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 […]

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

Ro Sham Bo Rockstar

A high energy variation on Rock, Paper, Scissors. The link takes you to a student game page but this is awesome for the workplace too. Ro Sham Bo Rockstar

Closer to the Sun

Participants form a circle around an object on the ground identified as the sun. Ask participants to move closer to or further from the sun dependent upon the accuracy of each statement. I live in [blank] County. I was born in [blank] State. I like my job. This is the best job I ever had. […]

VisualsSpeak

Use their images to start conversations. Watch team formation surface in powerful ways. Highly recommend this for every facilitators toolkit. Thanks to Sylvia Taylor for introducing me. VisualsSpeak

Breakup or Love Letters

Unashamedly stolen from a session at Agile 2011. Great fun. Prepare to be amazed at the creativity and talent within your group. Breakup Letter Love Letter