Description
People Bingo is a great getting-to-know-you game that can foster communication in a newly formed group.
- Feb 16, 2021 Give each participant a bingo card, either homemade or found on the internet, and a pen Step 2 Explain that the group has 30 minutes to mingle with each other. During this time, they should be introducing themselves to one and other and finding people who match the traits on the bingo card.
- May 26, 2020 Microsoft Teams has brought colleagues, friends, families together during lockdown and has become an ever-more important tool in helping us stay connected — even recording 'more than 200 million meeting participants in one day this month May 2020, which generated more than 4.1 billion meeting minutes overall'.
Virtual camping seems counterintuitive, but wait until you see what tiny campfire has.
Team Size
More than 15 people
Materials Required
- Paper with 5×5 panels filled with descriptions (will explain below). You are required to do some homework preparing these pieces of paper.
- Pens enough for all the participants
Time Required
About 10 minutes
Instructions
1. Everyone will receive a paper with the boxes of descriptions. The descriptions will include certain general characteristics of a person. Some examples:
a. Is an only child
b. Ate Macdonald’s at least twice this week
c. Drives a car
d. Has moved their house/apartment at least four times in his/her life
e. Practices martial arts
2. Those are some suggestions. We recommend you tune these descriptions according to your participants.
For example, if you are playing with a group of youth, descriptions like ‘has three kids’ don’t make sense.
Now go and create your own customized 5×5 panel for your participants.
3. When the game starts, participants should mingle to find someone who might fit one of the descriptions.
4. When they meet, participants should introduce themselves and then sign a box with a description that fits them.
5. Each person they meet can only sign on one box (or two boxes, depending on the number of participants).
6. The winner will be the one who completes one (or two) straight lines and then he/she has to shout “Bingo!” and bring his 5×5 sheet to the facilitator to verify.
7. The game ends when three winners are announced.
Debriefing Notes
- What was one surprising thing you found out about another participant?
- What has this short exercise taught you about how much you know another person?
You can use this short team building activity to talk about not pre-judging people:
While we often have a certain first impression of people, we must not jump to conclusions because as we know more about the person, we might find that everything that we thought about another person was untrue.
The better way is always to adopt a non-judgmental approach when you meet new people. You just might be pleasantly surprised.
Icons made by Freepik from www.flaticon.com is licensed under CC BY 3.0
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