Tip #66: Managing Difficult Participants- The Fighter or Arguer

Difficult Behavior: Is quick to find fault with the material or instructor. Picks apart statements in an inappropriate way. Often is angry, but will not come out and admit or explain the anger.

Special Note: Some people have an argumentative style, or like to devil's advocate to ensure a lively debate. Their motivation and behavior is not fueled by anger or deep frustration. As a result, they are more easily brought back into the fold through the milder actions suggested below.

What a Trainer Can Do:

In front of the group: If it is an attack on the topic:

• Keep cool- you can never win an argument.

• Acknowledge the level of passion and ask for the reason behind it.

• Request that the person back up assertions. Ask for evidence.

• Avoid getting personal.

• Refer the question to the group and then to him/her.

• Try to win this person over by finding some good reasons to agree with some points.

• Pretend not to hear him/her.

• Agree to disagree.

• If nothing else works, suggest that your differences be cleared up later.

• Use humor to invite others to speak up.

• Set rules: only the person who has the Koosh can speak, or there is a 2 minute limit per person, etc.

• Set rules: criticism is acceptable, as long as it is constructive and offers viable alternatives.

If the arguer may be a spokesperson for the group:

• Determine whether the person is alone in his or her thinking, or if others feel the same way.

• If others agree, it may be appropriate to say:" I am not here to defend the content. I am here to explain it and teach you how to use it."

• At other times, it may be appropriate to allow a limited amount of time for group venting or for posting constructive recommendations from the group.

If it is a personal attack:

• Ignore the attack.

• Reframe an attack on you as an attack on the problem.

• Reframe a personal attack as friendly.

• Reframe from past wrongs to future remedies.

• Reframe from "you" and "me" to "we."

In private:

• Provide constructive feedback about the impact of the behavior on the session, the participants, and/or the trainer.

• Coach the person to select more constructive behavior.

• Co-opt the person- ask for his or her assistance.

• Discuss the true source of the individual's anger.

• Ask if the person is willing to let the other participants learn.

• If necessary, indicate that the person is free to leave the session.

What a Trainer Should NOT Do:

• Argue with the person.

• Insult the person.

• Get defensive.

• Express anger.

• Let the person control the discussion.

• Agree with the fighter just to end the argument, if that will mislead other participants.

Real Life Example: Another thing a trainer should NOT do is go into a training session unprepared and unaware of issues that may impact the session. However, despite pre-session interviews and other needs assessment work done up front, there may be times when a trainer unwittingly becomes the catalyst or target for group venting.

I once did a session for a public agency, had even spent the evening before the session chatting with participants, and then ran into a buzz saw when the training began. The focus of the program was team building, and we began with a checklist of effective work team characteristics. I read down the list, asking the participants to check off all of the characteristics that were currently present in their work teams. I then asked them how they had done, and one woman's hand shot up. She proceeded to say that not one of the characteristics existed anywhere in the entire agency!

After listening to her angry expression of frustration, I turned to the rest of the group and asked how they felt. The entire room (approximately 150 people!) erupted. As they were recognized, each person confirmed and embellished on the first woman's statements.

Now, did I mention that all of the agency top management were present in the room? Well, they were- but not for long. When I turned to ask them if they would like to respond, not one of the managers remained!! So, there I was with a workshop on teambuilding and an entire army of participants up in arms about the very thought!

I did what any reasonable, shocked trainer would do- I called for a break. Immediately, participants came buzzing around me and it became crystal clear that they would need a structured opportunity to vent before there was any hope of continuing with the training content.

We quickly distributed flipchart paper and markers to all of the tables and, when the participants regrouped, I told them they would have 10 minutes to post their constructive feedback and recommendations. I promised to summarize their comments and send a copy to them as well as to their management, for management's response. I made clear that, after that exercise, we would return to the planned agenda.

Well, it worked! They wrote furiously, then handed in their recommendations. We continued the training without further difficulty. I sent the summary of their recommendations, as I had promised. Unfortunately, someone leaked the information to the press, so the entire incident ended up on the front page of the state newspaper. Luckily, I was referred to as an "unnamed consultant!"

Commentary: When confronted with any difficult behavior, we need to be able to step back and objectively assess what might be the root cause of the behavior. Why would someone fight or argue with a trainer?

Anger is a basic human emotion, and this complex world offers many legitimate reasons why someone might be angry.

The person may resent having to come to the training session, particularly if attendance at the session is mandatory- or even last minute. I've had folks come into a training session understandably furious because they had been notified of the session with a note on their windshields the night before!

The person may disagree with the content, or have difficulty with authority figures (yes, that means the trainer!), or simply be having a very bad day.

The person may dislike the trainer, be angry about the quality of the coffee or the lack of refreshments, or be troubled by some issue at home.

Often, I have found that the training session is the only time, and perhaps even the very first time, that the participants are together and can discuss how they feel. The issue may have little to do with the actual training content, but some participant will find a way to bring it up.

Sometimes, the group will direct their anger or frustration at the trainer, because they view the trainer as an extension of management (and probably easier to confront than a real manager). Sometimes, the group will feel safe to express their frustration because they hope that the trainer can have some impact as their advocate with management.

Dr. Madeline Hunter taught that trainers must continually make decisions, before, during and after the training, to increase the probability that learning will occur. Argument and angry confrontation in the classroom truly test that teaching. We need to balance the needs of the participants while still achieving the set goals of the training program.. So we make decisions intended to defuse, deflect, or reframe the anger- because we know that no learning will occur while the anger persists. We do our best to dignify the person, while setting controls around the behavior.

For those of us who are conflict-averse, managing the Fighter or Arguer may be a real challenge. Yet it is necessary for us to effectively meet that challenge, or we will lose credibility and control in the classroom. And, if we lose control in that situation, our participants may not feel safe enough to continue in the session.

Tip #65: Managing Difficult Participants- The Talker or Know-It-All

Difficult Behavior: Has opinions on every subject and states them in a very authoritative manner. Other participants and the trainer find it hard to disagree with or to give help to this person.

What a Trainer Can Do:

In front of the group:

• Thank the person and move on to the next subject.

• Ask others to comment on his/her remarks.

• Thank the person for his or her participation and indicate it is time to hear from others.

• Tactfully ask him/her to give someone else a chance.

• Use humor to invite others to speak up.

• Deliberately turn to others and ask for their opinions.

• Cut across his/her flow of talk with a summarizing statement.

• Avoid looking at him/her.

• Pretend you don't hear the person and call on someone else.

• Acknowledge the person's expertise or experience and ask permission to call on them for specific examples.

• Set rules: only the person who has the Koosh can speak, or there is a 2 minute limit per person, etc.

In private:

• Ask the person to serve as a mentor to others in the session, only offering answers when requested.

• Give the person an assignment to facilitate a small group discussion, with clear instructions intended to maximize listening and minimize talking.

• Request that the person prepare a portion of the content or offer an example to support the content at a specified time in the session.

• Provide constructive feedback about the impact of the behavior on the session, the participants, and/or the trainer.

• Coach the person to select more constructive behavior.

• Co-opt the person- ask for his or her assistance.

What a Trainer Should NOT Do:

• Compete with the person.

• Insult the person.

• Stifle the person's enthusiasm.

• Get defensive.

• Express anger.

• Let the person control the discussion.

Real Life Example: I was asked to conduct a training program for a local chapter of a national organization. The person who hired me also invited the president of the national organization to attend. At the second break in the training, the person who hired me came to see me complaining that the national president was doing all of the talking in the small group- and that I should do something to stop this! I drew the president aside and, in private, thanked her for her enthusiastic participation. Then I noted that the other individuals at her table respected her opinion and so were not speaking up, just waiting to hear what she would have to say. I asked the president if she would be willing to co-facilitate with me by making sure that everyone at her table got a chance to speak. When they asked for her opinion, her facilitative role would be to draw theirs out instead. The president eagerly agreed.

For the rest of the day, the president would come up to me at every break to ask me how she was doing. It took all of my professional restraint to avoid responding that if she was keeping her mouth shut, she was doing an excellent job!

Commentary: When confronted with any difficult behavior, we need to be able to step back and objectively assess what might be the root cause of the behavior. Why would someone need to talk all the time?

Well, in the case of the president, she was simply responding to what she thought people expected of her. She was only too happy to help out in a different way when I gave her that option and asked for her assistance.

Sometimes, people keep talking because they don't feel that their knowledge, experience, or expertise are appreciated. In that case, giving them a specific role in presenting the content, or providing examples that show the content in action, or asking them to serve as a mentor to others in the session or at their small table, can do wonders.

At times, people speak up because they are enthusiastically engaged in the subject and really want to share what they know. In this case, we want to thank them and acknowledge their participation in a positive way- and indicate that we want to make sure others can voice their opinions.

In all cases, we should address the individual and discuss the behavior with respect, so that s/he can retain his or her dignity.

We need to make a distinction between the Talker or Know-It-All, who is trying to add to the discussion, and the Fighter, who is trying to detract from and take issue with the topic or the trainer. We will look at ways to manage the Fighter next week.

Tip #64: Olfactory Engagement: Smell

The aroma of coffee. The scent of perfume or cologne. Stale stuffy air in a room without proper ventilation. The caustic chemical stink of cleaning solvents.
The whiff of cigarette smoke. The flavorful fragrance of cooking. The sharp stench of garbage.

Although an extreme odor will quickly get our attention, we are usually not very conscious of the impact that the sense of smell has on learning and retention.

My web research into this topic reaped a wide range of interesting information:

In an article in a recent U.S. News & World Report (February 28, 2005 ), Dolores Malaspina, M.D., M.S.P.H., of the New York State Psychiatric Institute, explains that the olfactory sense is the only one of our five senses that bypasses the thalamus and goes directly to the prefrontal cortex ø the center of cognitive thought ø and is therefore received by it with unfiltered intensity.

She says, "Beginning with fetal development [our brains] are laid out to give precedence to olfactory perception. What we are learning is that smell is a good window into the unconscious basis for sociability and social interest. There is a tremendous explosion of interest in this forgotten sense ø and it was under our noses all the time."

Using modern brain-scanning methods, Morten Kringelbach has found out much about where the brain processes the different types of sensory input.

"It is highly interesting that the sense of smell is connected directly to the parts of the brain where emotions are processed. Nearly every other kind of sensory input passes through the thalamus, which is a kind of relay station in the mind, before the signal passes on to other parts of the brain where the actual interpretation takes place. This does not happen with olfactory input Ñ that goes straight to the emotional response centre," he explains.

This direct access to the orbito-frontal cortex is one likely explanation of why smells can give rise to sudden and overwhelming emotions Ñ and of why we only become aware of smells after our emotional state has been changed by those emotions. No wonder potential home buyers are more likely to put an offer on a house that has cookies or an apple pie baking in the oven!

Smells can transport us through time and distance. Vladimir Nabokov wrote: "Nothing revives the past so completely as a smell." A whiff of a familiar perfume can bring back a flood of memories so vivid it brings tears of joy because of the direct physical route which exists between memory and smell.

Marcel Proust has lent his name to the phenomenon of memory recall in response to a specific smell (after his description of such an event in "Swan's Way") - the "Proust Effect." Whole memories, complete with all associated emotions, can be prompted by smell. This is entirely unconscious and cannot necessarily be prompted voluntarily.

However, countless studies have shown that recall can be enhanced if learning is done in the presence of an odor and if that same odor is presented at the time of recall.

All we need to do to improve retention, then, might be to hand out fragrant scented markers to our participants and ask them to sniff them frequently throughout the course of the training. They should be instructed to take the markers with them when they leave, so they can uncap and sniff the markers whenever they need to remember what they learned ! Let me get back to you on something less cumbersome when it occurs to me.

Proponents of aromatherapy believe that the mere introduction of a scent can have a positive effect on the body, the emotions, or the intellect. Two interesting claims:

• Calculus students were proven to increase their speed of learning by 230% with aromatherapy!

• When lavender was infused into the air in an office, keyboard-punching errors fell by 20%, 33% with jasmine and 54% with lemon.

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in New York has found that people in pleasantly scented rooms carry out their work with more confidence, more efficiency and greater willingness to resolve work place conflict.

The Japanese have been using essential oils in the work place for years. At one Japanese bank, lavender and rosemary are used in the customer area to relax and sedate, while the worker areas are infused with lemon and eucalyptus to keep workers alert.

I had heard that lemon was used to refresh and revitalize, so I purchased an aromatherapy lemon spray. A spritz in the afternoon or evening really does keep me more alert and effective when I'm training!

Peppermint is dispersed into offices and conference rooms to increase work efficiency, dispel drowsiness and lessen mental fatigue. The Tokyo stock exchange has peppermint diffused into the atmosphere every afternoon to make brokers feel invigorated and refreshed.

Imagine the gains in learning retention if we knew how to effectively incorporate the sense of smell into our learning environments!

This ends our exploration of ways to engage the senses. Next week, we will begin a discussion of strategies to engage or manage "difficult" participants. If you have any particular challenges you would like to have addressed, please let me know.

Tip #63: Gustatory Engagement: Taste

Some of you may be thinking that the sense of taste really does NOT have to be addressed in a training program. However, if you really want to create a positive learning environment, food can play a huge role. There are a number of reasons for this, so I'll just list the first four that come to mind. First, most people like to eat. Second, food is a traditional means of social bonding. Third, many people associate food with love or nurturing relationships. Fourth, chocolate can stimulate the same feel-good endorphins that make people feel loved.

Those who provide training in the private sector may typically offer continental breakfasts or at least coffee and rolls in the morning, and cookies and soda in the afternoon. Your participants may even expect this and complain loudly if it is lacking, especially caffeinated beverages in the morning!

The experience of those who train in the public sector is dramatically different, because there is typically no provision for such gustatory amenities!

That is why I bring candy of all kinds, including nut-free and sugar-free candy, to all of my workshops. It is an unexpected treat for the participants that creates a very positive and relaxed mood- especially if you have a variety that respects different tastes and dietary restrictions.

Sometimes, I will tell the story behind the candy. There is a tradition that when a Jewish child first begins to study the Torah, which is an important religious book, the child is asked to touch the Torah and then dip a finger into honey, to learn that learning is sweet. Now you know the origin of my sign off line! It seems an appropriate welcome to the participants and a way to reinforce their taking the time to invest in themselves and their learning.

Over the years, I have noticed different regional, generational, and personal preferences for candy. In Milwaukee, Wisconsin, there was a run on the watermelon Jolly Rancher hard candies! In Wausau, Wisconsin, people couldn't get enough of the caramels! In some locations, no one wants the dark chocolate Hershey squares, while in others, that's what the discriminating candy lovers desire. Baby Boomers really get a kick out of "old fashioned" candy mixes that include Bit of Honey and other candies they fondly remember from their childhoods.

However, in ALL locations, you can't go wrong with Hershey chocolate nuggets, both with and without nuts! I should have taken out stock in Sam's Clubs years ago, because of all the bulk candy I purchase there! Just remember to select individually wrapped candies and bring your own plastic stacking candy bowls!

Of course, there are considerations regarding the transport of candy- especially in warm months or warm climates. I made the mistake of bringing chocolates to Alabama in the summer and leaving them in the car for fifteen minutes. I came back to chocolate soup! Even in Wisconsin I have learned that I need a cooler to keep the candy intact during the summer (especially the sugar-free hard candies, which actually melt faster than chocolate candies).

In the winter in Wisconsin, I can keep the candy in my car or in my garage. The only caveat is that I have to warn participants not to bite into them immediately, because they may lose a tooth in the frozen candy!

So, bowls of candy on the tables, and caffeinated beverages and food in an easily accessible location, can create a welcoming environment. Cold water at each table is also a kindness, particularly if it is replenished after each break. Your participants are your GUESTS, and providing these food treats is a relatively simple and inexpensive way to establish a warm and relaxed learning environment.

If you keep the candy bowls filled and pay attention to the candy wrappers (so you can see what the individual preferences are!), you can also reinforce a caring relationship with individual participants! But don't move too quickly to refill those bowls, because participants will network when they go to candy-pick from other table's candy bowls! You will also notice participants bonding by seeking out favorite candies for each other.

Food can be used as a positive reinforcement or reward during a training session. I like to hand out Tootsie Roll Pops to reward participants who "Pop UP" during kinesthetic comprehension-checking exercises. Cracker Jacks provide a happy surprise reward, and if you would like to motivate real competition between participants, just offer small bags of peanut M&M's as the winning prize! A word of warning: to avoid creating conflict, it is wise to ultimately give everyone a treat!

If two participants or table groups are feuding or simply disagreeing with each other, one way to lighten the mood is to ask that each offer the other some candy!

I also use food as a rite of passage. In Madison, Wisconsin (my home base), the participants in any of my training that lasts for three or more days get a choice of the type of Kringle (a wonderful Wisconsin coffee-cake-like treat!) they want for the last day. They can select from a huge assortment of fruit and/or nut and/or cheese Kringle, and I always bring at least two to be sure to meet everyone's needs. This also requires remembering to bring a knife to cut the Kringle, plus napkins. In Kringle-less locations, donuts are an easy replacement.

A discussion regarding food in training programs would not be complete without mentioning lunch. Particularly if the lunch is provided as a part of the training program, you want to encourage the planners to avoid heavy meals and turkey on the menus! Both will put your participants (and possibly you!) to sleep afterwards. After lunch, your participants will appreciate finding mints in the candy bowl.

A positive gustatory experience can generate open, relaxed, and receptive learning engagement.

This ends our exploration of ways to satisfy the sense of taste. Next week, we will conclude our exploration on the ways to engage the senses with a discussion on how a trainer can satisfy the sense of smell for those olfactory learners!

Tip #62: Haptic Engagement: Touch

This week, let's look at the variety of kinesthetic objects a trainer can provide to ensure haptic engagement. Although these items can be incorporated into learning exercises, our focus this week is on objects that can keep haptic learners' hands occupied so that they can better concentrate on the learning content.

The variety of objects you can provide, typically in a basket or a pile in the middle of each table of participants, is as long and as wide as your imagination. However, the following items seem to appeal to participants and can be much less distracting for everyone around them than a clicking pen or jingling pocket change!

• Koosh balls

• Balls of different shapes and sizes

• Wire puzzles

• Wooden peg games

• Slide puzzles

• Plastic puzzle balls

• Hacky sacks

• Pipe cleaners

• Slinkies

• Modeling clay

• Tops

• Paddle balls

• Legos

• Foam dice

• Playing cards

• Wooden interlocking puzzles

• Post-it notes

• Bubbles

If you train in one location, it is easy to buy some plastic containers for participants' tables and keep them filled with a variety of objects. If you travel to different training locations, as I do, you may need to be more judicious in your choices.

When I can drive to the location, I use a plastic pull cart I purchased at Staples that I keep packed with Koosh, plastic puzzle balls, foam dice, post-it notes, bubbles, and modeling clay. When I fly, I may need to pack more lightly, but many of these objects aren't very heavy, and pipe cleaners, slide puzzles, and wire puzzles will also travel well.

Three mail order places I like to look for creative kinesthetic ideas and products, typically found listed under toys or novelties, offer a wide variety in bulk at good prices:

Oriental Trading Company - www.orientaltrading.com
Creative Learning Tools - www.creativelearningtools.com
Kipp Brothers - www.kippbro.com

If you have other recommendations, I would be happy to post them.

This ends our exploration of ways to satisfy the sense of touch. Next week, we will discuss how a trainer can satisfy the sense of taste for those gustatory learners!

Tip #61: Haptic Engagement: Touch

This week, let's begin to look at the range of tactile activities that can support training content and deepen learning.

For example, the simple activity of putting pen to paper: to take notes, to complete worksheets, or to highlight reference information, can offer satisfaction to the haptic learner and increase the probability of retention.

Tactile activities can increase energy and create community. In Playfair, Matt Weinstein and Joel Goodman, describe an Imaginary Ball Toss. The trainer begins by describing the ball in his or her hand, calling out someone's name, and pretending to throw the ball to that person. The "ball" may begin the size of a tennis ball, become a basketball, an egg, a watermelon, or whatever each person chooses to say it is before they "throw " it to the next person. It is a fun way for participants to get to know each others' names.

Another example: as participants enter a training room, they are given a piece of a cardboard puzzle and told to create a group with people whose pieces help to complete the puzzle. The completed puzzle may depict the structure of the organization or reinforce a key learning concept. In this case, all the participants have to do is interact with each other to find the missing pieces of the puzzle. It begins as a tactile exercise, but it involves interaction and movement, culminating with a visual reinforcement.

Taking this up a notch, Broken Squares is an excellent tactile teambuilding exercise. Each member of the group is given an envelope containing oddly shaped pieces of cardboard for forming squares. When the signal is given to begin, the task of the group is to form one square in front of each member. Only parts of the pieces for forming the five squares are in each envelope. The exercise has two goals: the individual goal of forming a square as fast as possible, and the group's goal of having squares formed in front of every member as fast as possible.

The specific rules for this exercise are as follows:

1. No talking, pointing, or any other kind of communication is allowed among the five members of the group.

2. No person may ask another member for a piece of the puzzle or in any way signal that another person is to give her a puzzle piece.

3. Members may give puzzle pieces to other members.

4. Members may not throw their pieces into the center for others to take; they have to give the pieces directly to one person.

5. Anyone may give away all the pieces of his puzzle, even if s/he has already formed a square.

6. Part of the role of the observers is to enforce these rules.

This nonverbal, tactile exercise generates both individual and group insights regarding why teams exist and how individual team member behavior can help or hinder team success. You can find this exercise, as well as many other interactive exercises, in a wonderful book titled Joining Together, by David and Frank Johnson.

Accelerated learning advocates tactile interactive exercises. Here are a few examples, many of which are drawn from Dave Meier, whose The Accelerated Learning Handbook is a treasure trove of great training ideas:

Balloon bop and burst. Have each person write down something they hate doing or have difficulty doing on a very small piece of paper. They need to blow up a balloon, put the paper in the balloon, and tie if off. Then there is a balloon bop (hitting the balloons back and forth in the air while music plays. When the music stops, everyone must grab a balloon and pop it. They then have a specific amount of time to come up with solutions to the problem on the piece of paper that was in their balloon.

Around the world. Create flash cards with questions about best practices on the front (and answers on the back). Each team forms a circle. A facilitator reads the question to the first contestant, who gets to move behind the person seated to his or her right for each question answered correctly. When a question is answered incorrectly, the person sits down and the individual in the chair gets to stand up and start answering the questions. The first person who is able to answer enough questions to get back to his or her seat wins.

Hangman. Give each team a deck of cards with questions on one side and the answers on the other. Then have them take turns answering the questions as they play hangman.

Toilet paper. Get a roll of gag toilet paper. As the participants come into the room, they get to take as many squares of the toilet paper as they want. The catch is that, when everyone is there, each person has to tell as many new things about themselves (that few people know already) as the number of toilet paper squares they tore off.

Scavenger hunt. Give each team the same list of 10 or 20 items of information to gather in a set amount of time, using resources in the room.

Poster contest. Have the teams create posters, using a variety of art materials, to get across a key idea.

These tactile activities build energy, enthusiasm, and camaraderie, as they reinforce learning. Talk about a painless way to check for comprehension! What I love is that these activities are so very easy and economical to create and use, and participants really enjoy doing them.

Next week we will continue our discussion of haptic engagement through touch using kinesthetic objects.

Tip #60: Haptic Engagement: Touch

I don’t remember when I first discovered Koosh balls, but they have been a permanent fixture in all of my training programs for over twenty years. Permanent, that is, unless participants walk off with them!

Tactile learners, learners with energy to spare, learners who are not used to sitting for any period of time, haptic and kinesthetic learners, and learners who are stressed- all gravitate to the Koosh balls. They will squeeze them, hold them, bounce them, throw them, and even juggle them as they “self-medicate” with these brightly colored balls of soft rubber strands.

Koosh balls can generate an instant change in individual and group energy. When participants stand to introduce themselves, having a Koosh ball in their hands helps to absorb their nervousness. When someone says something that might elicit a groan, participants can throw the Koosh ball at the offending speaker and keep the mood light.

When the energy of the group starts to flag, a Koosh toss for several minutes is a guaranteed pick-me-up. You will feel the energy in the room surge as your participants try to keep as many Koosh balls in the air as possible. Their smiles and laughter will refresh everyone.

Often, the haptic and kinesthetic learners don’t even realize that they have a Koosh ball in their hand. Luckily for everyone else, Koosh balls don’t make a sound. They are a much better silent replacement for the usual clicking pens and jingling coins.

Koosh balls can be a means of bonding. Some competitive or prankster table groups may amass a pile of Koosh balls for a friendly sneak assault on other tables.

Often there is at least one person who knows how to juggle, providing entertainment for those who like to watch. A break may offer an occasion for just-in-time training for novice jugglers and positive acclaim from those not blessed with similar hand-eye coordination.

There are actually three different sizes of Koosh: mini (the size of a lemon), cosmic (the size of an orange), and mondo (the size of a grapefruit). I personally prefer the cosmic Koosh, because the mini seem too small and the mondo are heavy enough to bean someone if they’re thrown with too much enthusiasm!

Koosh balls add instant color and energy to a training room. They are easily portable and relatively inexpensive. You just have to remember to check under all of the tables in the training room at the end of the day, to make sure you don’t miss any that have fallen on the floor!

You can sometimes find Koosh balls at stores such as Target, Shopko, or Toys R Us. If not, a search on the internet will give you many options.

Next week we will continue our discussion of haptic engagement through touch. And if anyone knows who walked away with my favorite silky soft green Koosh ball, I would love to have it back!!