Quick Description
How to play Mirror activity for Virtual Meetings. One person is the leader and leads physical action that is visible in the frame and everyone else copies their movements (mirrors). The leaders passes the lead verbally to another person on the call.
How to Play
Ask everyone to put their virtual display on “gallery view” so they can see lots of people on the screen instead of just the current speaker.
The leader explains the game. The object of the game is for the leader is to lead the others in movement in a way that can be followed. The object of the game for the followers is to follow (or mirror) the actions of the leader.
From time to time the leader calls out the name of another person on the call to be the new leader. The leadership moves unpredictably around the group. End whenever you want.
If a person does not want to lead, no problem, they simply call out the name of someone else.
Debrief as necessary. (see notes below)
Notes
The first leader starts out very simply and slowly. This will increase engagement by the others because it’s easy to follow.
The group may ask questions about the rules of the game. Feel free to handle this any way you like. And feel free to change the game to suit your purpose. When I am asked about rules, I generally reply, “I don’t have any other guidelines or rules – let’s try it and see what happens.” Sometimes they may ask about the rules again, “What about hands, can we use our hands?” I’ll pause and say the something very similar, “I don’t know – let’s try it and see what happens.”
It may be easier to say, “yes, use your hands” but I can create a sense of discovery and curiosity by saying “I don’t know – let’s try it and see what happens.”
When working with work groups it may be useful to debrief this for insights about leadership.
Everyone writes comments in the CHAT box so everyone can see. When debriefing ask people to write their responses in the chat function. This way everyone will have an opportunity to reflect their insights.
I often rely on the debrief questions I learned from Thiagi you can find by following this link.
Here they are:
- How did you feel?
- What happened?
- What did you learn?
- How does that relate to the real world?
- What if?
- What’s next?
Trust the debrief questions. They will produce unexpected and brilliant answers.
I have run this activity with a group of 40 people. One of the benefits was the quietness and focus. It reminded me of mindfulness activities I use in trainings.
Variations
Who is the leader: Have one person close their eyes while you choose who is going to be the leader. Then start the mirroring activity and see if they can correctly guess who is leading. Debrief for insights about focus, group alignment, leadership and being a good team member.
Origin
Mirroring has been around for a very long time. However as a drama game it is attributed most frequently to the work of Viola Spolin and Neva Boyd.
Mirror activity for Virtual Meetings was inspired by my friend Rebecca Stockley who played with with her niece Penelope.
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