Here's a fun variation I really like of a good-ol Rohnke activity (Warp Speed) - it is really proving to be a low-prop keeper!

ACTIVITY OBJECTIVE: The group is challenged to verbally move through a pattern of each participant’s name as quickly as possible.

FACILITATED OBJECTIVE: Explore behaviors related to communication, cooperation, planning and implementation, participation/active engagement, problem solving, and goal setting. Explore concepts of practice/rehearsal, success/failure, and task pressure.

NEEDS & NUMBERS: You’ll need a spot marker for each player (my favorite spot is a five foot piece of parachute cord tied at the ends to make a circle) and one stopwatch. Plays well with 8 to 16 people. Multiple groups can play at the same time – it’s good to have a stopwatch for each group.

TIME: 10 to 15 minutes (for a few rounds)

PROCEDURE: Have your group form a comfortable circle – double elbow is fine. Have each player stand on (or in) a spot. As in the traditional Warp Speed (often preceded by the activity Group Juggle), the group will first need to set up a passing order. However, in this variation instead of passing an object (done in Warp Speed), the players will be passing names. Before this happens I like to add, “When setting up the name-passing order (NPO), please do not pass your name to a person standing next to you.”

Each player is asked to pass their own name once and receive another players name once in the order. For example, Barry starts by saying, “Barry passes to Mary.” Mary then says, “Mary passes to Gretchen.” Gretchen says, “Gretchen passes to George.” This continues until everyone has passed their name. The last player to receive a pass (name) in the order passes their name to Barry, “Chris passes to Barry.” Once the NPO is established, ask the group to practice all the name passing two or three more times to make sure they have it down. At this practice stage I let the players simple say the name of the person they are passing to - Barry only needs to say, "Mary" (not "Barry passes to Mary.")

When the NPO is “locked in” the challenge can be presented. With the memorized and practiced order in mind, each person is going to be moving to the spot of the other person they called out in the pattern. So, Barry will be moving to Mary’s spot (After saying "Mary"), Mary to Gretchen’s, Gretchen to George’s and so on until Chris says "Barry" while moving to his spot. Then, Barry returns to his original spot that has remained open during the round.

This challenge will be timed from the moment Barry leaves his spot (time starts) to the time when Barry returns to his original spots (time stops). When the group understands the overall idea of the activity, I present the two main rules for clarification:

1. With the exception of the first person to begin the game, a player may not leave their spot until their name is called.
2. Each player must end up standing in the spot of the player they “called” – in the original established pattern – except for Barry, he's back in his original spot.

Once all the guidelines are presented, I provide time for the group to do some planning if they need it. I (or someone in the group can be the timer if the task can be delegated), will begin timing as soon as the first person leaves their spot – remember rule number one. Allow the groups a few tries to give them a chance to improve on their process (if so motivated). 

SAFETY & FACILITATION: If you present this activity early on in your program (I use it for learning names and also as a way to introduce the types of challenges I will be presenting), your group might not get the “shift” in thinking just yet. Those familiar with premiss of Warp Speed know that the directions do not say they have to move one at a time or that they have to start in the spot where they created their passing order. The group, for this specific challenge, is only asked to follow the two main rules.

So, if you do present this one early, and the group does not figure out the shift, you might consider coming back to it after they have discovered some 'shifting' in other activities to see if they can achieve a super-fast time. Or, if you have a group that can really be challenged at the get-go, ask them (give them the goal) to achieve a time under five seconds. This imposed goal might 'nudge' them into the shift(s) to be able to solve the problem.

I haven’t run into many safety issues during this one, however, after the shift there might be some running-into-each-other problems. As always, stress that everyone’s safety is more important than a fast time.

OBSERVATIONS/QUESTIONS:

• Does everyone know each other’s names at this point? Where do we need practice? 
• Think back to the planning part of this activity – what do you remember about it? Did you have a plan? Did everyone know what the plan was? Was there a leader? Did everyone get to share the idea(s) they had? 
• Did you improve your process over time? What contributed to your improvement? Will this information be important to remember? Why? Why not?
• What is a phantom rule (a rule made up based on assumptions)? Did you have any phantom rules in place? Did these rules help or hinder your process? What if the phantom rules were eliminated, what could you do?
• Where did your 'shift' in thinking come from? Did everyone 'buy into' the shift in thinking? If not, why? If so, why?
• Were you successful? Is a fast time the only way you were successful as a team? How do you measure your success? What different measures of success could there be? 
• What will you want to remember from this activity? 

VARIATIONS:

• You could reverse the passing-order – players say the name to their original tosser. 
• For some programs, depending on the group’s objectives, I add a safe tossable object into the game (this is called Warp Speed). A pattern is created – each person tosses and catches once. A name is called, the object is tossed to the parson who was called – no moving to new spot is required. 

Let me know how this one goes for you. Leave your feedback in the comments area below. 

Have fun out there!

Chris Cavert

My good friend Brian designed a wonderful pre-breif and debriefing tool some years back called the Stop-N-Go. This handy portable processing tools is available at the Training Wheels website. A Green, Yellow, and Red marble travel safely in a perforated PVC key chain style tube always at the ready to use with groups. I have one and use it all the time. Which brings me to a slight variation on Brian's idea. 

The other day I was walking around one of my favorite activity  idea spaces - Lowe's. I've always been attracted to the paint sample cards but have never been inspired to use them due to their size (a bit too small). However, now available are 4 inch by 6 inch paint sample cards for allen + roth's valsper paints. I immediately thought of how to use them. 

With Brian's idea of the traffic light colors I can now write down the goals participants have for each color when I'm in an environment to do so. "What do we want to GO for during the program?" I write this on the green card. "What do we want to be CAUTIOUS of?" on the yellow card. And, "What do we want to make sure we STOP doing while we are together? on the red card. I'm sure you see the idea here and the many instances you could interject this line of thinking throughout your programs. 

When I'm using the colored marbles I start out asking for one thing related to each color - making it easy to remember and evaluate. Then, as the program progresses we can check in with the marbles from time-to-time to see how we are doing. If it's appropriate we add a consideration to each color. We could even determine that what was decided earlier is no longer relevant so we replace the initial consideration with another one that seems more relevant to what's going on. I see this process happening with the colorful cards as well. Starting with one item and then adding to (writing on) the cards as we progress. We can even cross out things that no longer apply. I like the visual aspect of the cards and seeing the considerations in print. There is still a limit to the amount that will fit on a card, but often times less is more. 

Also, just getting my hands on these colorful cards made me realize I could also pick up some green, yellow, and red card stock paper and cut out my own cards. Then there is a front and back side to write on. And, I cold give these cards away to the group at the end of their program to remind them of what they worked on. (I find it interesting what opens a door to an obvious resource.)

What else can we use paint sample cards for? Share your ideas in the comment area below. 

All the best, 

Chris Cavert