THE BLAME GAME

1. Have your group form a circle with everyone standing

2. Start by you pointing to someone in the circle. Continue pointing!
3. That person now points to someone else and continues pointing
4. Keep going until everyone is pointing at someone else, and the last person then points at
you!
5. Stop pointing and shift your attention to the person you are pointing at. That person
becomes your person of interest!
6. Explain that the objective is to watch your POI very, very closely to imitate his or her
every action.
7. Now ask your group to stand perfectly still. With nobody moving unless their POI
does. If your POI moves (blinks, coughs twitches etc.), he or she is to copy that exact
movement and then be still again.
8. Begin the game and play for 3-5 minutes.

When you’re finished ask these questions:

 We were supposed to stand still, what happened? (Expect some blaming of who moved
first to occur.)
 Who knows who started the movement? (Let some accusations occur. It will become
evident that it is nearly impossible to pinpoint who really started each movement.)
 How much does it matter who started it, once it started?
 How much energy do we put into looking for scapegoats?
 How are we to blame for perpetuating particular mannerisms that inevitably become team
norms? What examples do we have here at work?
 What can this imply for us when we’re back on the job?