A Pen, a Paper
Sitting in a ring, a pen is passed to the left with a fixed exchange — 'here you are', 'what is it?', 'a pen', 'thank you' — but each new passer has forgotten what it is and mus…
Being B5
Presence
Capacity to be fully present in the here and now, to accept reality as it unfolds, and to respond in meaningful ways.
Tools for this skill (109)
Alphabet Circle
One person says the first letter of the alphabet to anyone else in the circle, who says the next letter to somebody else, and so on all the way to the end. Then try to get throu…
Ball Tag
One player has a soft ball to throw at the others; anyone may pick it up and throw, so there is no fixed chaser. Being hit puts you out at the side — until the person who hit yo…
Bibberi Bibberi Bo
Everyone stands in a ring around one person, who turns to somebody, points, and says 'bibberi bibberi bo'; if the person pointed at cannot get their 'bo' in first, they swap. Th…
Big and Small Fish
The group stands in a circle passing a fish around. Saying 'big fish' with the hands held close together passes it on; saying 'small fish' with the hands held far apart reverses…
Blind Association Ring
Standing in a ring, everyone takes turns saying a word that associates to the one their neighbour just said. On the leader's word everyone closes their eyes and keeps going; the…
Blind Desire
Eyes closed, attend to sensation, then to what the body wants, and let it move — first in place, then through the room, moving away from any contact and following your own pleas…
Blindfolded Scene
Players perform an improvised scene blindfolded, so every offer has to be heard rather than seen. The source also records a variation with mousetraps on the stage and players ba…
Body Dialogue
Movement first — fifteen minutes of dance or active play with music, enough to raise the heart rate — then participants lie down, still breathing hard, and hold a conversation w…
Body Scan Meditation
A guided practice of moving attention slowly and systematically through the body, noticing sensation without trying to change it. Usually done lying down with audio guidance, 20…
Bomb and shield
Each person silently picks two others — one their 'bomb', one their 'shield' — and then keeps moving so the shield stays between them and the bomb. Nobody knows who chose whom,…
Bumblebee
Partners converse only by singing a few lines of whatever song comes to mind in reply — and not one thought of while the other was singing. Named for the Transformer who could o…
Call the Wrong Name
Everyone pairs up in a ring except one person, who stands alone. When that person calls a name, it is not the named person who must run to them — it is the named person's partne…
Chair Rhythm
Five players share a single chair, arranging themselves into one composed image, and each is given a number. The rest of the group circles them; when the leader calls a number,…
Circling
A conversation about what is actually happening for you and between you, right now — sensations, emotions, relationship, 'vibes' — with curiosity about others' experience and no…
Clap the Body Awake
Standing with a bit of room and feet apart for balance, everyone claps their own body awake with an open hand: from the fingers up to the shoulder and back down, both sides of t…
Color Echo
One partner says items in a category — colours, numbers, emotions — and the other echoes each back in any way they like; then swap; then either may start. Simple, the manual say…
Contexter
After a short grounding meditation, the group completes the stem 'What's happening right now is…' popcorn-style, with no rebuttals, while the facilitator occasionally asks where…
Copy Circle
One at a time, each person steps into the middle of the circle with a big movement and a loud sound, then steps back — and everyone else steps in and copies both. Two variants c…
Counting one, two, three
In pairs, people alternate counting one, two, three until it has a rhythm, then replace 'one' with a clap or a stamp, then 'two', then 'three', until the count is entirely gestu…
Creating unconditional space for emergence
To create opportunities to explore without pressure to reach conclusions. Periodically create protected time for a different quality of conversation: • No agenda or predetermine…
Cross Circle
Someone calls another player's name and immediately starts walking toward them. Before they arrive, that person must call a third name and set off themselves, freeing their plac…
Crowdsource Meditation
Everyone closes their eyes and, whenever moved, names aloud what they are aware of — sweating hands, nerves, a deep breath. Others' noticings may shift your own or not; either i…
Dance Warm-Up
Everyone spreads out with room to move to driving music, and the leader names body parts that are to dance — either swapping one for the next, or accumulating them until the who…
Dancing in the Dark
Everyone takes their own space in the room, the lights go out, soft music plays, and people move however they like. The sheet's reasoning is the point: with the lights fully off…
Don't Laugh
A scene on a very serious subject — death, illness, addiction are the source's examples — and any player who laughs or giggles is replaced by another. A variation turns it aroun…
Elephant, palm tree, jelly
One person in the middle points at somebody and calls elephant, palm tree or jelly; that person and the two either side of them have three seconds to build the shape together. E…
Exactly One Walks
Everyone stands spread around the room and one person walks. When that person stops, somebody else has to start — exactly one person, immediately. There must be precisely one pe…
Feng Shui
Sit in a circle and notice how this arrangement feels — connected or not, playful or serious — then share, then change the configuration (standing, one person standing while oth…
Follow the Finger
Two people. One points with a finger; the other follows the finger with their whole body — first on the spot, then around the room. Small movements of the finger can produce lar…
Foot Touch Tag
Players stand in pairs with feet touching, and each pair swaps names. A stationary 'it' calls a name; the person who now carries that name has to reach them without being tagged…
Frame
Like the Noticing Game but each statement begins with the word 'Frame', treating the present moment of contact as a still life to be described admiringly in a phrase. Partners a…
Gingerbread Tag
Everyone but two forms a ring of linked pairs, each pair leaving one arm crooked and free. One player chases another; the chased can save themselves by hooking onto a free arm,…
Guided Presence
People mill, stop in front of someone, and hold eye contact while the facilitator reads a series of noticing prompts — let go of your story about this person, where is your atte…
Honey, I love you, but I can’t smile
One person goes to another and says 'honey, if you love me, give me a smile'. The other has to reply, straight-faced, 'honey, you know I love you, but I just can't smile'. If th…
Humming Gates
Pairs stand facing each other around the room with their arms raised to form gates, and each pair hums continuously at its own pitch. One player, eyes closed and not humming, na…
I Say
Instructions are only to be followed when they begin with 'I say…'. 'I say sit down' means sit down; a bare 'sit down' means stay put, and anyone who moves is out. The game itse…
Inside-Outside Presence
Training simultaneous attentiveness: staying in contact with one's own inner state while remaining fully attentive to the surroundings and other people — practiced in exercises…
Intentional pauses
To slow down habitual autopilot responses and create space for more considered engagement. Introduce intentional pauses at key moments: • Before an important discussion, take 30…
Interrelational Meditation
Mindfulness extended into relationship: in pairs, participants alternate between eyes-closed contact with their own present experience and open-eyed, non-judgmental seeing of th…
Keeper of the Keys
One person sits blindfolded on a chair with a set of keys underneath it while the circle tries to steal them without being heard. If the Keeper hears someone they point at where…
King Lizard
Everyone picks an animal with a sound and a motion. A player sends the impulse on by performing their own animal and then someone else's; that person does theirs and passes it o…
Knee Tag
In pairs on the floor facing each other, each person uses one hand to tag and the other to defend, trying to touch their partner's knees.
Knife Baby Angry Cat
An invisible knife is thrown between players, ninja-style, with eye contact established before every throw. Once that is reliable, an imaginary baby is added — thrown carefully,…
Land, Sea, Shore
The room is divided into three: one end is land, the other is sea, the middle is shore. The leader calls one of them and everyone runs to that part of the room.
Lens of Attention
The group answers the stem 'When I put my attention on ___, I notice ___' — first on objects the leader picks (breath, body, heart, the connection), then on anything anyone prop…
Letter Number Name
Names, then letters of the alphabet, then numbers are passed around the circle, each with its own gesture. Once each stream works alone, they are all set going at once and trave…
Listening Into the Room
Everyone lies down in their own place and listens outward to sounds beyond the room, then to sounds in the room, then to sounds in themselves. The sheet offers the reverse order…
Listening to a Story
Everyone settles comfortably and the leader tells a story. That is the whole exercise. The sheet notes a recording works as well, and that dimmed light shuts out the visual and…
Listening to Music
Everyone settles in their own place and listens actively to calm, preferably instrumental music, with something specific to listen for — individual instruments, or imagined sett…
Listening to the Surroundings
Everyone sits in silence and listens to the surroundings for about five minutes. Afterwards they compare what they heard — the ventilation, people outside, distant cars, the win…
Look up, look down
The circle looks at the floor. On 'look up' everyone raises their eyes and looks directly at one other person. Two people who find themselves looking at each other both scream,…
Meeting check-ins
To help team members arrive mentally and emotionally at the meeting. Begin meetings with a brief check-in round. Each person shares briefly in response to a simple prompt: • 'Ho…
Mind Your Tail
Everyone tucks a length of string into the back of their waistband and moves around the room trying to snatch as many other people's strings as they can, tucking each one they t…
Mindful Pause (Informal Practice)
The informal half of mindfulness training: bringing awareness deliberately into everyday activities — pausing before responding where one would otherwise act through habit or im…
Minis
Three minutes to say or do whatever helps you arrive, while your partner witnesses in silence; then they ask a presencing question — what colour are your socks, how does your le…
Mirror in Circle
Players find someone across the circle, make eye contact and mirror each other, then walk slowly to the centre still mirroring, arriving at the same moment as everyone else. A v…
Mirror Sessions
In pairs facing each other, one person moves and the other mirrors the movement and the facial expression as closely as they can. A performance variation asks a pair to mirror i…
Mountain Meditation
A guided visualization of yourself as a mountain: grounded, dignified, unmoved in essence while weather and seasons — moods, pressures, crises — pass across your slopes. A stabi…
Mudra Theatre
Chairs face one side of the room; whoever steps on stage expresses whatever arises, for as long as the facilitator lets it cook, with one rule: nothing they thought of beforehan…
Noting
In pairs, holding eye contact, one person speaks a single word for whatever passes through awareness — thought, sensation, itch, fear, blankness — for three minutes or more, the…
One Stops, All Stop
Everyone walks the room in different directions, asked to think of the floor as a raft that tips if too many people are on one side, so the group keeps redistributing itself. If…
Order With Topics
A topic is chosen — countries, say — and the first person points at somebody and says Ghana. That person points at somebody else and says another country. The rule that makes it…
Peep Tag
One chaser, one chased, and everyone else standing in queues of three. The chased can join the back of any queue and shout 'peep', which makes them safe — and shunts whoever is…
Presence Pause
Presence helps us notice when automatic reactions or convenience are pulling us away from sustainability commitments. It creates space for more considered responses aligned with…
Prolonged Eye Contact
Two circles of chairs facing each other; sit, and hold eye contact in silence for anywhere from thirty seconds to five minutes, then share. The manual suggests keeping it short…
Protected time for genuine dialogue
To create recurring opportunities for deeper, more present conversation. Periodically create protected time for dialogue that is not structured around an agenda or task. Explore…
Relaxation: Breathing
Participants lie or stand apart from each other and breathe to a square: in through the nose, down into the belly and up through the ribs to the collarbones; hold; out through t…
Rhythmic Story
The group establishes a steady beat and one person tells a story with one word on each beat, so the words come at an even pace with no room to search for them. Variations: the c…
Run To Center
The group stands in a large circle and at any moment anyone may start running toward the centre — at which point everybody runs. The aim is that the reaction is fast enough that…
Running Round and Round
The group runs in a ring, and anyone running may at any moment reverse direction — at which point everyone else must reverse too. The source is unusually direct about when not t…
Russian Concentration Exercise
The whole group walks a large ring in step while the leader calls numbers from one to four, each meaning an action the whole group performs together on the beat — one is a clap,…
See and Be Seen
Mill, stop, close your eyes; on opening, one partner silently sees while the other is seen, then swap, then both at once, closing the eyes in between to return to yourself — all…
Semi-Circling
Stand in front of a semicircle of six to eight and say three to five physical sensations you feel right now, with their flavours, then three to five emotions, with theirs — no s…
Shootout
Cowboy elimination played on names: a name is called, that person drops, and their two neighbours shoot at each other. Whoever is slower dies, and if the named player does not d…
Sigh Deeply
Lying comfortably on the back, everyone breathes slowly and sighs deeply three times, letting physical tension leave on each out-breath. After the third sigh the slow deep breat…
Simultaneous Clap
One person catches another's eye across the circle and the two prepare to clap; they must clap at exactly the same moment. That person then catches a third person's eye, and so…
Sitting Meditation (Breath-Anchored)
The core formal mindfulness practice: sitting upright, resting attention on a chosen anchor — usually the breath — and each time the mind wanders, gently returning it, without j…
Smart Fellas
A counting game in which the phrase changes on threes and multiples of three — 'one smart fella he felt smart', '3 smart fellas they all felt smart' — and any error puts you out…
Sneak Up on Someone
Everyone walks the room, then is told to sneak up on somebody — walking directly behind them, hoping not to be noticed — while watching their own back for whoever is doing the s…
Spin The Bottle Topical Circling
A bottle in the middle of the circle; whoever it points at picks a topic and the group circles it for four minutes — relationally, never conceptually, and anyone who hears it dr…
Splat!
Everyone stands in a circle holding an imaginary pie. When a name is called, that person ducks and their two neighbours splat each other; the slower of them is out, and so is an…
Spoon of Water
Everyone imagines they are carrying a spoonful of water and balances it as they walk the room. If that is hard, the source suggests trying it with a real spoon first, to feel th…
Start–Stop
Everyone walks the room at their own pace. The leader claps and everyone stops instantly, and claps again to restart. Then it devolves: any participant may stop whenever they li…
Stop, go, jump, clap!
The group walks the space responding to four called instructions, then the meanings are reversed — 'stop' means go, 'clap' means jump — and the calls come faster. Some are usual…
The director’s theatre
One person calls theatre commands — upstage, stage left, bring in the flies, tableau, tragedy, comedy, wings — and everyone else obeys as fast as they can, miming or running to…
The Handshake
Everyone moves around shaking hands, and at each handshake you say your own name and swap names with the person you greeted — so the names travel round the group. When your own…
The Imaginary Ball
The group throws an imaginary ball around the circle, and once the tempo is up the leader calls out how the ball changes — heavier, lighter, faster, smaller, bigger, higher — an…
The Jungle Telegraph
Everyone takes a ranked jungle character — Jane, Tarzan, the gorilla, the lizard, the amoeba — and stands in rank order, each with a sound and a movement. You perform your own a…
The Magnet
In pairs, one player holds a still shape while the other, eyes closed, explores it by touch and then tries to become the same shape themselves.
The Meeting Arrival
A seconds-scale daily micro-practice for Presence (VCoL collection): In the 30 seconds before entering a meeting or starting a call, pause. Let go of what you were just doing wi…
The Movement Game
One person makes a movement, optionally with a sound, and the next tries to reproduce it exactly. Inevitably small changes creep in, and the instruction is to keep them: each pe…
The Noticing Game
Two people take turns completing the sentences "Being with you, I notice…" (or "Hearing that, I notice…"), naming present-moment sensations, feelings, and impulses as they arise…
The Old Pike
One player is the old pike; everyone else are small fish along a wall who want to cross the lake. On the pike's signal they run, and a fish the pike touches takes root on the la…
The Repeating Question
In pairs, walking: one person asks the same question again and again — "What do I find enjoyable and important in life?" — receiving each answer in silence and asking once more.…
The Single-Task Moment
A seconds-scale daily micro-practice for Presence (VCoL collection): Choose a brief activity, even just 30 seconds. Decide to give it your full attention. When your mind wanders…
The Traffic Light
Two groups wait at opposite sides of a wide crossing with traffic lights, a third group watching. On somebody's silent impulse everyone begins to walk and they meet in the middl…
The Transition Breath
A seconds-scale daily micro-practice for Presence (VCoL collection): At each transition, pause for one conscious breath. Let the previous activity go with the exhale. Arrive in…
Throw the Ball
A ball goes round the circle, and the rule is that whoever holds it must make eye contact with the person they are throwing to before it leaves their hands. More balls are added…
Throw the Coloured Ball
Everyone stands in a circle with a hand raised. An imaginary green ball is thrown to somebody, who says 'green ball', catches it, says 'green ball' and throws it to somebody who…
Toe Disco
Everyone sits in a circle of chairs with their feet together on the floor for a disco danced entirely with the toes. The leader leads first, everyone copies, and thanks the grou…
Torpedoes
One person is the torpedo and moves in a straight line toward somebody they have chosen, saying that person's name before arriving. The target becomes the next torpedo. Once the…
Walking the Room
Participants walk the room without making contact, to raise the pulse a little and, above all, to focus on being here and now. The leader develops it — vary the tempo down to sl…
What's Here Now?
One person lies down and places their partner's hand somewhere on their own body; the hand stays exactly there, relaxed, in pure witness, while the partner asks 'what's here now…
Who’s changing the movement?
One person leaves while a Leader is chosen. The Leader starts a repeated movement that the whole circle copies and changes it whenever they can do so unnoticed; the Investigator…
Witnessed Movement
One partner moves however they want for five minutes with eyes closed; the other watches with full attention, trying to feel what it is to be them dancing — mimicking a little i…
Yee-haw!
Four calls with four gestures — yee-haw passes round the circle, rattlesnake reverses it, hoedown skips a person, lasso throws it across — learned one at a time and then played…
Zip, zap, boing
An impulse is passed round the circle by pointing and calling: zip to the left, zap to the right, boing to send it straight back at whoever aimed at you. Hesitating, or saying a…
Zombie Name Game
One player moves zombie-slow toward someone, arms out. Before being reached, that person has to call another player's name, which redirects the zombie. Fail to call in time and…
Also develops it (109)
...AND...
A silent meditation facing a partner: first on everything you share — a world, emotions, that they could be a mirror — and a minute or two on what it is like to be one; then on…
"How we work together" dialogues
To create space for explicit discussion of team dynamics. Periodically dedicate time to dialogue focused on how the team works together. Topics might include: • How do we typica…
4D Mapping (Social Presencing Theater)
An embodied map of a whole social system: participants physically take the roles of its stakeholders — including marginal and non-human ones — arranging themselves as Sculpture…
Acting Everyday Chores
Everyone walks the room and the leader calls out a domain — morning routine, schoolwork, a winter activity, a holiday, a TV evening, the big shop, clothes shopping, cleaning — a…
Action Syllables
Each person says their name one syllable at a time, giving every syllable its own gesture, and the group repeats it back. Each new person adds theirs and the group then runs the…
Adventure Walk
The leader tells a story that everyone acts out individually and simultaneously: packing a rucksack, hanging it on your back, climbing out of the window, dropping to the ground,…
Aerobics
Players line up; the first walks a circuit of the room and the second follows, moving as they move. After a few rounds the leader peels off to the back and the next pair takes o…
Alliteration Introduction
Each person introduces themselves with an alliterating adjective and a gesture — 'I'm Wonderful Wendy' — and each new player repeats everyone before them before adding their own…
Appreciation Dyads
Five minutes of 'being with you, I appreciate…' — about yourself, the other, or both, in the present moment — then swap. People run dry after a couple of minutes, the manual not…
At the Cinema
Lying or sitting in dimmed light, participants hear four short pieces of music and imagine a film to them — its opening and characters, its plot and genre, its turning point, it…
Back Dancing
In pairs, standing back to back, players dance to changing music without ever losing contact between their backs. Nobody can see their partner, so the whole negotiation happens…
Ball Massage
In pairs, one person lies on their front and the other rolls a ball over their back. The leader can guide it aloud — start between the shoulder blades, then a little harder over…
Bandaid Tag
A tag game where each tag has to be held: you cover the spot you were tagged with a hand, and a second tag takes your other hand. A third freezes you, until two other players co…
Blind Dance
Half the group stands scattered with their eyes closed. Music starts and the other half each go to someone and dance them around, while the dancer keeps their eyes shut througho…
Bloody Potato
Everyone moves around the room with their eyes closed, hands out, whispering 'potato' to whoever they meet. One person, chosen by a tap on the back, whispers 'bloody potato' ins…
Body Awareness
Across multiple sessions, participants train attention to their bodily and affective responses inside real learning and work situations — where concentration lives, how tension…
Body Part Leads
The leader names a body part that will lead the person around the room, and the group works with direction, strength, tempo, level and form. What does the leading part look like…
Bumpity Bump
Everyone learns the names of the two people beside them. The person in the middle points at someone and says 'bumpity bump bump bump'; before they finish, the person pointed at…
Choose Your Own Adventure
One person shares what is on their heart for two minutes; the other two each name the thread that most has their attention — something said, or a way of being — and the speaker…
Clearness Committee
The Quaker discernment practice: a focus person brings an important question or decision; a committee of four or five holds them for three-quarters of an hour with ONLY honest,…
Click Bang you`re dead
A guessing game with a hidden rule: the leader points around the circle saying 'click' or 'bang' in a way that suggests a pattern, then declares someone dead. The secret is that…
Columbian Hypnosis
One player holds an open hand a few inches from their partner's face and moves it slowly; the partner keeps their face at exactly that distance, so the hand leads the whole body…
Conductor
A tight circle becomes three choirs; whoever stands in the middle improvises a melody — words, gibberish, a single note — for each choir to loop, then conducts the layers until…
Conversation Café
Small tables of 5–7 make sense of a profound or troubling theme through four rounds with a talking object: two rounds where each person speaks uninterrupted, an open conversatio…
Council (Circle with Talking Piece)
A circle process with a talking piece: only the holder speaks, everyone else practices devoted listening. Guidelines — speak from the heart, listen from the heart, be spontaneou…
Count to 20
The group tries to count to twenty out loud with no order agreed and nobody leading. Anyone may say the next number; if two people speak at once the count restarts at one. Getti…
Create Obstacles
Two players chase each other around the room; the one being chased mimes obstacles into existence and the chaser has to get over, under or through each of them before continuing.
Dance in the Middle
To fast, energising music, whoever wants to goes into the middle of the circle and dances however they like while everyone else copies. When they have had enough they rejoin the…
Dance with Eyes Closed
Half the group stands with eyes closed at one side of the room; the others each invite one of them to dance. The sheet puts the responsibility plainly: the person who invites is…
Dance with Impulses
In groups of three to five, moving together to music, participants are told to give and take impulses from each other — copying, or drawing inspiration from, one another's movem…
Dancing in Levels
In threes, to music, the group moves together with one person working high — reaching upward — one at middle level with bent knees and back, and one on the floor. At any point s…
Death and Retriever
A version of Scorpion in which the dead can be brought back. Everyone moves with eyes closed; a killer kills by touch and victims scream and freeze, while a retriever wearing a…
Dedicated time for relationship-building
Relationships develop through interaction, and interaction requires time. For internal relationships: Informal gatherings provide low-pressure opportunities to know each other b…
Deep Listening
Listening past the words: in pairs or small groups, the listener holds complete, non-judgmental attention — without inner censorship, rehearsing a reply, or steering — staying o…
Dialogue Interview
A prepared but generative one-to-one conversation (30–90 minutes) designed to open reflection rather than extract answers: the interviewer sets an inner container in silence bef…
Everyone Does the Same
Standing in a circle, the group invents three creatures it may become — a cat that claws and miaows, a greaser slapping a double bass, the king greeting his people. On a signal,…
Face Massage
Each person massages their own face, sitting comfortably: fingers stroked over the whole face, circles at the chin and cheeks, light pressure at the temples, the forehead and sc…
Fingertips
In pairs, all ten fingertips touching, one player closes their eyes and is led around the room by the other — over and under obstacles — with the connection at the fingers the o…
Flock Dance
The group forms a wedge — one player at the point, two behind, three behind them — and the leader moves while each row copies the row in front. The leader can even turn and face…
Foot Tag
Everyone stands in a ring holding hands. One person tags another by touching their foot with their own, and the touched person becomes the tagger. Letting go of your neighbours'…
Four Leave the Bench
Wordless improvisation. Four people on a bench have to leave it for the same reason.
Freeze
Two people improvise in the middle of a circle until anyone watching calls 'freeze'. The caller steps in, takes over one performer's exact physical position, and starts a comple…
Handshake Game
Stand before a partner in silent eye contact until you feel you have met them — only then offer your hand, and only shake when the other feels the same — before moving on to mee…
Heard, Seen, Respected
In pairs, participants take turns telling a story about a time they were NOT heard, seen, or respected, while the partner listens without interrupting, fixing, or judging. A str…
House, Creature, Flood
Players build a house around one player who is the creature inside it. On 'house' the house rebuilds itself around the same creature; on 'flood' everybody scatters and finds ano…
I Know That Hand
Two lines of partners take each other's hands and learn them by touch alone, then rotate so that everyone has studied everyone's hands. Then one line closes their eyes and holds…
I’ve got some news...
Two people stand in the middle of the circle; one gives the other a piece of news — you got the job, your holiday is cancelled — and the other simply reacts. No scene has to fol…
Janus Dance
Two players dance slowly with each head resting on the other's shoulder, so neither can see the other's face, and play a two- or three-minute scene while dancing. The source rec…
Listening to Pause
A team dialogue structure built on deliberate silence: each person speaks for the same fixed time (e.g., five minutes); after each speaker, the group holds about a minute of pau…
Love Blaster
Appreciate an object in the room for a minute — then close your eyes and appreciate the feeling of appreciating. Do it again with a partner and a second object. Then two pairs m…
Magical Moments
A guided return to a moment in your life that felt magical — its smells, colours, sounds, textures, the mood you were in — relived with eyes closed for a minute or so, then shar…
Maintaining momentum through difficulty
Difficult periods can stall team momentum. Resilient teams maintain momentum even through difficulty. During difficult periods, focus on maintaining forward motion: • Identify s…
Maintaining perspective through difficulty
Difficult periods are inevitable. For teams working in awareness of climate and political crises, the broader context itself can be a source of ongoing difficulty. When facing d…
Massage Story
In pairs, one person sits behind the other and draws on their back while the leader tells a story — rain drummed with the fingertips, getting harder; a cat's paws picking their…
Mindful Nature Walk
The entry-level nature-connection practice: a walk in forest or park with attention deliberately in relationship — naming trees, listening to layered sounds, feeling the carryin…
Monster and Fairy Tag
One player is a monster and crosses the floor as hideously as they can, with noises; everyone else are fairies tripping on tiptoe. A tagged fairy becomes a monster, so the monst…
Moving Interaction
Mill around; whenever you meet someone's eyes or bump into them, interact — a sound, a gesture, a touch — then move on. Anyone offered a physical interaction they do not want gi…
Name Round
The plainest name exercise there is — everyone says their name around the ring — with three escalations the page supplies: say it twice with a three-second gap in which everyone…
Nature Quest
Structured solo time in wild nature in three phases: preparation (practical questions, naming worries, setting intention), the quest itself — going alone to a chosen place, leav…
Noticing and naming team patterns in real-time
To develop the team's capacity to notice what is happening in the moment. Cultivate the habit of pausing to name what is happening: • 'I notice the energy dropped when we starte…
Noticing and responding to struggles
To ensure that when team members are struggling, the team notices and responds supportively. Create practices that help the team stay attuned to member wellbeing: • Check-ins th…
Object in a circle
An object sits in the middle of the circle — the more abstract the better. People step in one at a time and use it as something it is not, playing the use clearly enough that th…
Obstacle Tag
Tag in pairs, played in cartoon spirit — Tom and Jerry, Bugs Bunny. The one being chased fends off the chaser with mimed obstacles: felling a large tree in their path, painting…
One Voices Everyone
Several actors on stage appear to be talking, but one person off to the side speaks every line for all of them. The silent actors have to fit their bodies and movements to words…
Pair Tag
Everyone pairs up and one pair is it. They chase the other pairs, and a pair they catch becomes it instead. The sheet asks the leader to decide first how pairs stay joined — han…
Perspective Yoga
Four short conversations in a row: attention only on yourself; only on your partner; only on the connection between you, treated almost as a third being; only on the wider conte…
Persson to Karlsson
Pairs face each other while a caller stands on a chair in the middle naming pairs of body parts to be put together — index finger to forehead, elbow to knee, toe to toe — each h…
Practices for genuine dialogue
Dialogue is exploratory conversation aimed at developing shared understanding. Creating space for genuine dialogue requires structural conditions and conversational practices. S…
Progressive Touch
Forty-five minutes of touch that builds by stages, a minute each: breathing together, gazing, hands almost touching, then fingertips, then whole hands and forearms, a short cont…
Purpose connection moments
To maintain a thread between daily work and larger purpose. At the beginning or end of regular team meetings, include a brief moment connecting to purpose. This can take differe…
Race Cars
One partner closes their eyes and walks; the other steers from behind by the shoulders, keeping them clear of everything, as the facilitator calls higher gears until the room is…
Rain Massage
In pairs, one stands behind the other and begins by tapping lightly with the fingertips over the head, moving down to the shoulders and then over the back and out along the arms…
Reach Out, Touch Me
Sit with a partner and connect without words, a minute or more at each stage: only fingertips touching, then hands, then hands and arms — eyes open or closed as you choose. Then…
Renew Yourself Tag
When the tagger catches you, both of you stop and you must improvise an action — skipping rope, singing, ice skating. The tagger can interrupt at any moment with 'renew yourself…
Scorpion
Players mill about with eyes closed while one of them, tapped on the shoulder beforehand, kills by squeezing a forearm. The victim screams, opens their eyes and is out. Players…
Self-Massage
Sitting apart with room to work, each person massages themselves, guided by the leader: rub the hands warm first, then knead the hands and draw gently on each finger, the arms,…
Simultaneous Speech
In pairs. One person invents a story or talks about a subject; the other tries to say exactly the same words at exactly the same time. Copying the timing means having to anticip…
Sit Spot Practice
Each person chooses one spot in nature and returns to it again and again — sitting quietly, observing what lives and changes there through weathers and seasons, journalling afte…
Sketch Appreciation
After a minute or two of eye-gazing, one partner becomes an artist and the other their masterpiece: choosing an imagined medium, they 'sketch' the other's face, tracing features…
Sound Effects
Two actors improvise a scene and may speak but may not make any sounds. Beside the stage, two other people supply the sound effects — one for each actor — so a character steppin…
Sound Mat
Everyone lies on the floor in a circle with their heads close together. One person starts a slow soft sound and the others join it; at any point somebody else can start a differ…
Spiral Journal
A quiet opener: each person draws a spiral and, guided by four prompts read slowly aloud, writes brief reflections into its quadrants — arriving, noticing, remembering, intendin…
Stick Game
Each pair holds a short stick between the tips of their index fingers and moves through the room without dropping it — and if it drops, picks it up the same way. Swap who leads,…
Stick Together
Everyone moves around the room until the leader calls 'stick together!' — at which point people must instantly attach themselves into pairs or groups and keep moving joined. 'Lo…
Stone Tag
Whoever is caught turns into a stone and curls up on the floor. They are freed when another player who has not been turned jumps over them.
Story Sharing
In trios, each person tells a story of a moment when their sense of Self clarified — when they knew, for a while, who they were and what they were for — with five to ten minutes…
Stretching
A set of stretches used as relaxation, worked through the whole body, which a capable group can do on its own. The sheet's example is the neck: tip the head slowly toward one sh…
Tension and Release, Lying
Lying on the back, breathing in through the nose and out through the mouth, working up the body — feet, calves, thighs pressed to the floor, glutes, belly, ribcage, hands — tens…
The Activity
Wordless throughout: one person begins doing something on stage, and as soon as anyone else works out what the activity is they join in and take part in it. Joining is the proof…
The Chase
Everyone stands in a circle facing the back of the person in front, evenly spaced, and each player tries to tag the back of the one ahead of them. The addition that makes it dra…
The Double Take
A technique rather than a game: when somebody says something astonishing, look at them with a blank expression, then look quickly away, then snap back and gape. The realisation…
The empty chair
One person stands in the middle of a circle with one chair empty, and tries to sit in it. The group prevents this by shifting one seat round in unison — which only works if ever…
The Feeling Partner
Pairs look at each other with one named feeling — compassion, say — with no movement, arms at their sides, just looking. Then a new partner and a new feeling, then a third. Afte…
The Fireman
Lying on their backs and breathing slowly, participants are led through a sequence of imagined sensations and asked how each feels — sand, then shingle; a snowball, then a bead…
The Head & The Heart
Mill while tuning in to the conversation in your own head — its pace, volume, content — then pair up and complete 'Something my head is saying right now is…', repeat with new pa…
The Jump
The group stands in a square formation — four rows of four, say — all facing the leader, and everyone jumps four small jumps in time. Then only the front row jumps three, and on…
The Milling
The group walks silently through the room in shifting currents; at the facilitator's word, each person pauses face to face with whoever is near for a guided, wordless encounter…
The Stuck Exercise
A Social Presencing Theater practice: one person embodies a real stuck situation from their life or work as a physical shape ("sculpture 1"), stays with it, and lets the body —…
The Transforming Pen
A pen goes round the circle and whoever receives it must use it as something else — a lipstick, a cigarette, a fishing rod, a banana — playing the use clearly enough that the ot…
The Washing Machine
Four rows of four hold hands to form a washing machine. Three people are outside it: the dirty laundry, the detergent, and the one doing the washing. The detergent chases the la…
Thief and Police Tag
One player is the police, one the thief, and everyone else are stones curled on the floor with room to run between them. The police plays as firm as they can in body and voice,…
Time-out signal for process awareness
To enable any team member to pause interaction when communication patterns have become unproductive. Establish an agreed signal (such as forming a 'T' with hands) that any team…
Tug of War Without a Rope
Two teams improvise a tug of war with no rope. What matters is not who wins — there is no real contest — but whether it looks like one: is the rope taut or slack, is the distanc…
Tunnel Tag
Whoever is caught stands with their legs apart and is freed when another player crawls between them. With a large group the sheet suggests two taggers from the start.
Walk As If
Walk the room as if — on ice, in deep snow, on hot asphalt, on a swaying bridge, at the water's edge, across a busy street, needing the toilet, late for something fun, late for…
Watermelon
One partner may say only the word 'watermelon'; the other answers 'you seem…' with whatever they read in them, and the watermelons that follow are honest responses to being read…
Whatcha Doin'?
One person mimes an action; the next asks 'Whatcha doin'?' and is told something entirely different, which they must then mime for the next asker. Speed is the point — answer be…
Who stole the Cookies
A rhythmic call-and-response chant that passes an accusation around the group by name — 'who stole the cookies from the cookie jar?' — with the accused protesting and then namin…
Word Association
Around the circle or back and forth in pairs, each person says the first word the last one prompts, as fast as possible and uncensored. The manual's variations narrow it to a ca…