This is a versatile exercise that is suitable for warmers, building rapport, persuasion and influence, or presentation and delivery practice. It can also be elevated to something more practical especially when you want to teach lessons on persuasion as this activity helps your team or participants grow by learning new powers of persuasion in a fun and creative environment.

Instructions

1. Break the group into pairs and have them assign who will be Partner A and Partner B.

2. Ask Partner A to think of a present Partner B would want to receive, and vice versa.

3. Be sure they don't tell the other person.

4. The present could be for a birthday or holiday and something that would really help or benefit the person.

5. Now ask the participants to throw out that great gift and to think of a terrible present for the other person.

6. It should be something they would not want to take, like something that would be a burden or a bad fit for their tastes.

7. Be aware that some presents may not seem terrible at first, but may be terrible for the recipient because the participant did a great job analyzing them. For example, ”a pink alarm clock” may not sound terrible until you learn that Person B hates to wake up in the morning and hates the color pink.

8. Again, don't reveal the present yet.

9. Participants have 1 to 2 minutes each to convince their partner to accept the present.

10. Ideally, they will use persuasive techniques and actually get commitment, not a forced "well, ok."

11. Between rounds or after the activity, ask participants to share their terrible presents and if their partner accepted or not.

12. Participants usually love to hear others’ terrible presents.

13. Discuss how they tried to get acceptance and discuss persuasive strategies like thinking from the listener’s point of view, asking questions, etc.

14. If you choose to cover persuasive strategies, consider making new pairs and having another round. 

Here are some questions or points of reflection you can use to debrief participants of the activity. Obviously, you only want to use these if your intention for the activity is beyond an unfreezer or icebreaker.

• Learning how to persuade others that your way is the right way is a key skill in business and life.

• Every human interaction includes some level of an attempt to influence others to our way of thinking. We are always looking to persuade others to further our goals and objectives.

• There are hundreds of different persuasion techniques out there and everyone approaches it differently. This activity provides an opportunity for your participants to improve their skills in this area by learning from each other.

• Ask the audience how many people accepted the present.

• Ask participants how their partners delivery was in terms of content, voice, and body language.

• Have a group discussion about how presents could be “sold” better; ask the group for possible benefits of others' Terrible Presents or how persuasion could be used differently.

• To extend the activity, ask them how Terrible Presents could be “sold” to different people in the room.