Mind Meld
OVERVIEW
Mind Meld asks players to think like each other.
Instead of promoting your ideas you look to anticipate what your teammate's most likely idea is. Though frequent success is unlikely, the collaboratrive muscle this exercise works builds strong team players with an ability to anticipate each other's needs and next moves. A wonderful exercise for workshops focused on:
Team Building
Collaboration
Communication
Teamwork
REQUIREMENTS
Number of Participants:
Minimum: 2 participants / Maximum: 16 participants
Time Required:
Minimum: 10 minutes / Maximum: 25 minutes
Materials Needed:
None.
EXERCISE INSTRUCTIONS
Have the group stand in a circle. Explain that the game is played by the whole group, but that each move is played two players at a time. This can be achieved either by moving clockwise around the circle in pairs or by having two active players in the center of the circle who are determined by the players themselves tagging in.
The game starts by having two active players think of a word. Once they have their word they should raise their hand. When bopth players are ready the group counts to three and the two players simulatneously announce their selections.
Obviously the two words will not be the same. Whatever they are the next two players will attempt to say the same word by asking themselves what the first two words have in common. The same process is followed with these two players raising their hands when they know their word and announcing them once the whole group has counted to three.
Most likely the words will once again not be the same and the process will repeat. The most recent two words should be what the next round plays off of. So if your first two words were "Orange" and "Peach" and your second two words were "Fruit" and "Food" it wouldn't make sense for someone in the third round to say "Blue" or "Colors".
You can play the game with single words or phrases. If you are working exclusively with improv comedy students in an advanced setting, you can play the game with comedic premises (or bits). However once a word or phrase or comedic premise has been said, it cannot be repeated.
If your pair is in the center of the circle then the same people may go multiple times in a row, their participation only ending when someone on the outside of the circle tags themselves in and one of the current players out. So each round both players can be tagged out, or just one player, or neither.
If going around the circle in pairs, you can choose to either go to two brand new players every round or to have one player remain the same so that each player plays twice in a row.
As you play remind players that the goal is not to showcase indivual creativity, but instead to accurately anticipate someone else's move. It is helpful for players to ask themselves what category contains the two words just spoken or what concept or idea connects them. For example, a good guess off of "Hamburger" and "Book" might be "Menu." On the other hand, "College Bookstore Restaurant" demonstrates great creativity while also being almost certainly not what the other person will say.
Mind Meld can be a frustrating exercise if you play it too long without succeeding. Be cognizant of this when running the exercise. Remind people as you play that the goal is to work their collaborative muscles by asking themselves how their teammates are thinking of the challenge at hand, instead of winning the exercise.
The game ends when two players say the same word or very close to the same word or the instructor feels the exercise has gone on too long. Because the game is frustrating when you play it too long, err on the side of claiming success when two words are similar.
INSTRUCTOR DISCUSSION POINTS / LEARNING TAKEAWAYS
COLLABORATION
To work well with another it is helpful to see any given circumstance, challenge, or conversation through their eyes. If you know how they are seeing a set of circumstances then you are more likely to be able to communicate effectively and suggest ideas they are more likely to embrace. While this exercise cannot make you a mind reader (as the name perhaps implies) it works the muscle that allows you to meet someone where they are (rather than where you would like them to be) and places you in an effective mindset for collaboration.
COMMUNICATION
Mind Meld is just like communication in that the two players either successfully say the same word or fail to say the same word. When communicating you either successfully communicate your message or fail to. There is no way to successfully communicate or fail to communicate by yourself.
It is not enough to simply say whatever word is the most obvious connection when playing Mind Meld. You must also ask yourself how the person playing with you is likely to think. This is the true nature of communication and collaboration; they are always moving targets.
You may ask participants to think about Shakespearean text. Written by perhaps the greatest communicator in the English language ever, they are today almost indecipherable. This is because the audience has changed so dramatically.
There is no "right way" to communicate without asking yourself who you are communicating with and how they think.
TEAM BUILDING
On a basic level you can highlight the difficulty of the group task, complimenting moments that come closest to success and the players responsible for them along the way.
On a deeper level, point out that the exercise asks you to understand your coworkers' inclinations and way of thinking. When a player gives a surprising answer it may be appropriate to underline it not as a negative, but as particularly illustrative of that particular person's way of thinking.