Balloon of expectations

The game is perfect for beginning of a workshop in order to know the expectations and worries of the participants. It can also be used in the end as an evaluation.

When to use it?

At the beginning of the workshop. To find out from the participants on what they are expecting, what they are afraid of, and how they want to contribute to the workshop/what their experience is.
At the end of the workshop the “Take” part can be used to evaluate the workshop together with the participants to see if all expectations were met.

Materials:

Post-its (3 different colors), pens

Preparation:

Draw the picture as seen above on a flipchart paper.

Presentation:

Explain to the participants that you want to find out about the expectations they have in regard to the workshop. The symbol for collecting expectations is the balloon. The balloon consist of three different parts and you want the participants to write one or two words on three different colored post its in relation to the topic of the workshop, answering the following questions:
What you want to give the group from yourselves? Eg. Yellow post-it – The balloon section
What do you want to take/learn from the workshop? E.g. Pink post-it – The basket section
What are you afraid of, what can be difficult for you today? E.g. Green Post-it – The weight section
After writing on each post-it one or two words, the participants are asked to stand up and stick their note in the given field.
The trainer now needs to read out loud on what is written on the post-its in each section. Start from the ‘Give’ field , than go to the ‘Problem’ field and finish with the ‘Take’ part. The trainer than tries to analyze on what was written by grouping the answers and giving feedback to the group about it.
Provide as trainer propositions on how to overcome difficulties.
You can tell the participants that you will come back to the ‘Take’ post -its at the end of workshop to analyze if all expectations were met and to clarify or add something if needed.