Friday Funday!

I’ve written before about various games you can play for team engagement, socialization, and general fun. Today I want to keep it simple! There are plenty of things you can do using a social media or collaboration tool that require no prep work from you, and allow your teams to respond on their schedule. These can be just as much fun as activities you participate in “live”.

Before engaging in any fun-tivities on your social channels, make sure that you are partitioned to do so. You should segregate your play from your work so that one does not drown out the other, and proper attention can be placed on the matter at hand. If a feed or channel is too noisy with a wide variety of chatter, all messages will seem less important and activity will dwindle.

Each activity needs to start with a top level post. You should provide the instructions, along with an example or the starter to the activity.

Allow for side convos. Someone’s post is likely to spawn a comment, such as “That’s the best movie!”, “Dude… too soon!”, “Now I want pizza”, and so forth. This is the real fun of such activities. You learn something about people through their top responses (even indirectly just by the type of meme or Giphy they use), but you also foster watercooler chat and informal socialization by permitting the rabbit holes. These activities are intended to be organic. When they are allowed to twist and turn, you end up on an exciting road trip. If you keep too much to the map, you reach the destination, but missed some fun stops along the way.

Here are some ideas within that social thread:

• Dance Party! - Respond in Giphy with your favorite dance moves. Use likes to vote for the best dance, if desired. (I favor headbanging from Wayne’s World, and the Carlton from Fresh Prince!)
• Ruin a Song with One Word (Add version) – Respond with a song title, but add one word to it that wasn’t there to totally ruin it. “I will NOT Survive”, “Gin and Juice BOXES”, etc.
• Ruin a Song with One Word (Replace version) – Respond with a song title, but change one word already in the song to totally ruin it. “Dr. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” (This one still kills me!)
• Song Title Piggyback – Respond with a song title that starts with the last word of the previous post. “Good Day Sunshine” > “Sunshine of your Love” > “Love Me Do”…
• Movies A-Z – Respond with a Giphy related to a movie, in alphabetical order. Person 1 starts with A, such a Giphy of Fievel from “An American Tail”. Next person has B and posts a Giphy from the movie “Batman Returns”, and so on.
• Desert Island Movies – Respond with the five movies you would keep if stranded on an island, to watch until the end of time. No reason needed, just list ‘em! You can do the same with Desert Island Music Albums, Desert Island Books, Desert Island Food, etc. 
• Chopped – Respond with the four ingredients you would be if you were a Chopped mystery basket. No explanation needed! 
• Create a Playlist – Name songs around a certain theme, like sunny days, weekends, a holiday, road trips, etc. This is even more fun if someone volunteers to compile and share on Amazon, Spotify, iTunes, or the like.
• Dream Vacation – If you had two weeks off, and an unlimited budget, respond with where you would go and what you would do.
• Popular Things You Don’t Like – Respond with ten things that seem to be popular but you don’t care for. (Though I live in the state and it’s all the rage, I truly do not care for bourbon!)

All of the above require no advanced work. No meeting to be scheduled. No gathering of info. Just make a post and go! If you have five minutes, you could do some other easy ones such as:

• Never Have I Ever – Find a PC version of this online. Post the image. Ask people to respond by giving themselves one point for everything they HAVEN’T done.
• What’s your X Name? – This could be your Halloween Name, Troll Name, Rockstar Name, or whatever. Usually this is some combo of your birth month, first initial, and last initial. Find an image online, paste it, and get responses! Or, find a name generator, post the link, and have people respond with their results.
• Point Lists – Pick a thing like visiting Walt Disney World, “adulting”, how much of a 90’s kid you are, so-called “Millennial” foods you have tried, states you’ve visited, etc. Create a list or grab one from the web. Have people respond with their point total, or with an X next to the things they are counting.

Remember – As a leader, you set the tone. It’s not enough to tell your team that this type of thing is ok. You need to illustrate it by actively participating, preferably having fun in the process.

This is just a short list of ideas to get you started. Please add your comments on other ideas to help keep the party going!