10 Fingers
Everyone holds up ten fingers and takes turns making a yes/no statement about themselves — 'I have a cat', 'I have never stolen anything'. Anyone who cannot answer yes drops a f…
C1
Relationship-Building Skills
Nurturing relationships with emotional intelligence grounded in trust, respect, mutual understanding, and a spirit of collaboration.
Tools for this skill (41)
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…
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…
Anyone who...
The group sits in a circle of chairs with one person standing in the middle, who calls out something they might have in common with others — 'anyone who has a dog'. Everyone it…
Asking For Support
Say what you are struggling with; close your eyes and feel for the unmet need under it — significance, love, certainty — and for one concrete thing the other person could do; th…
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…
Best Friends / Mortal Enemies
Everyone secretly picks a 'best friend' and, on three, gets as close to them as possible; then a 'mortal enemy', and gets as far away as possible; then tries to keep the friend…
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…
Building and maintaining relationships across team boundaries
The quality of external relationships significantly affects the team's ability to accomplish its goals. Start by mapping the team's key external relationships. Which other teams…
Building Psychological Safety
Sustainability work requires speaking uncomfortable truths, acknowledging uncertainty, and challenging unsustainable practices. None of this is possible without psychological sa…
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…
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…
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…
Dyad Circling (Wedding Circle)
Two closely interdependent people — a couple, colleagues — circle each other on a tension between them while four to eight others sit around and attend only to the space between…
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…
Generative Relationships STAR
Working groups assess their own interaction pattern on the STAR compass — Separateness (diversity of perspective), Tuning (listening and reflecting), Action (joint activity), an…
Greeting Each Other
Everyone walks the room at their own pace and greets whoever they meet in the way the leader calls: eye contact, a wink, a smile, a grimace, a bow, a curtsey, a handshake, a cla…
Group Giving Game (Would Y'all?)
Anyone may make a request of the whole group — to enact something together — and anyone uncomfortable raises a hand to change it, for themselves or for everyone; anyone can stop…
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…
Impromptu Networking
Three rapid rounds of paired conversation (4–5 minutes each) on two questions: "what big challenge do you bring?" and "what do you hope to give and get?" Participants mill and r…
Massage
The circle turns and everyone gives the person in front of them a shoulder massage, then turns around and returns it. The source adds that judgement is needed about what is appr…
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…
Name Volley
Two teams of up to six play mimed volleyball, and every pass is made by calling the name of the player who must receive it. The requirement is that the imaginary ball stays visi…
Network Relationship Patterns
Quartets use a shared vocabulary of ten recurring work-relationship patterns to name how they actually interact — where energy flows, where it drains — and pick one pattern to s…
Pair Introductions
In pairs, people interview each other on three questions — your name, your favourite ice cream, what you would be doing if you weren't here — and then each introduces the other…
Psychological Safety Micro-Behaviours
An individual practice run inside real teamwork: deliberately doing the small things research links to team psychological safety — asking genuine questions, speaking up about yo…
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…
Rock, Paper, Scissors Tournament
Pairs play rock-paper-scissors; each loser falls in behind the winner as a cheering entourage, and the chain follows its champion to the next bout, until the whole room stands b…
Social Network Webbing
The group maps its informal web: who is already involved in the purpose, who is connected to whom, and who is missing — using color-coded sticky notes that grow into a living ne…
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,…
T-Group
Four to eight people hold a forty-minute conversation entirely about what they notice in themselves, in each other and in the group, right now, using four hand signals — agreeme…
Team Check-in
An NVC-grounded ritual for teams: unhurried rounds in which each person expresses honestly how they are and what they need, received with empathic listening and no fixing — reco…
Team Dynamics
Reads a team against Tuckman's five stages of group development — forming, storming, norming, performing, adjourning — so that friction is recognised as a stage rather than a fa…
Team Psychological Safety Scan
Measuring a team's psychological safety with Amy Edmondson's validated survey items (e.g., "If you make a mistake on this team, it is often held against you"), then debriefing t…
The Connection Investment
A seconds-scale daily micro-practice for Relationship-Building Skills (VCoL collection): In brief interactions, pause to make genuine contact rather than just exchanging informa…
The Remembering Practice
A seconds-scale daily micro-practice for Relationship-Building Skills (VCoL collection): When a colleague mentions something significant, make a mental note. In your next intera…
The Repair Initiation
A seconds-scale daily micro-practice for Relationship-Building Skills (VCoL collection): When you notice a relational rupture, even small, take initiative to address it. This mi…
The Shield
Each participant draws a large shield divided into four fields and fills them with PICTURES (no words) on personal themes — "this describes me…", "a difficulty I got over…", "I…
Three Noses
Players wander until a call goes up — 'three noses', '7 left big toes', 'five bellybuttons' — and have to form little clusters touching exactly those parts together. The source…
Triggering Team Trust
A team examines its own trust explicitly: assessing the fundamental elements — per Zenger & Folkman (2019): positive relationships, expertise and good judgment, consistency — ag…
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…
Also develops it (49)
African Massage
In threes, two people work on the third, who stands bent forward with head and arms hanging. The two tap with cupped hands from the shoulders down the back, harder over the glut…
Ambulance Tag
One person is 'the accident' and may only move along an invisible straight line dividing the room. Everyone else tries to cross from one side to the other. Get run over and you…
B.G.D.V.F. Connection
Two people share, in order, a brag, a gratitude, a desire, a vulnerability and a fear from the day or the time since they last met, each with its own sentence stem. Written by a…
Blind Lead
One person is blindfolded in a room that has been deliberately strewn with obstacles, and the rest of the group has to talk them across it. The source records a fuller variant i…
Body Hide
Four players try to hide a fifth using nothing but their own bodies while everyone else looks for any visible patch of clothing, shoe or skin. Each round removes a hider, until…
Building and maintaining psychological safety
To create an environment where team members feel safe to express themselves, take risks, and be vulnerable. Psychological safety is built through consistent behavior over time:…
Building capability for co-creation with external actors
Co-creating with external actors involves challenges beyond internal collaboration. Before significant external co-creation, clarify the nature of the collaboration. Is this gen…
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…
Communication across organizational and cultural boundaries
Effective cross-boundary communication requires attention to different contexts, norms, and needs. Develop awareness of how communication norms differ across boundaries. Differe…
Compliment Tag
Whoever is caught freezes as a statue and can only be released by someone walking up and paying them a compliment. The sheet suggests starting by working out together what compl…
Container Building
The facilitator's meta-practice from Theory U: deliberately creating the holding space before the work — preparing one's own inner condition, co-creating ground rules, and invit…
Coordination across team boundaries
Most significant work requires coordination across team boundaries. Effective coordination multiplies the team's impact. Identify where cross-boundary coordination is needed: wh…
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…
Cross-boundary exposure
To bring in perspectives and ideas from outside the team's usual context. Create regular opportunities to learn from outside the team's usual boundaries: • Invite someone from a…
Deliberate learning from others
To cultivate the habit of seeking and valuing input from outside the team. Create regular opportunities to learn from people outside the team: • Invite colleagues from other tea…
Ending Appreciations
Round the circle, each person tells the one beside them something they appreciate about them from the last few hours. That is the whole game; the manual only adds to leave extra…
Focus on contribution over credit
To shift team culture toward valuing contribution to shared goals rather than individual recognition. Cultivate norms and practices that emphasize contribution over credit: • Wh…
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…
Free Falling
One player stands in the middle of a close circle, closes their eyes and lets themselves fall; the others catch them. The source describes a raised variation from a chair or tab…
Freeze Frame
In a group who know each other, everyone but the receiver secretly chooses a quality they associate with that person and a pose to show it; on three, all strike and hold, then e…
Head to Head
Everyone walks the room; the leader calls a body part and each person must quickly find whoever is nearest, put those body parts together, and move around the room joined like t…
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…
Hug Tag
Whoever is caught stands as a statue with their arms down at their sides and is released when a free player gives them a hug. With a large group the sheet suggests starting with…
Human Knot
The group stands shoulder to shoulder in a circle, everyone reaches in and takes two other hands at random, and the tangle has to be undone without anyone letting go. People can…
I Don't Know About You
One partner simply lists things they do not know about the other — when you last spoke to your parents, what you think about drug use — with no obligation on the other to answer…
Intimacies
Two circles facing each other; the inner person shares one intimacy with their partner — a truth, a withhold, an appreciation, a tag for later, or a projection to check — and th…
Introductions on One Letter
You introduce yourself — name, where you come from, dream destination, favourite dessert — with every single word forced to start with one chosen letter. The page's own example,…
Laughter Circle
The group lies down in a circle with each person's head on someone else's stomach. One person says 'Ha!' — seriously. The next says 'Ha, ha!' The next 'Ha, ha, ha!' The moment a…
Leadership in Action
Teams of four or five take a series of timed challenges, fifteen minutes each, with a different member leading every round and nobody leading twice until everyone has led once.…
Lighthouses and Boats
Half the group stand scattered across the floor as lighthouses; the other half line up at one end with their eyes closed as boats and have to cross to the far side. The lighthou…
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,…
Norms for effective information sharing
Teams need information to function, but information flow is often inadequate. Establish explicit agreements about information sharing: what information should be shared, with wh…
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…
Onboarding in Transdisciplinary Collaboration
A team-forming opening for transdisciplinary projects: students, teachers, and external partners build meaningful connection before building work plans — sharing backgrounds, mo…
Positive Gossip
Pairs "gossip" about colleagues — strictly positively: telling stories of what someone did well, as if the person weren't listening. Rounds rotate so everyone gossips and is gos…
Regular appreciation rounds
To create recurring opportunities for team members to express appreciation for each other. Include a brief appreciation round in regular team meetings: each person has the oppor…
Relay Massage
Half the group stands scattered with eyes closed; the others move among them massaging, relay fashion. Nobody standing may be left alone — whoever is spare goes to someone who i…
Sandwich Tag
Nobody is appointed tagger — anyone may become one. You pick out a victim, catch somebody's eye, and the two of you sneak up and hug the victim from either side like the bread o…
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…
Solitaire
Players line both sides of a run. One person sprints its length with their eyes closed while the others keep them straight and catch them at the far end. The source notes how ha…
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…
Stakeholder engagement practices
Effective engagement with stakeholders builds support, surfaces important perspectives, and creates allies. Develop systematic approaches to stakeholder engagement: Identify key…
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 King
One person stands in the middle as the king and begins to move; everyone else supports whatever they do. Lift a leg and someone is immediately underneath the foot. The king clim…
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…
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…
Toward the Wall
One at a time, people walk from one wall to the opposite one with their eyes closed, trying to stop as close to the wall as they can. Someone always spots so that nobody walks s…
Working through collective resentments and divisions
To address patterns of division that limit the team's capacity. Periodically create space to examine whether the team is carrying resentments or grievances: Are there other team…
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…