5 Creative energisers for workshops or meetings
Creative energisers are a quick way to get people’s minds warmed up before a meeting or workshop. I’ve found that a 5 min activity helps people switch off from whatever they were just doing. It also encourages participation from everyone early in the meeting which makes it more inclusive.
I’ve heard them called by many names: ice breakers, warm-ups, games, exercises or just “fun activities” but I like to call them creative energisers for two reasons:
The focus is on creativity - the primary purpose is creating something to build people’s creative confidence, not on team building or getting to know each other (that’s a secondary purpose)
You feel good after - “energised” is a good description of the feeling you get after these exercises
Reasons to run creative energisers
Leave the day behind - It helps people’s focus on the task ahead and leave behind whatever they were just doing.
Builds creative thinking - Small repetitive exercises form a habit of creative thinking and helps builds creative confidence in people.
Team building - It's a fun way to get the team working together and sharing, especially for people that don’t work together day to day.
Inclusive meetings - doing a warm up activity gets everyone speaking from the start. This means people are more likely to speak later in the meeting, making it more inclusive and encouraging a diversity of thoughts.
Gets people comfortable with remote tools - not everyone in the team uses digital whiteboards as much as others so it’s an easy way of getting people comfortable with them so they’re more proficient. Miro and Mural are two popular whiteboarding tools.
5 of my favourite creative energisers
All of these can be done in 5-10 mins depending on the size of the group. Here’s a breakdown of the timing:
1 min - intro
3 min - do the activity
1 + mins - sharing (bigger groups take more time)
1. Thirty Circles
Draw as many circle-inspired creations as you can before the clock runs out. This of my favourite creative energisers!
Prep
Pens & paper (for in-person)
Digital canvas/whiteboard tool (for remote)
Instructions
Give everyone 3 minutes to draw as many circle-inspired creations as they can
Draw inside, outside or around. Go wild!
Go for quantity! Don’t spend all your time perfecting a few, draw as many as you can
At the end, stop and ask each person to share at least one shape they drew (more if they like)
Tips
For pen & paper version, Sharpie’s will bleed through paper so use two sheets or have a pad underneath
For running a digital version, set up one grid of circles (6 across and 5 down) and have people duplicate it
Source: IDEO - I read about this in David & Tom Kelley’s book Creative Confidence and it’s also on IDEO’s blog.
2. Shape Creations
Draw as many creations as you can using only a fixed number of shapes. The constraint on shapes brings out creative thinking.
Prep
Pens & paper (for in-person)
Digital canvas/whiteboard (for remote)
Draw out the shapes they can use (4 squares, 4 lines, 4 circles, 4 triangles)
Instructions
Give everyone 3 minutes to draw as many creations with the shapes provided
For each creation, they can use no greater than the number of shapes specified (but they can use less)
For the digital version, there are some additional rules:
You CAN’T add new shapes
You CAN’T change shape colours
You CAN resize shapes
You CAN duplicate shapes
Source: my crazy mind
3. Mash-up
Think of as many inventions as you can by combining two random objects
Prep
Pens & paper (for in-person) or any note-taking app (for digital)
Instructions
Ask the group for two objects
Write them down somewhere the group can see
Set a timer for 3 minutes and ask everyone to think of as many combinations of these two objects as possible
Go crazy with ideas! And go for quantity!
Ask each person to share their best mashups
Source: I read about “Chindogu”, the japanese art of unuselessness, in John Cassidy and Brendan Boyle’s The Klutz Book of Inventions, which inspired this activity.
4. Divergence
Think of as many uses of each of the two objects as you can
Prep
Pens & paper (for in-person) or any note-taking app (for digital)
Instructions
Ask the group for two objects
Write them down somewhere the group can see
Set a timer for 3 minutes and ask everyone to think of all the possible uses of each object
Go crazy with ideas! And go for quantity!
At the end, ask each person to share their best uses
Tips
Start with the simple and obvious to get going
Source: The book ‘Outliers’ by Malcolm Gladwell, talks about the divergence test which inspired this activity.
5. Crazy book blurbs
Using Story Cubes, write back-cover-blurb’s of books which turn into crazy plots
Example: a house of traps attracts the most daring into challenges involving aliens, sloths and tee pees. They parachute in with only a bottle of rum and a magnet. Only those with the biggest hearts will survive.
Prep
Buy Story Cubes or get the Story Cubes app
Pens & paper (for in-person) or any note-taking app (for digital)
Instructions
Roll the story cubes (or shake the app)
Individually, write back-cover-blurbs of books using ALL of the cubes
Go for speed! Make them short, a sentence or two max. They don’t have to flow or make sense, just write what you see.
At the end, ask each person to share their best book blurb
Source: someone on a previous project told me about Story Cubes which inspired this activity
Different ways I’ve used creative energisers
Here’s a few ways I’ve used creative energisers at work:
At the start of an agile retrospective - I’ve found starting an agile retro with a quick creative activity helps people focus. It gets them to step away and leave behind whatever they were just working on
Before brainstorming or ideation sessions - It helps get people’s brains ready for a creative activity like brainstorming, ideation or collaborative design sessions.
Start a weekly “creative stand-up” - On one project, I found a small group of people that were particularly interested in the creative activities I was doing for retros and wanted to try more. We set up a “creative stand-up” one a week where we did these for 10 mins first thing in the morning before stand-up.
Creative energisers are really simple and fun to do. A quick 5 min activity allows people to leave behind whatever they were just working on and helps create a more inclusive meeting environment. Try one out with your team.
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