Additional Creative Warm-ups to Get your Team in the Right Mindset

 

There are a lot of different creative warmups you can run with your team. Here are more of our favorites to get you started.  View them below or download a PDF at the bottom of the page.

 
 
Survivor Gadget Creative warm-up

Survivor Gadget

This exercise is a fun way to encourage your team to think creatively and explore fresh ideas.

  1. Ask participants to imagine they will participate in the “Alone” show. And they are allowed to take one thing with them. This one thing is a multitool knife that can host many handy things. Their task is to invent an “Ultimate Survivor multitool” they will take with them and brainstorm what helpful things their utility tool will hold.

  2. Spend 2 minutes (without discussion) sketching all the ideas on paper, or simply list the items it would have.

  3. Share results with each other.

Remote version: Participants can either sketch it on paper to show it on camera or use the virtual whiteboard tool to drop pictures of items there.

Pictograms creative warm-ups

Pictograms

Encourage your team to think outside the box and spark creativity despite limited resources.

  1. Ask participants to create a pictogram that describes each of these 4 words: DANGER, ACTION, IMAGINATION, HAPPINESS. Their task is to only use one circle and 5 straight lines for each word. They can position them in any way you want. Lines have to be equal, and the circle must be whole.

  2. Spend 4 minutes (without discussion) sketching all the ideas on paper.

  3. Share results with each other.

Remote version: Participants can either sketch it on paper and show it on camera or use the virtual whiteboard tool to play with shapes.

Design your name creative warm-up

Design your name

When looking at the letters and numbers, it’s hard to imagine anything but what they mean. In this exercise, you will guide your team to use letters and numbers for something they aren’t. This exercise helps stretch creativity and find new solutions.

  1. Ask participants to type or write their full name. Then, ask them to recreate it using any letters and numbers, tilted, backward or forwards, flipped vertically or horizontally. The only rule is you cannot use actual letters and numbers to represent themselves.

  2. Spend 2 minutes (without discussion) working on designing names on paper.

  3. Share the results with each other.

Remote version: Participants can either sketch it on paper and show it on camera or use the virtual whiteboard tool to play with letters and numbers.

Ultimate Workspace creative warm-up

Ultimate workspace

This activity will help your team get into a creative mindset to explore new possibilities.

  1. Ask participants to imagine that they have an unlimited budget to redesign their workspace and build the workspace of their dreams. What would they do? Participants can start from the workspace they have now. What would they add or remove? Ask them to consider shape, function, power, shelves, etc.

  2. Spend 3-4 minutes (without discussion) sketching all the ideas on paper.

  3. Share results with each other.

Remote version: Participants can either sketch it on paper to show it on camera or use the virtual whiteboard tool to drop pictures of items there

SquigGle

This quick exercise sets the stage for your team to think playfully and creatively.

  1. Ask participants to draw a squiggle on a piece of paper. Then, reveal the category. Ask everyone to create something from that “category” (like meeting, travel, food).

  2. Spend 2 minutes (without discussion) adding to the squiggle.

  3. When you are done, share what it is with each other.

Remote version: Participants can sketch it on paper and show it on camera.