Breaking Up (Into Groups) Is Easy To Do

by Steve Brown, Psy.D.

In Risking Connection training, and any participatory training for that matter, trainers often have to break participants into small groups.  This is not always as simple as it seems. Without some planning, it can become confusing, distract participants from what you want them to learn, and take too much time which is always at a premium.

First, you need to decide how large you want your groups to be. Then, you need to decide if you want them to work with others around where they are sitting (who they are more likely to know) or break them up more randomly.  Often participants grumble about getting up and moving and working with people they don’t know but, in the end, they appreciate being pushed out of their comfort zone. 

If people are going to break into small groups where they are sitting, I (a somewhat controlling trainer) like to ensure this happens quickly and efficiently.  Otherwise, people mingle and don’t get to the task at hand. I do this by going around the room asking group members of each group to raise their hands. Or, I will walk around and say, “Okay, are you 4 working together?  And you 4?” etc etc.

The most common way to break participants into to small groups randomly is to count off. It’s a bit boring, but works quickly and efficiently. Divide the total number of participants (say 28) by the size you want your groups to be (say 4). 24 divided by 4 equals 7, so counts off by 7s. Again, to make things go quickly, I walk around and say, “1s meet around here, 2s are here, 3s are here” etc. 

Click here for a few more fun and energizing (and time consuming) ways to randomly break into groups.  Thanks to member of the Advanced Sexuality Educators and Trainers (ASET) listserv of which I am a part for this list.

1. For groups of 4, put 4 tootsie rolls, 4 Jolly Ranchers, etc into a bag. Have participants blindly pick a candy out of the bag. Then “like candy” becomes a group.
2. Instruct people to line up in order of their birth date (month and day only). Once they are in a long line, the trainer goes down and breaks them up based on size of the group desired – “you 4 work together,” etc. Another version that takes more time is for people to line up in the same way, but without talking.
3. Xerox New Yorker or other comics each on different color paper. It’s fun if they are about your topic, but not necessary. The number of comics should equal the number of groups you want. If you want each group to have 4 members, cut each comic in 4 pieces like a puzzle. Mix all the pieces together and pass out to participants. Participants then find the others that have their same color pieces, assemble the pieces together, read the comic, have a laugh, and then get to work on the group task.
4.  Ask all the people who are the “only child” in their family to stand.  Instruct 5 of them to go to an area of the room.  If there are 6, 1 person gets put in the next group. Then ask people who have “1 sibling” to rise. Fill in the second small group with these folks, and start the third small group. Continue this for “2 siblings” then “3 or more siblings” until all your small groups are formed.

See.  Breaking up is actually EASY to do!!!!