Intended for:
This is a good energiser to use when you want to give participants a chance to pause from thinking too much about the topic of the day or even to relieve the stresses of a difficult session. Of course it can also be used just for fun.
Training course contents:
A set of instructions for the free energiser, ‘Carrot Trick’ can be downloaded from the link at the bottom of this page or you can follow the guide here.
Instructions:
1. Print out the page supplied with this document with a picture of a carrot (or, if you don’t have it to hand, draw or right ‘carrot’ on a piece of blank paper. I have even seen this placed on a PowerPoint slide). Make sure to do this before you start the trick.
2. Place the piece of paper with the carrot picture face down on a table. Don’t say anything about the piece of paper; just ignore its existence.
3. Ensure the paper is in full view of everyone in the room, or at least the person being tricked. 4. Say “Listen to me carefully, do exactly what I say, don’t ask questions.” Pause for a few seconds and say… “What is 1+5?” let them answer. “What’s 2+4, what’s 3+3, what’s 4+2, and what’s 5+1?” Let them answer each time but ask each question quickly.
5. Ask the person to say the number “six” several times as fast as they can.
6. Directly after they say the last six say “Name any vegetable.” 90 percent of the time the person will say carrot. Certainly, if they did not say carrot, then a lot of the other participants are thinking it!
7. Flip the paper over that was on the table and show that you predicted correctly. If the person doesn’t say carrot, most of the time they will say broccoli. If you hate being wrong, it might be good to have 2 pieces of paper, one saying carrot and one saying broccoli. Broccoli works 2 % of the time. Of course you will not always get this right 100% of the time, but set up the ‘trick’ as a bit of fun and your participants will forgive you.
Objectives:
This energiser is useful to lighten the mood, add a bit of fun or to emphasis a point about how our mind works. This energiser is also great for involving everyone.
