Activity Of The Month
This month’s featured activity is Flash!
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Flash
Group members must ask and answer questions as quickly as they can
Duration
10-20 minutes
Team Stage
Any Stage
Type Of Activity
Icebreaker
Materials
None
SUMMARY
This activity helps groups get to know each other by asking the questions that they want in a fun and fast way.
SET UP
Have all participants form a circle – standing or sitting depending on what is comfortable.
INSTRUCTIONS
- To begin, one person asks a question to the entire group. They can ask whatever they would like but it must be a question that they themselves would answer and that can be answered quickly with a few words or short sentence.
- Facilitator Note: Pay attention to your group stage in this activity and before starting, talk to your participants about the risk level of the questions they should be asking. If the group is in the forming, storming or norming phases, you will want to stick with low to medium risk questions. As you start to allow medium to high risk questions, remind any minors at the start of the activity of the responsibilities of a mandated reporter and that they should only ask questions and share what they are comfortable sharing. Strongly consider the risk level of prepared questions, and the examples used, as they will set the tone for what participants share. If the possible depth of vulnerability seems too high risk, alter prompts to be very low risk or choose a different activity.
- Starting to either the direct left or right, go around the circle and have each person quickly answer the question, it should be the first thing that comes to their mind. This game is called “Flash“ because it’s fast!
- At the end, the person who originally asked the question should answer their own question.
- After that, the next person who answered first asks a new question. Everyone has a chance to answer, and the round ends again, with the question asker answering their own question last. The activity continues until everyone has had a chance to ask the group a question.
- To make participants feel more comfortable, if a question is asked and someone doesn’t want to answer the question or can’t think of an answer quickly enough, the group can predetermine a “pass“ word. Example: “bananas“. So, if someone doesn’t want to answer a question, they can just say “bananas“.
VARIATIONS
- For larger groups, split the group up into smaller and more manageable circles. Or, instead of going around the circle and having each person ask their own question, ask people to volunteer or have your own questions prepared to speed up the process.
- To make this activity more meaningful, ask questions that move from lower to higher risk.
HOW TO FACILITATE FLASH ONLINE!
SAMPLE DEBRIEFING QUESTIONS
What?
- What was the goal of this activity?
- Did your group do well? What could have improved?
- How did your group make decisions? Was it effective or ineffective?
- How did your group manage conflict that arose?
So What?
Group Dynamics
- What are the traits that make someone successful on this team? What are the traits that make someone unsuccessful on this team?
- What motivates our group?
- How does our group dynamic affect the way we get work done?
Inclusion and Involvement
- What does it mean to be inclusive or exclusive?
- What did we do as a group that was inclusive? That was exclusive/not inclusive?
- Why is inclusion and involvement important for our group?
Now What?
- What does this activity tell you about the strengths of your group? The areas for improvement?
- What’s one commitment each person can make?
- What are three lessons the group has learned that they can continue to work on?
- How can we implement these lessons in our school/organization?
- What can you do differently moving forward?
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