3 brilliant energizers for your online meetings

Autumn is going strong, and with it, online meeting after online meeting after online meeting.

And thus it sometimes happens that we spend the entire day zooming, skyping or “MS teaming” from one online meeting to the next.

And, at some point, it occurs to us (or not!) that we’ve hardly moved for hours.

Get your online meetings moving

For this case – which unfortunately happens all too often – we’ve put together some activation exercises for you (aka “Energizers“) which we like to use ourselves during our online meetings, seminars and workshops.

Bear in mind, that not all participants must always join in – not everybody feels comfortable doing physical exercise in front of the camera. This is okay – don’t force anyone. The point is to encourage loosening up and providing those participants who wish to take advantage of your offer with a little activation.

Stretching vor dem Computer

Turn scepticism to „mute“

For those sceptics among your participants (and perhaps this includes you!) let’s also quickly recall the “Omega Transformation”. You already address possible doubts in the introduction to the exercise, along the lines of “Now, this may seem unnecessary to you and you may not feel comfortable doing this exercise with all the others but neurodidactic findings show that exercise is good for learning/finding ideas. But not only learning and idea finding, your back will thank you too. So, you’re welcome to join in. You can turn your camera off if you wish.”

Now to our 3 energizer recommendations:

Rotating seat: Sit with your back straight. Now put your left hand on your right knee and turn – keeping your back straight – as far as possible, and comfortable, to the right. Return to the middle. Now put your right hand on your left knee and repeat the procedure in the other direction.

Palming the eyes: Rub the palms of your hands together vigorously until they become warm. Place your warmed hands over your eyes. Keep your eyes open while doing so, and look into the warm darkness.

“The disappearance of Daniela”: First warm up your participants by raising shoulders, turning heads, etc. then instruct them as follows: on the count of 1-2-3 everyone first disappears to the left of the screen, and returns. To the right – and return. Followed by down. In our experience this exercise is always very popular. So much so, sometimes, that it gets its own name. Therefore, this exercise is now  known as “The disappearance of Daniela.”  ?

Activation is always good

You can even embed activation exercises into webinars – because you don’t necessarily have to see your participants while they do them. If you have the courage, you can even show yourself on video and instruct your participants (some exercises are better than others for webinars – “The disappearance of Daniela” is naturally a lot less fun if you can’t see Daniela disappearing.) But don’t forget: first and foremost it’s about inviting your participants to get moving.

Sometimes it’s already enough to ask your participants to let their eyes wander now and then and write what they see in the Chat. This way you give them a break from the monitor and more often than not you’ll be surprised what some people see from their desks. ?

Need more ideas for activation and interactivity? Join the BusinessMind Online Academy on “Online Moderation” coming up on 27/28 January 2021. 2 hours each day packed with interactive methods, moderation design, and collaborative tools. Join us and sign up now!

Have fun trying it out! Share your experiences with us in the comments!

All the best, Birgit, Nicole and Ben