Use a countdown with your team

Count down from 10: 



Try involving your participants, your audience or your friends in a countdown before the important start. It can be the lighting of a Christmas tree. It can be the start of the fight. It can be the opening of a bottle of champagne before the cork pops.

A countdown is an unassailable and active way to involve everyone. Anyone can join. You simply have to introduce the countdown: 'We count down from 10. We begin: 10, 9, 8...' When you introduce and start with a loud 10 yourself, everyone follows along.

But why is it good to use a countdown?

First, it is a reasonable demand. When it is a reasonable demand, then everyone follows along. As the host, you introduce that something a little out of the ordinary is coming. The 'host' tells it. It's not just another repetitive action. We don't count down from 10 because we have to brush our teeth for the third time that day. We do it because what needs to happen is a rarity.

Second, the countdown makes us all aware. For example, it is now used in many football matches immediately before the whistle goes by the referee. The entire stadium counts down from 10. There is even a screen to assist with the numbers. And at 0 the referee blows the whistle to start the match. We all get ready to see what we are going to see. We are ready and we say out loud that we are ready.

Third, we all get synchronized. We discover that we are not alone but that we are part of a community. It feels good and makes sense. You can synchronize a group in many different ways: When you laugh at something funny at the same time. When you sing together in a choir. When doing the same movements at the same time. For example, the stadium wave has become extremely widespread. The same is the Icelandic common clap Viking Haka.

Fourth, it makes the matter both fun and serious. There is no fun in simply starting a football match or lighting a Christmas tree. Carrying out a countdown to a match start or a Christmas tree lighting makes it much more fun and at the same time maintains the seriousness.
  
Fifth, the host has the opportunity to create quick and great attention to his case with a countdown. The host can also choose to talk his way out of the presentation, but this requires strong words and wording to succeed.

Have fun with your countdowns.


Michael Meinhardt
LEADERSwarehouse.com 
☎ +45 71 92 55 63 ✉ info@LEADERSwarehouse.com

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