Help me find a fun, quick activity to start our management retreat

July 17, 2008 3:21 PM

Off-the-wall, get the day started with a smile activity for a small retreat.

My agency's management team is doing a small-scale retreat tomorrow. My boss just came in and asked if I could come up with some type of activity to get the day started that would be fun and different. Some considerations and information that may or may not be pertinent:

-I can't go with the usual "getting to know you icebreakers" because we all already know each other and work together.

-The purpose of the day is to shift through the issues facing the organization and each part of it, and then start developing some plans for approaching them. The morning will be spent with each of us giving a brief presentation on 3 challenges/opportunities we are seeing in front of us at the moment. It would be nice from my perspective if the activity somehow lead naturally into that discussion, but it is not necessary.

-There are seven of us. We range in age from late 20s to the 50s. One male, six female.

-"off the wall" and "fun" were the words she used when she asked me to come up with this. She somewhat suggested bringing her "That was easy" button (the one from Staples, where when you press it, it says "That was easy") and asking us to come up with what we would like our version of that button to say. Not a bad idea, but I suspect we'd all go with very similar answers (and a few of us would stick with the "That was easy").

Help me Hivemind!

posted by never used baby shoes to Work & Money (5 answers total)

Here's one I like: The Invisible Pencil.

Tell your participants they have an invisible pencil. First have them write their name in the air with the pencil. Then have them do it again, with their other hand. Then tell them to imagine the invisible pencil is in their mouth and do it again. Finally, have them put it in their belly button. By the end it's really silly.

There's another one I like even better, but I can't remember it right this second, dammit. This might be it: Everyone begins with a given number of small objects. I used small craft pom poms. Their task is to get as many pompoms as they can from people, by convincing the that you really deserve the pompom. The only thing is that you can't say the word "I" or "You" in your quest. If you do, you have to give the other person a pompom. It ends up with people shrieking. Because as soon as one person says "I" or "You" a typical response is "You said 'I'!" which of course means the other person gets their pompom back. I think I might be misremembering a rule here, though, so I'd think through this one or try it on a group before using it.
posted by Stewriffic at 3:42 PM on July 17, 2008

There's a new game from Cranium called Whoonu that you should pick up. Gameplay consists of selecting a card from your hand that you think the Whoozit in that round would like best, and the Whoozit ranks the submissions from best to worst liked (origami or brownies? Staying ip late or sleeping in?) by them, for points. It's short, a good getting-to-know-you-BETTER game, where everyone gets to be the center of attention, with the added benefit of requiring the players to thing of pleasant things they like for the duration. The box probably says 2-6 players, but the only lime there is the number of point chips provided. You can supplement with quarters.
posted by Ambrosia Voyeur at 3:44 PM on July 17, 2008 [1 favorite]

Best answer: As part of performing improv, I do a ton of activities that might fit the bill, but it's hard to know what might be a good fit for your specific group's culture and attitudes. There are dozens of exercises and games listed at Improv Encyclopedia. They don't have to have any theater or improv experience to do most of these, such as the Automatic Storytelling exercise.

Good luck! I know there's a lot of pressure in being the one designated to lead these things.
posted by ImproviseOrDie at 4:17 PM on July 17, 2008 [1 favorite]

I organized something like this for my small company. I had people write down "5 things people don't know about me" (i.e. written by a male who is an extreme marathoner - ran 100-mile stretches - "I once weighed 312 pounds" - NO ONE guessed that was him!" Another example: "I can count 1 to 10 in Gaelic." You know, that kind of stuff no one ever talks about in a random course of a work day.

I had all the answers written down with blank spots next to each one so people could guess who it was, and then gave everyone a sheet. Whoever had the most correct answers won a silly prize (though it'd be nice to give out something like an extra vacation day, a gas card, a gift certificate, etc.)

It was really hilarious, fun, and everyone said it was the favorite part of the entire day. To this day, everyone still talks about it, and it's been years since we did this.
posted by HeyAllie at 5:48 PM on July 17, 2008 [3 favorites]

Response by poster: Thanks folks! I'm on a tight deadline for this - the retreat is tomorrow - so I really appreciate everyone giving me some ideas.

I like the Automatic Storytelling exercise ImproviseOrDie suggested; I'm going to pitch that one and see what happens.
posted by never used baby shoes at 6:55 PM on July 17, 2008