Use Lists of Descriptors For Your Workshops, Meetings, and Group Warm-Ups Activities

Posted on February 19th, 2009, by Meggin McIntosh, Ph.D.

Several years ago, I wanted to make a list of words that I could use in a workshop I was doing for teachers – a list from which they could choose words that described them. Well, at first I had about 50 words and then it kept growing and growing and growing. I took on the challenge of seeing if I could get to 1000 – and I did. 1001 words to be exact – and I’ve had to make myself stop and not keep adding to it. This should tell you something about my personality. But, that’s not why you’re reading this, is it?

As mentioned at the beginning of this article, my original use for creating this list was as a warm-up activity in a workshop. Since then, many others have also used this list to help get meetings, workshops, college classes, church functions, or other combinations of people ‘warmed up’ and ready to interact and learn. Here are some options you might consider for your situation:

Hand out the entire list to groups and have participants find the words that best describe them. There is a lot of laughter that goes on as people ‘test out’ different words on themselves. No one ever just chooses one word. Of course, this is because none of us is only describable in only one dimension.
Give individuals or small groups just one page of the list and have them find the word that they have NEVER used to describe themselves. Again, you can expect people to be laughing and talking about the various words that both describe and don’t describe them. It’s a great deal of fun – and yes, the ice is broken, which is what you’re going for in this kind of activity.
Print out some (or all) of the words on cards and have people pick up a card when they enter the room. You can also just hand them out randomly to people as they come into a room (or just have a card with a word on each chair in the room). Then, once everyone is seated, give them a task with the word, e.g.,

Could this word be used to describe some aspect of our organization?

Would you ever use this word in describing some of the people we are trying to work with?

How would this word come into play if you wanted to approach a problem from a different perspective?

And so on, depending on what the purpose is for your meeting, workshop, or strategic planning session.

Print all or some of the words on labels (I usually use the Avery 5160′s with 30 labels on one sheet). Then, when your participants arrive (or later when you need to energize and ‘warm up the group,’) you can either distribute an entire sheet of labels, one column of labels – or even just one label for each person. Depending on your intentions for the activity, you can have people choose the labels from the sheet and put them on themselves or arrange them in some other way, e.g., a mindmap or the like. Just the fact that people have to peel off the labels and place them somewhere gets them more involved than just looking at the list. You can also use your printed labels to put on index cards,

In all cases, the idea is to have people share what they are choosing so that they are interacting with one another and thereby getting “warmed up.”

And if you want a PDF copy of the “1001 Descriptors,” just go to

** http://www.OwningWordsforLiteracy.com and click on the Downloads tab.

You’ll see a variety of items there (and most are free) to access for your classroom or other use (PowerPoint shows, Word documents, and PDFs).

Busy professionals (sort of redundant, isn’t it) need every bit of support that can be mustered. Another resource that will help increase professionals’ overall sense of peaceful, predictable productivity are these free weekly emails:

**Top Ten Productivity Tips (http://www.TopTenProductivityTips.com)

Through her company, Emphasis on Excellence, Inc., Meggin McIntosh changes what people know, feel, dream, and do via seminars, workshops, writing, coaching, and consulting.

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