No more boring meetings! I cannot claim to be the creator of any of this stuff but I have tried, tested and can recommend all of it. "Nobody has to play but everybody is welcome."
Form groups of 6 to 8 people. Challenge each group to create a machine out of their members by imitating the appearance and action of the machine with as many parts (gears, levers, etc.) as they can devise. The machine should have motion and sound, and include all team members. (If a group is having […]
Read More The Human MachineThe 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
Read More Marshmallow ChallengeA 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
Read More Crossed or Un-Crossed?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 […]
Read More What Relates to You?Not a game exactly but a great exercise in introducing and integrating new team members. Credit: George Dinwiddie – Onboarding New Team Members
Read More Onboarding New Team MembersOpen 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 […]
Read More Big Ball O’QuestionsA 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
Read More Multitasking is EvilOpen Space Session from Agile Open Northwest February 2013 where we played many of the games here on the blog. Artist credit Elizabeth McClellan
Read More 50 Shades of PlayPlay this with a group who do not know each other, make the introductions memorable and get your meeting off to a more interesting start. Form the group into a circle. Use a ball or any object which can be easily thrown and caught between participants. The concept is very simple, before you gently toss the […]
Read More Ball Toss Name Game (Introductions)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
Read More Ro Sham Bo Rockstar
Games Simon Plays 