A hungry dog hunts best.
Lee Trevino (*1939)
American golfer
Many participants of online workshop or conferences – especially long one – are hungry for movement and play. They’ll be happy to stop staring at a screen for a while, to get up and run around: Remember scavenger hunt as kid? Well, this remote game is similar.
Objective of Scavenger Hunt
Game for getting participants up from their chair and moving.
If you play it in groups it can be team-building.
Resources
Anything you define (see establishing list)
Time
5 min introduction and explanation plus list sharing
5 min hunting time
5 min debriefing, applauding
Task
As most participants are home establish a list of fun items, which forces them
- to coordinate with each other who brings what (in case split them into groups) and
- to get physically active by running through their house / appartment.
Share the list and set a timer for time pressure. Five minutes could be a useful time frame.
Establishing a list
Think of items, which are likely to be in different places of the house or the apartment – or even outside the house in garage or the garden shed. Accordingly, we should consider rooms first and the narrow it down to items. The things to collet should have certain probability to be in that room; i.e an envelope or piece of paper you can get from nearly any room in an office. All this will differ from home office to actual office. For example:
At home
- Kitchen > can opener
- Garage > oil can
- Bed room > pillowcase
- Bathroom > shower gel
- Living room > TV remote control
At the office
- Conference room > whiteboard sponge
- Individual Office > photo frame
- Mail room > letter scale
- Reception > name plate of the receptionist
Individual vs. Groups
You can also establish groups and let them compete! Which group has all items first, wins. Especially, if some participants are at home, others in the office, mixed groups are a good way to create a level playing field. A little virtual award for the winner is always helpful.
Especially when working team are not really teams, i.e. when they have the mindset that others will do, you might opt for individuals.
Phase
Anytime