• Involve learners immediately, in topic-related ways.

• Encourage learners to be actively involved.

• Create interest in, and curiosity about, the topic.

• Connect learners to what they already know or think they know about the topic, to what others know, or to what they will learn.

• Teach each other what they know about the topic.

• Create a learning community within the training group.

• Become more familiar with topic-related terms, phrases, and concepts.

• Discuss what they have learned from the activity.

• Materials: For certain activities, you will need standard training materials, as well as any extra materials mentioned in the activity instructions.

• Setup: There needs to be enough space in the room for participants to stand and move around.

• Group Size: Any size group is fine.

• Time: Usually a Start-Up lasts from five to ten minutes. A few can last as long as twenty minutes, depending on the amount of time you allow for a whole-group discussion afterward.

• In large, readable print, title each of a number of wall charts with concepts from the training. Hang the charts at various accessible places on all walls of the room. Concept examples from a customer service training might be phone service, face-to-face service, greetings, problem solving, follow-up, reporting procedures, and so forth.

• The posted activity instructions read: “After reading this, pair up with another learner, take a marker, and go to a wall chart. Discuss and agree on what you already know about that concept and print it on the chart. Do the same with the other charts.”

• After about three minutes, stop the chart writing and direct learners to walk around and read the charts before sitting down.

• Facilitate a whole-group discussion by asking:

• At different times during the training, ask learners to revisit the charts and add new facts, correct any misconceptions, or take notes from the information.

• At the end of the training, learners read the charts once more and comment on what they have written and learned.

• Post a topic-related question on a slide or wall chart, where everyone can read it. The question should have more than one right answer, and require more than a yes/no response. Some examples:

• Ask learners to discuss the question with a person seated near them or with their table group. Allow about three minutes for this discussion.

• After the short discussion, learners prepare a one- or two-sentence summary of their discussions.

• Each pair of learners, or each table group, reports its summary to the class. If time is short, or if there are a dozen or more table groups, ask for a few volunteers instead.

• State a topic-related issue with a specific course of action as one solution to the issue.

• Say to participants:

• Learners then form standing pairs/triads with others standing near them, and discuss why they made the choice they did.

• Follow this with a whole-group discussion in which you ask questions like:

• As a variation, ask learners to pair up with others who are standing on the opposite sides or in the middle of the room. Then have them discuss their different positions on the issue.

• Before the training, create a set of index cards for each table group—about four to seven cards per group, depending on the table group’s size. On each card print one concept that will be covered during the training.

• Table groups pass out the cards, one card to each group member. Individuals read their respective cards, then turn the cards over and write a related concept, phrase, fact, idea, or question on the back.

• Participants pass their cards to the right. On the new cards, each person repeats the same process. They pass the cards again until each person has written on at least three cards.

• When the time ends, learners keep the cards they have. When you cover that concept during the training, stop and ask for a few volunteers to read aloud some of the responses that learners wrote on the concept cards.