The 1-2-3 clap, stomp, shimmy warm-up was a hit at the Ibiza Service Jam. It is a mental workout mixed with fun. Most importantly, it allows for participants to unite together over just the right amount of light-hearted failure. (Failure is an important element in design thinking facilitation, learn more about the topic in the previous blog post, Warm-up for failure.)
Purpose:
- Get minds moving and activated; build a level of comfort with failing through a simple task that can be laughed about
- Set the tone of the next portion of the workshop
- Break the standard of what people know which is usually simply sitting and listening
Structure:
Pairs of two people (try to pair up people who don’t know each other.)
Activity:
- Have participants take turns counting to three by alternating 1 - 2 - 3.
- When team gets the hang of it, up the complexity: Clap - 2 - 3.
- Step two will take a little more time to get the hang of. There are bound to be “failures” and laughter already. When you’re ready, up the complexity again: Clap - Stomp - 3.
- Before you wrap-up, add one more step: Clap - Stomp – Shimmy.
By the end of the activity there is sure to be a fair amount of laughter with each misplaced “stomp” or misspoken “3” and that failure is precisely the point.
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Truth be told: I’m not sure if this is the real name of the activity …but, it’s what you do.
Credit for this activity goes to Marc Stickdorn, co-author and editor of This is Service Design Thinking. He gave an incredible three-day workshop for the Service Innovation and Design Masters programme at Laurea University where we learned this and many more interesting warmups.
This is the third in a series of posts featuring tips and tools used to help participants of the Ibiza Service Jam discover how a design thinking can transform the way we look at problems.