Design a Handshake is a fun activity that can be used to spark conversations about leadership, teamwork and communication. It’s also a quick, simple way to lift the energy in the room.
Materials Required: None.
Preparation: No preparation required.
Set-Up Instructions for Participants:
“Before we jump into the next part of the workshop, I’d love to do a quick activity with you. In a minute, I’m going to ask you to jump up, find yourself a partner, and you will have 1 minute to design yourselves a 2-part handshake.”
How to Facilitate the Activity:
1. Give participants the set-up instructions as above.
2. Call out when time is up and check that all pairs were able to design a handshake.
3. Ask each pair to join up with another pair and form a group of four. Give participants 2 minutes to turn their 2-part handshakes into a 4-part handshake.
4. Call out when time is up and check that all groups were able to design a handshake, by asking them to demonstrate it to the rest of the group.
5. Ask each group to join up with another group and form a group of eight. Ask participants to to turn their 4-part handshakes into an 8-part handshake. At this point, the task usually becomes quite difficult and you are able to observe things about leadership, communication and team dynamics. Let them try for 2 minutes and then invite all the groups to join together and make one 16 (24, 30, however many) part handshake as a group.
6. Let the game continue for as long as it takes the team to run through the handshake with no mistakes. (This can take anywhere between 5-20 minutes!)
Debriefing Questions:
- What did you notice about the ease of putting a handshake together as the group size grew?
- When you recognised that the task wasn’t going to be as easy as the previous rounds, what went through your mind?
- Some of you stepped in and offered suggestions as to how the team could learn the handshake. Others of you stayed back and were happy to follow instructions. How did you decide what role you were going to play in the team?
- As a team, what did you do that worked well?
- What might you have done differently to make it easier to complete the task?