. It is one of the best ways to promote engagement and participation. The value of small group activities includes:
Small groups provide an opportunity for more people to get more “airtime” to express opinions, add ideas, and ask questions.
Small groups allow people to receive feedback more quickly.
Small groups allow participants to learn from each other.
Small groups create opportunities for more people to practice skills or apply knowledge at the same time.
Learning becomes more dynamic and active in small groups.
Small groups encourage participants to know each other better, break down barriers and create a more positive learning atmosphere. If the goal is to give participants the opportunity to meet and work with a diverse group of people, change the small group assortments from activity to activity.
Small groups are a great way to encourage participation, but using the elementary school method of counting by four or five is not a very creative process. Whatever technique you use to form small groups, there is only one decision you need to make: which is more important, how many groups do you have, how many people are in each group, or no one? Here are three examples:
The activity may require a threesome, such as a role-play between two people plus an observer. You need three people in each group, but it doesn’t matter how many groups.
The activity may have five areas, each of which should be covered by a small group. You need five groups, but it doesn’t matter how many people are in each.
Sometimes you can provide flexibility so that participants can choose their own groups, but still have enough control so that everything is covered. For example, you might have five numbers posted on a flip chart that need to be addressed. You could say, “To form small groups, stand for the problem you want to address. When five people stand for one problem, stand for your second choice.” In this case, if you have 22 people in your session, all 5 issues will be covered, and the smaller group will likely have 2 members. Most of the time, the distribution is quite even.
What if you don’t have the exact number of people? Additional participants can always be observers. If there are very few you can fill in the data occasionally, although this is not my preference as it takes you away from other groups who may need your help. A little planning before forming small groups ensures that participants will succeed and take in all the content.
Count out
Of course, you can count. But do it backwards instead. To split into five groups, count back from five, “five, four, three, two, one, five.” Make sure to stay with the group. Adults can get really confused about this! You can also teach participants to count up to five in foreign languages - Spanish, German, French and Chinese – and ask them to count in their new language. This adds a nice touch if the language is one of the participant’s first languages. It can also spark an interesting discussion in a varied training session.
Go to your corners
State the reasons why people go to separate places. All of these things work in a physical or virtual classroom. For example, you can make them go to four corners depending on whether they are the first born, last born, middle or one child in their family. They can go to the corner of the room closest to the direction they are going to go home (as a crow flies). They can go to the restroom based on the first letter of the surname, for example, A-F, G-M, N-S, T-Z. You can associate corners with content. For example, if you’re training a business communications class, you can have them choose the method of communication they prefer: email, face-to-face, phone, or text.
Personal Data
Form small groups based on a small piece of data about them. You can use birthdays for four groups using the first, second, third, and fourth quarters of the year. You can try them out by the last digit in their phone number, the color of their shoes, favorite season, first letter of their middle name, or height. To use the last two in an actual class, have the participants stand in order (alphabetically or by height) and then divide them by the quadrant, or fifth point depending on how many groups you want. If you need two groups, form groups who wear glasses or not. In the default class, assign each group to a sub-room.
secret codes
Code participants’ materials in different ways. Purchase stickers and place them on training materials, under participants’ chairs, outside or inside table tents, or on name tags. If you distribute a limited number of tags of different colors that participants use to write their names on their table tents, you can refer to the tag of the color of their choice. Handouts for an activity can be copied onto paper of different colors. Put the participants into groups based on the color of paper they choose. You can also write numbers or letters on the back of the participants’ notebooks. Yes, you can use this in a virtual environment. It is easy to send material materials to them. But you can also mark up the material differently before emailing the teacher. This works especially well if you want to make two teams.
Baffles the participants
Buy or make puzzles of four to six pieces. Participants choose a puzzle piece and find the rest of the pieces in their puzzle to form a small group. Puzzle pieces more than participants? Paper clip two pieces together of the same puzzle. Mini blank puzzles are available from party merchandise or office supply store. Add a personal message that is revealed after the small group puts all of their pieces together.
Puzzles don’t always have to “fit” together physically. You can write the names of people (or fictional characters) who “fit” together on the index cards. You can use, for example, Alice, Cheshire Cat, Mad Hatter, Queen of Hearts; Or you can use Snoopy, Charlie Brown, Lucy, and Pig Pen. You can choose TV personalities, political figures, movie characters, or even “personalities” from your organization. Although this is more complex, it is possible with a smaller virtual class.
Choose a prop
It takes a little pre-planning, but there are hundreds of props you can bring along to make combos. Trinket catalogs like Oriental Trading sell miniatures for just about everything – toys, different shaped erasers, cards, party favors, etc. You can bring along mini lifesavers or mini candy bars in different flavors. Ask the participants to choose one and then find the other individuals who chose the same (color, flavor, game) whatever.
Or take chewing gum cards from four different sports: baseball, soccer, basketball, and soccer. Participants form teams of the same sport. You can use ordinary playing cards. Sort the cards into groups of matching numbers and ask the participants to find their group.
Using props works well on holidays, when small, inexpensive but cute items are easy to find. You can use something as simple as colored index cards or shapes cut out of construction paper.
One final suggestion
Arrange the participants into small groups before giving the activity instructions. If you start with the activity instructions and follow the directions for how you want the small groups to form, many participants will have forgotten the initial instructions by the time they are settled into their small groups.