There ought to be a law...
This is simple exercise for individuals, pairs, threes or a whole group. The aim of the activity is to suggest a new law, which reasons for it. The game can be extended into aclear-communications and writing exercise, by asking the participants to write the new law in clear terms that explain it absolutely with minimum leeway for misunderstanding or misinterpretation. The clarity of the writing can be tested by group questionsand review. This exercise is particularly relevant for people who will benefit from improved awareness of communicating, delegating, and briefing skills. It is also a good personality and attitude indicator exercise when used as an activity for individualcandidates in recruitment group selections. This activity can also benefit people with responsibility for writing instructions and manuals.
Flags
There is a lot of flexibility in this activity. It can be used for individuals or teams of any sorts. The object of the exercise is simply to design a flag that symbolizes the person or the team (or group or department, etc.). Materials required are just some flip chart sheets and colored pens or markers. The exercise can be used as a quick warm-up or ice-breaker, say 10 minutes to create the flags, and a couple of minutes each to present and review. A longer team or group activity, requiring 10-15 minutes of discussion, development of ideas, creation of the flag design, and then as much time as is necessary to present and discuss the reasons and reactions.
When invited to express themselves in a completely new and different medium, people find it easier to really think about their qualities. The exercise is particularly useful to begin inter-departmental workshops. Teams have to think about what they stand for, how they wish to be seen, and other teams have a chanceto see and understand colleagues or other departments in a different way. As an exercise for work groups, this is a good prompt for debate within the team, and then afterwards between teams when flag designs are presented and reviewed. This exercise is also excellent as an individual activity for children and young people of all ages. It can also be used for pairs or threes of friends, boys groups, girls groups; the possibilities really are endless. As an alternative to the flags, a coat of arms could be given as the design task. Obviously, encourage participants to include symbols and image icons, as well as colors and shapes.