One Car – Two Siblings
** [note - if you've got a better name for this activity, please leave a comment here] **
Sitting in a train on my way to open a conference this week, looking for a novel opener, I came up with this fantastic idea (a twist to the wonderfully successful Commonalities) … and it worked a treat, so I wanted to share it with you.
It’s always tough to ‘break the ice’ when people are seated in rows, or in a lecture theatre, or round a table – hard to move people about. And this is exactly what I had to work with. Here’s what I did…
I asked people to partner up with one or two other people sitting close to them. After quick introductions are exchanged, I invited each group to have a conversation in which they sought out all the “things” they (all) had in common … but with one proviso. Starting at one, and moving through the numbers as high as they could go within three minutes, their object was to find that number of things / objects / experiences they had in common. As this explanation was met with a few blank faces, an illustration followed.
For example, starting at one, the group may discover that they all own ONE car. Then they might discover they all have TWO siblings. Moving on, they have all taken THREE overseas holidays, and all have FOUR letters in their first names, and so on.
On this particular morning, one group of three people got as high as EIGHT – apparently, they all had the numeral eight in their street address (which, maybe, is stretching the framework of the game – but who cares – they were talking and interacting and, best of all, along with 100 other people, were laughing and generating TONS of energy….)
… and voila – a new ice-breaker!
Try it out, and tell me what you think …
Tip – How To Mix Large Groups
Last week, I facilitated two very large groups of teachers (approx 120 people). With each group, I chose to present one of my all-time favourite mixing activities, Categories (No Props, p31), and I quickly recalled a VITAL facilitation secret.
With small groups, it’s pretty easy for people to find others who match a particular category, eg similar colour top. But, as I quickly recalled, in large groups this ain’t so easy! Often, lots of little groups of the same category will form all over the place, either because they can’t see or hear each other, or they are simply too overwhelmed by the numbers and give up! Which doesn’t ordinarily add up to success.
Soooo… my suggestion is to direct large groups as they form to particular areas according to the category. For example, “… left-arm on top, stand over here, and right-arm on top, stand over there …” Or, if you introduce a category that has lots of possibilities, suggest that every ‘grouping’ forms at the outer edges of the room, or circle (so it’s easier to see and find others).
Anything you can do to cut down the confusion or to make it easy for folks, will go a long way to helping large groups of people interact more comfortably and, therefore, successfully.
Have FUNN 
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Who am I?
Hi, I'm Mark Collard.
This blog shares some of the most successful group games, team-building activities & programming tips I know.
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