top of page
Writer's pictureTerry Withers

Christmas Team Building Activities - (Improv Edition)


An Elf playing a fun round of the classic improv game, Elf Stealth! A game in which an elf avoids lasers, trap doors and nets. Classic!
An Elf playing a fun round of the classic improv game, Elf Stealth! A game in which an elf avoids lasers, trap doors and nets. Classic!

   With the holidays just around the corner, I thought readers of the blog might appreciate some simple improv games you can use for team building tweaked with Christmas specifics. Being aware of where you are in the calendar year is a good idea when leading a lot of improv based professional development workshops. It helps make your events feel more specific to participants and offers a fun twist for workshops that might otherwise start to feel a little copy/paste.


Maybe it goes without saying that The Radical Agreement Project does offer improv based team building workshops for the office. Don't be scared to hire us to run these exercises for you in our home city of Virginia Beach or anywhere within the continental United States.


While that's true, I've taken pains to make sure the exercises listed in this post can be run by any facilitator. Being a professional improviser is not required!


CHRISTMAS TEAM BUILDING ACTIVITIES


NAUGHTY OR NICE


Duration:

   20-30 Minutes


Capacity:

   8-16 participants, but split larger groups into teams of 4 to 6 participants that will each take turns playing this exercise.


Space Requirements:

   An empty playing space, small is okay, but large enough for all participants to stand in a line with enough space between them that it is easy to see when you are pointing at one of them in particular.


Objective:

   Work on creativity and confidence (public speaking) using this variation of Passion Rant (or Pet Peeve Rant).


Instructions:

   Ask participants to pick a topic from work that they know very well. Advise them that people often have strong feelings about such topics (either positive or negative) to help them identify good subjects. Explain that you are going to ask them to speak extemporaneously on this subject, in no particular order, by arranging them in a line and pointing at them when it is their turn to speak.


   Sometimes people playing this exercise will think they need to tell a funny story, but that isn’t true. Instead they should simply pick a topic that they know very well.


   Explain that you will point at them several times during the exercise, so they won’t just speak once, but at least three separate times. As an added wrinkle you will intermittently call out NAUGHTY or NICE.  When you have said NAUGHTY participants should speak about their topic in a naughty way and when you say NICE participants should speak about their topic in a nice way.


   Being naughty can mean having a negative attitude about a topic or it can mean pointing out the downside of your topic. Being nice means having a positive attitude on your topic or pointing out positive aspects of your topic. Or either can mean something different that a participant interprets it to mean, so long as the two categories result in noticeably different themes and/or demeanors being displayed by the speaker when switching between the two categories.


   At the beginning of the exercise it is probably best to ask speakers to start in the NICE zone. A category can be left standing for several speakers, but as the exercise advances you should pick up the speed of switching between NAUGHTY and NICE, so much so that by the end you should be switching several times each time someone speaks.


Repeat:

   Provided that you don’t have too large a group (probably groups of 16 or less are not too large) be sure to give everyone a chance to go. For smaller groups you can keep it to 4 players at a time. For larger ones, as many as 6 is manageable.


Lesson:

   After each round be sure to compliment people on things they said that were interesting to you. People worried about public speaking or answering questions in public are often worried they don’t have anything valuable to add. This exercise often reveals that what participants think of as boring actually seems unique or insightful to others. 


   (This is because when you know something yourself it can seem obvious or humdrum. But to others who are unaware of the same truth, it can be riveting.)


   Empower speakers by complimenting their contributions that stood out to you. Be generally supportive of their overall contributions, but then get specific and highlight your favorite moments. 


   If there are moments that seem showboatish or that smack of having been prepared, consider being critical of them and juxtaposing them with more genuine moments. This reinforces the notion that speakers do not need to be performers in order to be impactful. Regular, every day communications is all that is required in order to be a compelling speaker.



ELF STEALTH


Duration:

   30 Minutes


Capacity:

   8-16 participants


Space Requirements:

   A large empty space is best for this game so that playing area can be expansive with lots of different imagined areas.


Objective:

   Teamwork & creativity


Instructions:

   Split the group into two teams. Explain that one group works for a local home security company and the other are a team of elves tasked with delivering gifts on Christmas. Explain that the playing area is the living room of a home and define where the Christmas Tree and fireplace are.


   The elves must carry a package from the fireplace to the Christmas Tree, while the security team is charged with stopping them. 


   The game starts with the two teams describing the living room in great detail. Each person on each team takes a turn describing one item in the living room and where it sits. This is to create an imaginary playing field.


   One turn might sound something like, “Here is an old, large couch. It’s beige, fabric colored pillows have permanent impressions and there is a curve on end that people can use to put up their feet.”


   Then the next person adds a new element, “Right in front of the couch is a heavy coffee table, brown wood frame with a glass top. Brass fixtures attach the glass to the wood and the legs are high enough that a person could crawl underneath it if they wanted to.”


   This continues until we have learned all about coat racks, rugs, entertainment units and so on. As each player describes their object they should physically move to the area where it exists and use their hands to indicate the item’s precise location and size. 


   Once the living room has been fully described, the game begins. Now the teams take alternating turns with one player from the security team adding a new security feature by describing it in detail, both how it functions and where it sits in the room. This is similar to the first phase of the game.


Players from the elf team have a different challenge. For each of their turns they must successfully move from the fireplace to the Christmas Tree in order to deliver a gift without being trapped by or triggering one of the security devices. The games grows progressively harder as each new security device remains as new ones are added.


   If the elf manages to travel from the fireplace to the Christmas Tree without being caught or triggering an alarm, they score a point. If instead they are caught or do trigger an alarm, the security team scores a point. Whichever team has the most points after the last elf has gone wins!


As the game’s facilitator it will be your job to evaluate whether an elf is caught or evades a device. Up to you how lenient or strict to be, but you should err on the side of rewarding creativity. For example, if an elf finds a very creative way to swing over a trap door (possibly by using an ornate chandelier) then you should reward them even if their mime work makes you think they would have fallen into the trap.


 Repeat:

   Each team has a distinctively different challenge so you should play the game twice so that every participant gets a chance to play as an elf and as a security professional.


Lesson:

   This is a good game to transparently identify as being used for the purposes of team building. Point out and celebrate the most ridiculous moments and highlight that more important than who wins is that everyone gets to have some fun laughs!

   You can also note creativity using this game. Be sure to encourage players who get stuck (either because they aren’t sure what to add or how to avoid a security device) to go with their first thought. Remind them that their thoughts are unique to them, and that everyone is excited to see what they will add.

   Creative people are no different than uncreative people. They both have the same number of ideas. But some people self edit while others share freely. We call people who share their ideas freely creative.


BUILD A TOY


Duration:

   10 Minutes


Capacity:

   5-16 participants


Space Requirements:

   A medium sized empty space is enough to effectively play this game.


Objective:

   Teamwork & creativity


Instructions:

   Explain that everyone in the group works in Santa’s workshop. Santa wants you to develop a new toy!


   The game starts when one brave player moves into the playing area and begins a repetitive motion that includes a sound effect that they supply. The next player should create a new movement and noise that works in conjunction with the first player’s creation. This continues until everyone except for the last player has entered the playing area and made a contribution.


   Once you have entered and made your move, you never stop repeating your action and noise. Finally the last player enters and names the toy and explains why it is fun. For example, the last player might say something like, “Introducing the Burger Blast! Now kids can make their own burgers that explode!”


   Players often start slow, so that early participants get more attention than later ones. Warn the players about this and ask them to give each person’s contribution an equal amount of attention.

 

   Be sure not to let anyone “correct” anyone else’s contribution. There are no mistakes in improv!


Lesson:

   This is a good exercise with which to note team support. People often make contributions that are surprising or (from some people’s perspective) bad or wrong. Challenge your team to accept every new addition as the contribution of a toy building genius. If the genius of a move is unclear, help us to understand it better with your move!

2 views0 comments

Recent Posts

See All

Comments


bottom of page