play with fire improv

100 Ways to Play at Work #25: Talk to Stuff

improv team building exercises games activities

There was a thread (Reddit?) about adding whimsy to our lives, and one woman said she says “May I take your coats” when peeling garlic. So, that type of stuff. And do their voices if the objects respond. And if people look at you weird, maybe they’re weird for not being playful. Also, your superpower might be the ability to talk to inanimate objects, they don’t know.

 

What are you going to talk to first?

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This series was inspired by people asking me “How do I keep doing improv?” after a corporate improv workshop. There are, of course, improv classes, more workshops, team building exercises you can do with your group, but these games are specifically ones you can do on your own to practice “Yes and” and get into a state of play.

Sens on Power Play

“Hockey’s a game and sometimes you just have to go play. Have a little fun with it and chase the puck and do things. We did that and I think our speed showed up. I think some talent showed up and we made some plays and fortunately for us, we won the hockey game. But I think that’s what I would like to see our team be – our players have to have some fun. It’s a game. We have to have some fun playing the game.”

- Bryan Murray, General Manager of a PROFESSIONAL hockey team

Don’t try to do it all at once.

It took a while for me to create this website. Mainly because every day I’d look at my to-do list and the top one would be “Build the Play With Fire website.” How daunting is that? Answer: super daunting. The thought of how much work it would take to build a full website today left me too overwhelmed to do any of it. I wouldn’t even start. What’s the point? And that’s why there’s no website and you’re not reading this. The end.