10 Essential Exercises for Any Virtual Leader: Ultimate Toolkit for Virtual Joy & Connection
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Equip yourself with 10 powerful virtual activities.
Design engaging & fun virtual meetings.
Get your guests participating and interacting.
I share my top 10 exercises with instruction scripts. Apply these tools to immediately and seamlessly create more energy and fun in your virtual meetings. Expand your toolkit as a virtual facilitator. Learn how to spread joy and love in your virtual rooms… like I do with my team!
I’ve written previously about my principles for igniting fun and vitality in virtual meetings.
I’ve learnt everything I know about facilitation by trying things out in hundreds of virtual vitality sessions, parties, workshops, and team meetings. I’ve led virtual sessions for Fortune 500 companies, youth mental health conferences, leadership peer groups, and farthest on the spectrum, hippie festivals.
In a lot of these sessions, I messed up. I made people uncomfortable. Or my activities fell flat and didn’t engage my audience. I’ve failed more times than I can remember.
The point: If you want to reach your potential as a facilitator, you must try new things out. You must embody the experimenter. You must remember: Taking risks is the essence of personal growth.
Some of these activities will work with your group. Others won’t. This is a part of the journey of creating better and better virtual meetings! It’s about steering the ship back on course during fowl weather.
I discovered these tools by attending workshops on facilitation, reading books about authentic relating, and following people like Jenny Sauer Klein.
If you want to expand your toolkit further, I encourage you to read about authentic relating and check out their games manual! I’ve read through it multiple times and have implemented a lot of their connection games.
So. Are you ready for some explosions in the laboratory of The Party Scientist ? Here are my top 10 virtual activities I use regularly.
1 Body Check-In
Purpose:
Encourage participants to become aware of how they’re feeling. Invite personal sharing about what’s going on in their lives.
Instructions:
This is a mindfulness practice. Come into presence with the sensations in your body. On a scale of 1–10, how triggered or stressed is your body in this moment? What’s led to that score in three words? In the chat, share your number and one phrase.
Optional:
Put people into groups of three and have each person share verbally instead of in the chat. Make sure to set a time limit of 3 minutes.
2 Loving Kindness Meditation
Purpose:
Evoke joy and relaxation in your participants.
Instructions:
This is a short meditation that boosts our sense of empathy and connectedness. Close your eyes and focus on one person in this virtual room that you care about. In your head, consciously wish them well, in your own way. You may repeat the phrase “May you be happy, healthy, and free from suffering.” While doing this, you can visualize this person smiling and thriving, however you like. We will do this for 5 minutes.
Recommended song: Centered
3 Group Stretch
Purpose:
Elevate your participants’ physical energy and focus.
Instructions:
We are going to elevate our energy and focus through a group stretch. We will take turns leading one stretch. After you’re done, you will nominate the next person to lead their stretch, by unmuting and saying their name. Let’s get creative with our stretches.
Recommended song: I feel it coming
4 Oath, Toast, or Boast
Purpose:
Create a sense of psychological safety and belonging in your group.
Instructions:
This exercise is about celebrating each other. We will take turns sharing an oath, toast, or boast. An oath is an action you are inspired to take after this meeting. A toast is an expression of gratitude for someone in your life. A boast is a personal milestone or something going really well in your life. After someone shares, all other participants give an unconditional round of applause or cheer. Then, the sharer nominates the next person to speak: “I nominate NAME.”
Optional:
Put people into smaller groups.
5 Gratitude Expressions
Purpose:
Create a sense of psychological safety and belonging in your group.
Instructions:
This exercise is about recognizing the strengths and gifts within this group. We will take turns recognizing one human in this group with the following prompt: I want to recognize ‘NAME’… [for specific action or behavior they demonstrated]. In this activity, sharing specific examples is more powerful than pointing out attributes (ex. you’re smart). After recognizing someone, nominate them to go next.
Optional:
Have participants use the chat instead and then read aloud.
6 Show n’ Tell
Purpose:
Create a sense of psychological safety and belonging in your group.
Instructions:
We’re going to invest in our sense of belonging as a group. We will be in small groups of three, for 15 minutes. Each of you will find a sentimental or meaningful item in your house. You’ll then take turns sharing the story or meaning behind this personal item. After sharing, listeners share what they heard that they liked or resonated with — appreciative feedback. Each person will have 3 minutes to share and 2 minutes for appreciative feedback — the best part!
Note:
Give people some time to find their sentimental item before assigning people to small groups.
Optional:
Get the entire group dancing with their sentimental item.
7 Life Journeys
Purpose:
Create a sense of psychological safety and belonging in your group.
Instructions:
We’re going to invest in our sense of belonging as a group. We will be in groups of three for 30 minutes. Each participant will draw their simplified life journey on a piece of paper, like this [show them an example]. We will do this for 5 minutes and then you will join your small group.
Taking turns, each of you will narrate your graph, explaining different life events. Each person will have 7 minutes to narrate their life journey, and then there will be 3 minutes for appreciative feedback — where listeners share what they heard that they liked or resonated with.
8 Yes Brainstorm
Purpose:
Facilitate brainstorming on a topic while having fun.
Instructions:
This is a constructive brainstorming exercise in pairs. You and your partner will be answering the following question by using the phrase Yes And.
[Replace with your own question] What can we do to improve customer service?
You and your partner will take turns using the phrase Yes And… followed by an action or idea. The idea here is to build off one another with messy and imaginative ideas.
Demo — What can we do to improve customer service?
Partner 1 starts: We will train our team with the best skills.
Partner 2: Yes and Trainings will involve holograms.
Partner 1: Yes and We will all be wearing google glasses.
Partner 2: Yes and Customers will be gifted google glasses.
Get otherworldly. It should not make sense. Aspire to be clumsy and unrehearsed. We will debrief upon returning to the main room.
Note:
This can just be a fun game with a playful question. Or it can be used strategically. Choose the question wisely.
9 Power Strikes
Purpose:
Have fun and elevate your participants’ physical energy and focus.
Instructions:
Let’s start with a little fun. We’re going to get energized for this meeting. Taking turns, you’re going to strike a creative pose. Everyone else is going to repeat your pose. Then, you’re going to nominate the next person to strike their pose by saying their name.
Recommended Songs: Eye of the tiger, Battle without honour
10 Appreciation Singalongs
Purpose:
Energize your group, cultivate psychological safety and belonging, have fun, and facilitate peer-to-peer appreciation.
Instructions:
We’re going to shower love and appreciation onto some deserving individuals in this exercise. First, let’s nominate who we think deserves to receive acknowledgement. Anyone can unmute and say someone’s name. But please explain why you’re nominating them.
The nominated individuals will be spotlight and will turn on Gallery Mode. The rest of us will turn on our phone flashlights, wave them back and forth, and sing the lyrics in the chat toward these superstars.
Recommended Songs: You’re beautiful, I can’t help myself, Treasure
Note:
Hosts must spotlight the people who have been nominated. They must copy and paste the lyrics of the song into the chat. Then, they must share their computer audio only and play the song.
11. BONUS — Have your group invent their own!
Final Recommendation
Take risks in your gatherings by trying out new group exercises.
Could you do me a 10 second favor before you leave? If you’re feeling thankful, could you like or comment this article?
What wisdom do you have to share with other readers? They’d love to hear your additions and thoughts.
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ps — I help innovative conference, event, & party planners unite and exhilarate their audience by applying the science of human connection. Do you know any who’d want to consult the professional party crasher?
