Train Station Greetings

Fun and playful way to begin a session with a large group.

Space Counting

Partner activity in which one person traces the identical path of their partner’s fingers as they draw numbers in the air.

The Ball Point Game

A really fun way to learn the value of inspecting and adapting a teams through-put rate through iterations, self organization, estimation, historical data, and sustainable pace. Created by Boris Gloger. Tastycupcakes online version Play in person and materials

Movements of a Hypnotic Nature

Highly recommend! Participants get the feel and touch of emergent design, iterations, teamwork and operating from high-level requirements. Demonstrate the roots of Scrum through cross-functional and self-organizing teams. I have co-trained this exercise a couple of times with Dhaval Panchal. It originates from Brent Barton. Complete instructions here

Marshmallow Challenge

The Marshmallow Challenge is a poweful exercise in fostering collaboration, it also reveals how we make many false assumptions. It originated with Dennis Boyle, Health and Wellness Partner at IDEO. Peter Skillman and Tom Wujec then presented TED talks about it. Instructions

Crossed or Un-Crossed?

A quick and easy way to gather everyone’s attention. All you need is a pair of scissors. http://www.ultimatecampresource.com/site/camp-activity/scissors-or-crossed-uncrossed-game.html

What Relates to You?

Prepare 4 sets of 3 posters containing a large single word (see list below) and place them in 3 spots in the room with a cover sheet on top. Each flip chart will have one of the words from each set in the same order. Army, Navy, Air Force Beach, Mountain, City Chocolate, Vanilla, Strawberry Dog, Cat, Other Gather everyone […]

Onboarding New Team Members

Not a game exactly but a great exercise in introducing and integrating new team members. Credit: George Dinwiddie – Onboarding New Team Members

Big Ball O’Questions

Open a meeting using a beach ball covered with 50 to 100 questions written in permanent ink. Have everyone stand in a circle and toss the ball to each other. When the ball is caught the question closest to the left thumb is the one to read aloud and answer. Note: White beach balls work best otherwise avoid […]

Multitasking is Evil

A great exercise to demonstrate the effectiveness of working on one thing at a time. Support the idea of working through a prioritized list by taking each item to completion before pulling in the next piece of work. Multitasking is Evil