Collaborative diversions for bright, bored people
March 21, 2018 5:16 PM   Subscribe

What are your suggestions for fun, creative activities that goal-oriented problem solvers can work on collaboratively to blow off some steam? Bonus points if the activity can be abandoned and returned to later without penalty, and if participants can come and go as they please.

I work with a team of folks who solve complicated problems and communicate the solutions to all sorts of audiences. As such, we all have a lot of brain power and communications skills. Our jobs, however, can be very stressful and don't necessarily lend themselves to team-building or camaraderie.

We thought it would be neat if we had something to work on together that fell into the toy-game-puzzle category, which could be collaboratively worked on, but wasn't necessarily bound by formal play sessions or lots of structure.

Essentially it'd be cool to walk into a break room in the office, put up your contribution to the whatsit and then come back later to see who else had contributed. So far we've brainstormed Legos, Erector sets, exquisite corpse-type stuff, etc.

So, dear hive mind, what are your thoughts?
posted by mmcg to Work & Money (10 answers total) 6 users marked this as a favorite
 
Best answer: Jigsaw puzzles seems too obvious. Magnetic poetry comes in many versions: original, Haiku, geek, somehow we have a squirrel version.
posted by RoadScholar at 5:20 PM on March 21, 2018


Puzzle hunts, like you find in Panda Magazine (bimonthly, by subscription) or other online sources.
posted by expialidocious at 5:32 PM on March 21, 2018


Some kind of erasure poetry setup could be fun.
posted by Gymnopedist at 5:33 PM on March 21, 2018 [1 favorite]


Crossword puzzles
posted by 2 cats in the yard at 5:41 PM on March 21, 2018


Modular origami! You fold little triangle-shaped pieces and then wedge them together to make big sculptures (like swans, peacocks, vessels, many more).

Traditionally you'd assemble the large sculpture without glue, but using some glue will help make the final piece more sturdy and also accommodate for people who's individual folding skills are sloppy.

You could just put out some paper strips in different colours, a folding diagram, and some pictures of various finished modular ideas so people understand how to assemble the pieces. You could even colour-code the paper strips to different departments or individuals.
posted by pseudostrabismus at 6:36 PM on March 21, 2018 [1 favorite]


Find a solid group of people for an MMORPG or strategy game?

Edit: Oops, just saw you're looking for something physical that can be put in an office. Maybe a computer with a shared minecraft...instance, program, whatever you call it (I never played it)... or other builder game (e.g. sim city) running that anyone can hop on and contribute to for a bit, then leave?
posted by 3FLryan at 7:50 PM on March 21, 2018


Cryptic crosswords
posted by Hal Mumkin at 8:10 PM on March 21, 2018


So I won't get bonus points but I did a break out room with my tech team and they Loved It.
posted by St. Peepsburg at 10:21 PM on March 21, 2018 [1 favorite]


You could play a collaborative hipbone game? It's a grid into which people add words which must link with each other, people could add words as and when they were free.
posted by Heloise9 at 11:45 PM on March 21, 2018


Best answer: I know it's really obvious, but have you thought of jigsaw puzzles? They seem to fit all your requirements, and they're the perfect combination of relaxing + challenging. When you're done, you could frame it and even have all the participants sign it.
posted by AmandaA at 6:45 AM on March 22, 2018


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