Customer Reviews

Quick Meeting Openers for Busy Managers: More Than 50 Icebreakers, Energizers, and Other Creative Activities That Get Results

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book was an immediate winner with our Managers. I purchased this book and Quick Team Building Activities For Busy Managers by the same author, after reading the reviews they got on Amazon. Both books had wonderful activities that required little or no supplies. The instructions found in this book are clear and easy to understand and facilitate. I was looking for books with new activities and games, that I had not heard of before. These two books hit the mark! We use the team builders and meeting openers with our Departments and Teams before and during meetings. The activities in these two books are fun, lively and can be changed around to compliment any age or type of group. Also, I was so pleased to find that there are meeting openers that DON'T just focus on the "getting to know you" theme, as our teams are inter-office and are already aquainted. Five out of five stars on this book by Brian Cole Miller!

Brian Cole Miller's QUICK MEETING OPENERS FOR BUSY MANAGERS offers tools and suggestions to managers for creating effective, productive meetings. From easing into introductions and warming up the group atmosphere to encouraging open dialogue and idea-sharing, chapters offer activities that work. Business libraries catering to administrators and managers at all levels will find it a popular acquisition.

This book is exceptionally well organized so readers can find what they need. Given the book's apparent simplicity, readers may question paying the suggested retail price of $17.95 for obvious ideas. However, the value of author Brian Cole Miller's writing is that he presents these ideas as if you were thinking them up yourself (but you didn't).
The book's sections discuss grouping the people; breaking the ice; and organizing the activities for small, large, and huge groups. A few of the grouping ideas are repetitive. For example, Miller has several different ideas for groups of two, three, or more people, but for each he suggests to start with a count-off to break into groups. It would have been more valuable if he had given several alternatives, and I found this and other repetitive examples boring. Nevertheless, they are a small part of the book.
I would not call these activities "quick," as the book's title extols. Most activities take about 20 minutes - too long for short meetings. Such activities are only appropriate for half-day or longer meetings when individuals do not know one another, groups are brought together for the first time, or they are part of team-building exercises. A more accurate albeit less catchy title for the book might be: Twenty-Minute Activities for Groups of People Who Need to Be Introduced to One Another.

This is Miller's second or 3rd collection of activities for teams. It's differnt than the others in that it's all icebreakers (not sure why he called it "meeting openers"). So while a previous reviewer complained that each activity didnt have a specified purpose, he/she obviously missed the point of icebreakers. The purpose of ALL of them is to break the ice. So why repeat that for each activity. I guess the warning is: these are NOT teambuilding activities, they are icebreakers (if you want team building activities with specific purpose, get Quick TeamBuilding Activities for Busy Managers--it's a classic!). Anyway, here are tons of icebreakers--some for small groups, some for large, some for any size. All well laid out, all with easy to follow instructions. In addition to lots of activities, there are a few ideas up front that arent even activities per se, but rather fun icebreaker questoins...the logic is: if you dont have time for an "activity" you may want to use one of these fun, unusual, thought provoking questions to go around the room and break the ice.

A bonus: there is a list of all sorts of ways to divide a group into pairs, smaller teams of X number, or how to divide a group int X number teams in fun, different ways. There is also a chapter of icebreakers specifically designed for groups of people that dont know each other--so there's an element of introduction to them.

Great resource/reference to add to your library indeed!

What I found critically missing in this book is that it does not provide guidance for the facilitator on the purpose/intent of the exercises and how to process the exercises. This is critical when you are looking for exercises to have a particular impact on the team/meeting.