+44 (0) 1727 843820 paul@impro.org.uk

A recent post on the Applied Improvisation Network’s Facebook page asked for fun ways to determine who goes first in an activity. There were rapidly more than 50 answers, including:

  • Person whose name is first alphabetically
  • Who has been awake the longest
  • Who has most money in their bank account

To be fair, that last one was in a strand wondering about the worst ways you could set it up.

The consensus was to aim for the sweet spot of innocuous enough not to cause offense, yet interesting enough to prompt a quick get-to-know-you between the pair (or small group).

Anything relating to age, size or even hair length was judged as potentially triggering sensitivities. In face-to-face workshops (remember those?), I’ve typically offered a series of starting-deciders, including biggest smile, birthdays from January and messiest car – and watched carefully to see if they prompted laughter or shock.

For online, I liked the prompts of:

  • Person with the most colourful shirt/blouse
  • First to jump in – noting that this is a valuable skill
  • Whose more caffeinated

What do you suggest? And who’d like to comment first?

(Photo by Josiah Gardner on Unsplash)