Moving Beyond Icebreakers

Here's a new that is fun for an online or in-person meeting! What are you doing? will get everyone moving and is a great way to start a conversation about communication or teamwork or vision.

1. Explain that everyone should think of a 3-word phrase that answers the question "What are you doing?" in which each word starts with first letter of your name. The next person will have to pantomime (silently and simply act out) that phrase. Give some
examples: Bryan: Boxing Big Bears; Portia: Painting Pretty Pictures; Juan: Juggling Jam Jars

2. Establish an order--make sure each person knows who is before and after them.

3. Give the group 30 seconds to think of their phrase.

4. The second person in the order asks the first person, "what are you doing?" The first person answers with their phrase (ex. Singing Silly Songs).

5. The second person starts pantomiming what the first person said (ex. pretend to hold a mic and sing while making silly faces).

6. The second person continues the pantomime and the third person in the order asks them, "what are you doing?" Person 2 answers with their 3 word phrase, which person 3 then begins to pantomime.

7. Play continues around the circle. Each person continues to do their action/pantomime as new people are added. Continue until everyone has asked, "what are you doing?" and done an action so that everyone in the group is simultaneously acting.

8. If you'd like, you can do a second round where each group member shares a second 3 word action phrase in which the words all begin with the first letter of their last names.

Process: How do you interpret someone else’s vision or directions? What does it feel like to see someone else acting on your words? Were all the visions achievable or did some people create nonsense phrases or impossible tasks (baking bowling balls, jumping juniper jets)? How is that the same or different than the way this group works together?

Did anyone in the group have the same letters as someone else? How can you use same resources (initials) to come up with new or unique ideas?

Are you moving back to more in-person meetings? It's a great opportunity to bring in some more active exercises. Bag Toss (page 302) is a great way to learn names (now that they aren't on the screen!), engage all voices, and have some fun! It's also can be used as a way to discuss group dynamics, chaos, team work, etc. Check out this video to see how it's done!

Moving Beyond Icebreakers - Example One: "Bag Toss" Example of the interactive meeting exercise: "Bag Toss" from the book "Moving Beyond Icebreakers" by Stanley Pollack with Mary Fusoni - produced by Teen Emp...

When your team is discussing difficult topics or making a big transition, emotions can run high. This can help you surface and talk about how people feel and how they express their feelings before you jump into the conversation. And, it works great on video conference! Emotion Motion (adapted from pg 179):

1. Ask everyone to think of an emotion and a sound that illustrates that emotion.

2. Ask for a volunteer to go first. The volunteer should turn of their camera (or turn around and face outside the circle if in person) and make their sound and motion to go with it that illustrates their emotion. Their camera's off so you won't see the motion.

3. After a few seconds, everyone else should repeat the sound and make a motion that they think illustrates the emotion that they think the leader is trying to convey with the sound.

4. The leader can turn their camera back on and show the motion they started with.

5. Continue to take turns with different team members leading until everyone has gone or you've used your allotted time (have at least 3-4 people go).

Process: Was it easier to guess the emotions based on the sounds or the motions? Did people interpret the sounds similarly or differently? Were you surprised by the leaders actual motion? Sometimes people try and hide their emotions but they come out at unexpected times and in unexpected ways. Different people show their emotions in different ways and with different intensity. Communicating about feelings can help take away some of anxiety and help team members treat each other with respect. This exercise can also be used to talk about consistency between words and actions. People can say something is "fine" when their actions or affect show something different. How can your team communicate better about their feelings?

This is a quick and fun way to start a conversation about the different ways people react to information or circumstances: Freeze Face (variation of Freeze Frames pg 326)

1. Decide on the emotions or concepts you want to highlight. Sum them up to one word each. Choose 4 or 5 (including opposites is a good idea). Examples: surprised, concerned, love, hate, confused, afraid, worried, happy, sad, giddy, anxious, peaceful, violent, tired, energetic.

2. If meeting via video-conference, ask everyone to turn their cameras on. Explain that you are going to count to 3 and then say a word. When they hear the word, they should strike a pose/make a face that conveys that idea and freeze for 6 seconds.

3. Count to 3 and say the first word. You may want to count to 6 for the freezing period (but then you can't participate). Repeat with each of your 4-5 words.

Process: Did people make the same poses/faces or different? Did any two words look similar? People have different ways of communicating the same message/emotion. How do you know how your audience is reacting to the messages you're sending? Lately (working/meeting remotely) our communication is more constrained than usual. People aren't usually so obvious in their reactions. How can we get to know what's going on inside our team's (or clients') minds without the benefits of seeing body language or being in the same room?

Today's can be a great way to kick off a meeting where you need to brainstorm new ideas or talk about different perspectives. It's also pretty fun! Song Association (variation on Word Association pg 254):

1. Establish an order. Make sure everyone knows who comes before them.

2. Explain that you will give everyone a word. They will have 10 seconds to think of a song with that word in and it sing a few words of it. If they can't think of a song, they are out.

3. Each person gets a new word. Keep going until only one person is left in.

Process: It can be hard to think on your feet under pressure. Did anyone have an easier time thinking of songs for others' words than for their own? The songs people think of are often influenced by their experiences--their age, the type of music they listen to, where they grew up, ethnicity, etc. Often people's ideas and perspectives are influenced by their experiences too. Having a diverse team and giving everyone a voice can help generate new and different ideas.

Variation: Sing Down: choose just one word (example "love"). Each person has to sing a song with the word "love" in it. No one can repeat a song that has been used (even if it's a different part of it). If you can't think of a song, you are out. Keep going until only one person is left.

Word suggestions:
love
hate
forever
world
want
need
peace
now
out
in
happy
sad
old
new

Here's a new interactive for your next video meeting. It explores the relationship between limitations and creativity and is based on Move Together (pg 168) and Concentric Mirrors (pg 315).

1. Explain that each person will take a (roughly)15 second turn to make a series of motions using only their hands and fingers. No head, arm, neck, or body movements are allowed. Everyone else will mirror back the hand movements.

2. Ask for a volunteer to go first. Have everyone put their arms up, bent at the elbows (can rest elbows on table) with their hands between their face and the camera. The volunteer makes movements using only their hands and fingers without moving any other body part for about 15 seconds and everyone follows.

3. After about 15 seconds, the leader passes it to another person by calling their name. That person is the new leader. Play continues until everyone has had a turn.

Process: Did people do the same movements or different ones? It's amazing how many different ways people thought to move even with so many constraints. Sometimes limitations help us increase our creativity. The pandemic has forced us to find new ways to operate and accomplish the same goals. Even after we "return to normal" we might want to continue to use some of these new ways and ideas.

Also, different people had really different ideas about how to respond to the limitations and still accomplish the goal. Shared leadership allows us to generate and try new, creative ideas and use the strengths of an entire group of people to arrive at the best ways to achieve our goals.

Happy Hanukkah to those celebrating! Here’s a new spin on the traditional dreidel game that can make a great . If you’re playing over video conference, you can have each person spinning their own dreidel at their own location or have one person with a dreidel spinning for everyone. Or, try out this online virtual dreidel game: https://virtualdreidel.com while also chatting on the phone or via video conference in a separate browser tab.

Today's is a word game you might know and can be done fairly quickly or take longer. Anagrams

1. Choose a short phrase--could be the name of your organization or a company motto or tag line or the topic of your meeting (ex. Human Resources, All Staff Meeting, Office Reopening, Remote Meetings).

2. Ask everyone to get a pen and paper or open a doc to type in. At the top of the page, have them write the phrase you chose.

3. Explain that they will have 30 seconds to generate as many words as they can made up from the letters in the chosen phrase. The words can be any length and can use the letters in any order (ex. the phrase Human Resources has the words man, core, mush, names).

4. Set a timer (if you can, show it on the screen) and say go. After 30 seconds say stop.

5. Go around and have each person read their list of words.

Process: Some of the words were found by most of us and some words were only found by one person. When we work as a team and each person shares their perspective, we get the best and most thorough answers--our collective list is much longer than any one person's list. In any discussion topic there is more below the surface than you might see at first. How does time play a role? What other limits do we have that affect our work?

Here's an that explores what it's like for a team to work isolated from each other on a collaborative project. It also can help your familiarize members with a new tool in Zoom. Draw Together

1. Choose a simple picture that depicts several individual components. Don't show it to your team.

2. During the meeting, send a private message to each team member telling them what to draw (for example-- a rising sun; evergreen trees; a mountain in the distance; a lake. Be somewhat descriptive, but not too much!

3. Share your screen and select "whiteboard." Explain that each user should click View Options then Annotate at the top of the screen so that they can draw on the white board. Tell everyone they have 1 minute (or more if you'd like) to draw their part of the shared picture. Everyone should draw at once, not knowing what others are supposed to be drawing.

3. When time is up, ask people to stop. Have them reveal what they were asked to draw, then show them the original picture you were using as inspiration.

Process: How similar do the pictures look? How are they different? Are you surprised by how this turned out? It can be difficult to do your work when you don't have an idea of the bigger picture. When you communicate and know what others are doing, the end result turns out better. Even when you can't be in close communication though, there are many ways a team can work together to make something beautiful. What would have made the picture closer to the original? What could have made the process easier or more difficult?

This is about leading and following and can start a conversation about how our own actions reflect what's happening around us. It works on video chat (and in person): Group Mirror (based on Concentric Mirrors p. 315)

1. Choose a volunteer to be the leader and make sure everyone has their camera on. Explain that the leader is "looking into a mirror" and everyone else will be their reflection, mirroring their actions.

2. Have the leader start making motions and everyone else imitate the same motions.

3. After a minute or so, say stop and choose a new leader. Do 2-3 or let everyone have a turn leading.

Process: This exercise allows the leaders to see their own actions. What did it feel like to be imitated? Did you try to make it easy or hard to follow you? What about the followers--was it easier to mirror some leaders than others? Did you prefer to be a leader or a follower? Why? We are all reflecting our environment and those around us whether we realize it or not. Sometimes its easiest to learn about ourselves through the way others see/interpret us, even though it can also be a difficult experience.

This is a great way to kick off a conversation about creativity with constraints and/or help your team members get to know each other better: Poem Sculpture

1. Explain that you are about to share a short poem. Everyone will have 3 minutes to find objects nearby and create a sculpture that expresses their interpretation of the poem.

2. Share the poem: Something blue, something new, something rad and something glad. (Alternative: Something old, something bold, something fun and something won or make up your own!).

3. Start the timer. Give a 30 second warning before time runs out.

4. Go around and share your sculptures and how they represent the poem.

Process: People interpret rules/written language differently and bring their own personality and lived experience to their work. Sometimes objects have a deeper meaning than can be seen without explanation. All the sculptures are different--even within specific guidelines or constraints (such as an inability to gather in person) there is room for creativity and an opportunity to create something meaningful, unique, and beautiful.

This shows how people think and see things differently and can highlight diverse experiences. It's also great for getting the juices flowing and thinking outside the box: Thirty Circles.

1. Make sure everyone has a piece of paper with 30 circles of equal size on it and a pen or pencil. You can send the one below to print or upload into a drawing program on everyone's computer or they can make their own (hint: tracing the lid of a spice jar 30 times works well). You can choose to have people draw on paper or use a computer program or give the choice, just make sure everyone has a way to participate.

2. Set a time for 3 minutes. Explain that everyone will have 3 minutes to turn as many circles as possible into recognizable objects by drawing on them (ex. a baseball, a smiley face, a sun).

3. Say go and start the timer.

4. At the end of 3 minutes, see how many circles each person was able to turn into objects. Have people show their drawings and see if others can guess what they are.

5. If you have time, figure out how many unique objects were created--have each person read out their creations. If someone listening drew the same thing, they should make a mark next to it. At the end, ask each person how many unique items they drew and add those numbers together for your total items.

Process: How many similar and different ideas were there? Did you get stuck? What helped you break through, or what kept you from moving forward? How did the time limit impact your work? Were you surprised by anyone else's objects? Was it easier or harder to come up with a lot of ideas on your own vs. a group brainstorm? Did attention to detail slow you down? How does this exercise compare to our work together and individually? As a remote team, we can often feel isolated and accidentally have duplicated efforts. How do we combat these things and still capitalize on all of our individual ideas and creativity?