Before my mind can comprehend what is happening, my body begins to dance — and I mean DANCE. It was not the scripted and safe two-step you expect from a middle-aged white guy with the choppy rhythm of a corny dad joke.

After an hour and a half of sugar-hyped brainstorming, we selected an odd experiential learning exercise guaranteed to cement our brand identity into attendees' minds.

“Let’s play a giant game at the conference, but not tell anyone we’re playing.”

God has taught me that the world is very broken. Kids who come to foster care need love more than anybody else, so try to figure out how you love them where they are and love their parents for where they are.

It’s more fun than a velociraptor in a prom dress unicycling across the Danube River.

Earlier this week, I led a Facilitation Skills & Activities workshop for orientation leaders at a local university. The aggressively silly competition during our session reminded me why Noodle Ninja is my fourth-favorite teambuilding game.

I used to sit through painfully unproductive meetings. These meetings ended late, rarely completed anything, and wasted the precious time of overworked professionals.

Then I discovered the cause.

Every meeting we attend is infested with rabbits.

I found this container of bizarre and unrelated objects in our equipment building. It appears to be a complex teambuilding activity, but without instructions, I’m not sure what to do with it.

“Will you help me with The Mystery Box?” the presenter asked.

You and your partner are rival wizards battling each other in a magical duel. Unlike other competitions, this wizard duel has a unique way of winning.

The goal is to lose in the most EPIC way possible.

Remedial Wizardry is a creative energizer that anyone can do with their group without needing equipment, training, or facilitation experience.

Activity Guide- Postmodern RPS

Do you cringe when you hear “icebreaker” or “teambuilding?” Try this unique warm-up with your team.

Postmodern RPS¹ is a creative energizer that anyone can do with their group without needing equipment, training, or facilitation experience.

How many of us have ever withheld the real reason for a significant decision because we did not want to burn bridges? Or because we lost hope that the organization would act on legitimate concerns about a supervisor?

We sat down to debunk the five most common student and parent myths about the world of work with Dr. Marc Hunsaker, Ph.D.- Dean of Personal & Professional Development at Berry College

Group leaders seek team building for one of four reasons. To connect, to discover, to develop, or to overcome. What does each category mean?

Stacie Marshall, a farmer in NW Georgia, reflects on her discovery, “My family owned slaves.”

I’m part of telling the history of this place. And so how can I use this farm? How can I use this story for good?

Unhealthy optimism is harder to identify, but it will kill your team culture as surely as more overtly destructive methods.

It was 2005, and my team was preparing to attend and a mid-sized conference. We purchased some space in the exhibit hall. My boss tasked me with creating a way to boost foot traffic to our booth.

Professor: This is a class about advanced database design. Queries are covered in Intro to MIS and every subsequent class in the major. How do you not know what this is? Seriously. You need to understand this.”

Mark: “Ok.”

Professor: “Don’t you want a high-paying IT job?”

Mark: “No…”

Shannon and I moved our cards around, trying dozens of pairings until we landed on Lip + Box. 

“What if we had a device that gave people a do-over when they said something uncaring or insensitive?”

“Yes, and…”

For weeks, I found myself avoiding dealing with the “what” question and focusing only on the operational infrastructure of the business. I formed an LLC, decided on the logo and brand colors, and built a website necessary to operate the business…But I still delayed in definitively answering that question, “What does WorkPlay Solutions actually do?”

“Each holiday, we send the other person a bad gift. It started off fairly tame, then got weirder and weirder every year,” recalls Alice. “One year she sent me a hospital gown. So I sent her…

I started to explain the game, and I completely forgot the name of the activity.  What did I do when I was overconfident and (I believed) the details did not matter? I improvised. I looked at my audience with complete assurance and start explaining the instructions.

“What does a good facilitator think and do?”  I would love to hear from other professionals where you would rank these ideas or what might be missing from my list.