Remote Workshop Activities

Demands Continuums

hyperisland diversity inclusion design remote-friendly critical thinking

A tool that helps a designer assess the demands a product/design puts on the user. This tool can be used by anyone creating a product, design, or service and wants to critically assess its demand on users.

Desert Island Game

relationships icebreaker teamwork remote-friendly

In the Desert Island Game, begin by asking your participants an important question – if you were stranded on a desert island, what essential items would you choose to survive?

Participants are given a list of items to choose from and must work together to decide which items will help them stay alive.

The Desert Island Game is a great, remote-friendly exercise for a team to work together and share opinions.

Doodling Together

collaboration creativity teamwork fun team visual methods energiser icebreaker remote-friendly

Create wild, weird and often funny postcards together & establish a group's creative confidence.

Happiness exercise

teambuilding icebreaker warm up remote-friendly

This exercise is a simple application of the principles of Appreciative Inquiry.

Heard, Seen, Respected (HSR)

issue analysis empathy communication liberating structures remote-friendly values self-awareness

You can foster the empathetic capacity of participants to “walk in the shoes” of others. Many situations do not have immediate answers or clear resolutions. Recognizing these situations and responding with empathy can improve the “cultural climate” and build trust among group members. HSR helps individuals learn to respond in ways that do not overpromise or overcontrol. It helps members of a group notice unwanted patterns and work together on shifting to more productive interactions. Participants experience the practice of more compassion and the benefits it engenders.

Human objects

improv game energizer remote-friendly fun icebreaker

A quick, physical improv game that asks participants to embody an object as quickly as they can!

Hybrid Team Canvas

culture culture change culture design hybridteams teamwork remote-friendly vision

The Hybrid Team Canvas is a framework and tool to design a hybrid or remote-first team culture.

Icebreaker: Original

get-to-know remote-friendly icebreaker

Ask participants to create or come up with a ice-breaker question. The icebreaker question must not be a cliché question and or commonly used.

Icebreaker: The Group Map

get-to-know icebreaker remote-friendly

Ask people to place themselves on an imaginary map laid out in the room representing the country according to where they grew up. Ask them to share one internal value they got from that place, and why is that important for them. Encourage people to share a short story if they want

I Like | I Wish | I Wonder

innovation feedback hyperisland remote-friendly

Teams need to explore, test and try new things to innovate. Early efforts will be improved and progress when feedback is given and received. Feedback is a key part of any project development and crucial to the iterative process.

It's important to have a learning/growth mindset to see new possibilities and a framework in place to provide boundaries and a safe container for both the receiver and the giver of the feedback at hand.

A process such as I Like, I Wish, I Wonder can support teams (big and small) to collect feedback quickly. Can be run online or face-to-face. A Miro template is attached below.