Thanksgiving Team Building Activities (Improv Based, Why Even Ask?)
It is my firm belief that improv based corporate workshops should change with the seasons and also the particulars surrounding any engagement. Here are some easy ideas of improv games you could play around the Thanksgiving season that feel tailored and colored by the holiday. These Thanksgiving team building activities (or games) are designed to be useful as a plug and play exercise in a larger corporate workshop led by a professional improv facilitator or as one time ice breaker or warm up exercises that anyone could lead at a workplace event.
While each game has their own particular strengths as a learning and development tool, they also all work for team building.
Game Number 1
Pumpkin Spice Oracle
Purpose: Creativity, Collaboration, Letting Go of JudgmentType: Word Association + Character Play
Duration: 10-15 Minutes
Materials Needed: None
How to Play:
Arrange all players in a circle with enough space for someone to stand and move around comfortably in the center.
One person becomes The Autumnal Wisdom Seeker (Is that a dumb name? Well, you are reading an improv blog.) The Autumnal Wisdom Seeker steps into the middle of the circle and ask an everyday, humdrum question, such as:
“What should I have for lunch?”
“Should I switch my morning coffee to decaf?”
“Has anyone seen my boots?”
The rest of the group becomes The Pumpkin Spice Oracle (Is that a dumb name? Please see my previous parenthetical comment.) The Pumpkin Spice Oracle is a single, all-knowing Fall-themed consciousness that speaks one word at a time, going around the circle to form an answer.
For example:
Seeker: “How will I know if my quarterly presentation is ready?”
Oracle: “The... office… squirrels... will... gather... near... your... cubicle... and... whisper... go… for… it….”
Once the Oracle delivers its answer (you’ll know), the Seeker bows deeply, says “Thank you, oh Pumpkin Spice Oracle,” and rejoins the group.
Choose a new Seeker and repeat!
Tips for Success:
Keep the pace brisk (pun intended)! One-word-at-a-time can drag if folks overthink. Encourage speed over perfection.
Encourage fall-themed vernacular, like cinnamon, foliage, hayrides, etc…
Have fun with overacting. Bowing dramatically, speaking with “mystical” voices, and treating silly advice with utmost reverence should all be encouraged.
Fun Variant:
Instead of speaking one word at a time, have The Pumpkin Spice Oracle speak in one voice. That means everyone speaks simultaneously, usually done slowly where players take turns leading everyone else into the next word, but they do so in no particular order and so slowly it can be hard to tell who is leading and who is following.
Game Number 2:
Turkey Translator
Purpose: Communication Skills, Listening, ConfidenceType: Communication, Nonverbal Communication
Duration: 15-30 Minutes
Materials Needed: None needed, but if you had a phony a microphone or a portable kid’s karaoke mic that might be fun, but not needed.
How to Play:
The game is played in groups of three. You can either have everyone play simultaneously in their groups or have groups of three go one by one (which is why there is such wide variance in this exercise’s duration). Each group of three contains:
One Turkey (speaks only in Gobble-ish gibberish)
One Human Interviewer
One Translator
Explain that this is a game in which a turkey is being interviewed for a news segment. You can give a suggestion for each interview (like “raking tips” or “what to bring with you when attending Thanksgiving Dinner at someone else’s house” or something more unexpected, like the turkey’s take on recent UFO sightings or the WNBA) or just let each group organically discover the focus of their interview.
In order to get the exercise going you may need to give players some examples of what type of questions interviewers might use. You could offer, “How do you feel about the stuffing controversy?” or, “What are your thoughts on cranberry sauce, underrated or overhyped?”.
Whatever the question, the turkey responds in animated gobble gibberish (they should be encouraged to flap their wings, cluck animatedly, peck at things, etc). The gobble gibberish may sound like, “GOBBLE gobble glllgllggg!”
You get it.
C'mon, you get it.
The translator then confidently interprets with lines like, “She says the stuffing should never go in the bird. It’s a betrayal of trust.”
After 4 to 7 questions rotate to another group. You want each group to get about two minutes playing time.
Or if you are running the scenes simultaneously, stop every 2 to 3 minutes and have participants rotate their roles within each group, so that the translator becomes the turkey and so on. If running the exercise this way it may be a good idea to start with a sample scene or two that you can note directly, so that everyone gets the game.
Tips for Success:
Encourage the Translator to heighten the absurdity; explain that the right choice is whatever the most choice is to them. A favorite move of mine in translation games is to translate short gibberish with very long translations and long gibberish with very short, even one word, translations.
Turkeys should commit to physicality: flapping, pecking, pacing. Last year I ran this exercise and told a group that the best turkey I ever saw kept pecking at the ground, finding and then eating worms. For interviewers, not always but often the best choice is to stay very somber and ask serious questions with a straight face, juxtaposed with incredulity at the answers they receive. In this way, they fulfill the role of the classic straight man.
Fun Variant:
Make it Turkey TED Talks: The Turkey gives a passionate gibberish talk, and the Translator “interprets” in real time while the whole class replaces the interviewer with an audience that asks a lot of questions.
Game Number 3:
Leaf It to Me
Purpose: Agility, Team Building, Embracing Failure
Type: Pattern Game + Justification
Duration: 15 Minutes
Materials Needed: None
How to Play:
Ask everyone to stand in a circle.
Select one person to start by holding an imaginary leaf and declaring something completely absurd about it:
“This is my leaf that predicts Wi-Fi strength.”
“This is the leaf I used to pay my taxes.”
“This is my dental care leaf.”
They then pass the leaf to the next person, who says, “Oh yes! I see…” (actually insist each player says those exact words) and then justifies or adds to the idea:
“Oh yes! I see, that’s an IRS-certified oak blend.”
“Oh yes! I see, the greener it is, the faster your Zoom loads.”
“Oh yes! I see, this leaf is a cheaper, environmentally friendly tooth brush.”
That person then starts a new leaf with a brand-new absurd premise and passes it on.
Keep going until everyone has had a few turns.
Tips for Success:
This is about bold choices and joyful agreement. Make it weird, wonderful, and fast.
Celebrate the ideas that strike you as most surprising. In fact, the stranger the better. Individuals will often interpret surprising ideas as wrong in some way, when in fact it is often unexpected ideas that lead to innovation and growth.
Fun Variant:
Make it a relay race: Two teams, two leaves, see who can get through a full rotation first!
Game Number 4:
Corn Maze Confessions
Purpose: Creativity, Storytelling, Emotional IQType: Character Monologue + Physical Movement
Duration: 15-20 Minutes
Materials Needed: None
How to Play:
Set up a small stage area that is the playing area (can just be the front of the room or if your class is arranged in a circle of chairs, that circle’s center).
One person volunteers by stepping into the playing area. The instructor then says, “You’ve been stuck in the corn maze for HOURS. You’re starting to lose it. Confess your truth to the corn.” Everyone else should be swaying and making the sound of wind through the corn.
The person in the center then begins a dramatic monologue, sharing something completely made up and absurd but which they treat as if it is a deeply personal secret. This secret should also be fall-themed. For example:
“I never liked hayrides. I faked it, every year, just to impress my parents.”
“I eat candy corn... unironically. Sometimes my whole dinner will just be candy corn. I know that’s controversial.”
“I’m a kleptomaniac, but only with macintosh apples. If I visit a friend and see a macintosh, well before I know it I’ll have slipped it into my bag or pocket. Then it is rush on home and cover it with wet, red, glistening candy as fast as I can. I’m sick. I need help.”
The goal is to make the confessions overly dramatic, emotionally committed, and slightly ridiculous. Think Shakespeare meets Hallmark autumn special.
After a minute (or whenever the drama crests), the instructor signals the group to cheer, and the next person steps in with a new confession.
If people have trouble coming up with their own idea (or more like, greenlighting their own idea) you can provide them with first lines, like:
“You found a scarecrow that reminds you of your ex.”
“You’re talking to a particularly wise-looking gourd.”
“This isn’t your first maze. The last one changed you.”
Tips for Success:
Encourage players to play big: bold characters, wild emotional swings, high-stakes stories.
If someone’s nervous, let them start simple. It is okay if someone simply confesses something, humdrum as that will be fun too. “I brush my teeth every night before I go to bed… With toothpaste!”
Fun Variant:
Pair people up: one person does the monologue, and the other plays a silent corn stalk, reacting nonverbally, rustling, nodding, judging, supporting.
Well, there you have it folks! That is 4, fun, Thanksgiving themed improv games for your autumnal team building delight.
Please use them responsibly.
I want a tshirt that says " I eat candy corn...unironically"