Personal Leadership Insight: General: Activities for your Leadership Class Series (Part 1)

This is the first post in a new series sharing many of our favorite leadership activities we do with our audience members across the nation. Each activity has a proven track record since we actually present at over 300 conferences, retreats, school assemblies and corporate events every year and have for the past 20 years. Enjoy and feel free to share via Facebook, Twitter or email with your network of friends, teachers, trainers, speakers or absolute complete strangers! (We are @pli_leadership on Twitter.)

Clumps

PLI Essential – Fostering Relationships

Objective – To get into the right clump

Time Needed – 10-20 minutes

Best Case Scenario – An open area with 15 – 100 students

Debrief Possible – It teaches how people are different in many regards and how we shouldn’t judge people on their differences. We should instead recognize and appreciate differences and find points of similarity to create mutual interests, points of conversation and friendship building blocks.

Step-by-Step Instructions

1. Everyone gets up in the open area.

2. The point of the game is to get in a clump.

3. A clump is a circle of people with their arms interlocked.

4. Participants know how to clump up based on the “descriptor” the activity leader gives.

5. Participants know which clump to get into based on communicating with others to find people that are like them.

6. For example, when the activity leader yells out eye color, all the blue eyes get in a clump, all the green eyes, brown eyes, etc.

7. There cannot be “split clumps.” For example, if shoe size is the descriptor, all the 10’s have to be together, all the 9’s, etc. There cannot be two clumps of 6’s or two clumps of 8’s, etc.

8. Once all the clumps have been formed, the activity leader will give another descriptor.

9. Numbers can also be used to form the clumps instead of descriptors. The activity leader can say 5 and everyone gets in clumps of 5 people.

10. To take the game one step further, once the clumps are made, have everyone go around and briefly introduce themselves to the other people in their clump. The brief intros can be name, hometown, and favorite hobby.

11. Once the leader feels like the game has gone long enough, a great way to end it is to have everyone get in one big clump (by using the descriptor of “who is here today”). Once they are in one big circle, the leader can stand in the middle and talk about how everyone is different, but there are certain points of similarity. Point out the fact that everyone in the room has what it takes to be a positive leader. This is also a good time to preview what will happen next, as the leader will have their attention.

12. To add an element of competition to this game, have everyone get in a clump before the leader says Stop. All the people who are not in a clump or are in an illegal clump (like a split clump) have to sit down. So, the leader would say get in clumps by your age. Then say go, let them scramble, and then say stop. Everyone not in a clump has to sit down. Keep going until the group has been narrowed down to 3 or 4.

One of our most popular curriculum pieces is The Activator. It contains this activity, as well as 49 other effective leadership activities!