Shoulders I Failed
OVERVIEW
Shoulders/I Failed! is a group improv game that teaches participants to celebrate both participation and its invariable traveling companion: mistakes. Often featured in workshops focused on:
Agility
Collaboration
Creativity
Embracing Mistakes or Failing Big
Team Building
This game was created by improv instructor Michael Hartwell, who modified an existing drinking game to bring us this improv gem.
REQUIREMENTS
Number of Participants:
Minimum: 8 participants / Maximum: 20+ participants
Time Required:
Minimum: 10 minutes / Maximum: 20 minutes
Materials Needed:
None
EXERCISE INSTRUCTIONS
Everyone stands in a circle with the goal of counting to 20, one person at a time. Someone starts by tapping one of their own shoulders and counting 1. Whichever shoulder they touch, left or right, indicates the direction in which the count will continue.
NOTE: This muste be done in rhythm, if a player misses the group established (or facilitator established) rhythm they are considered to have made a mistake or failed.
If they tap their left shoulder, the person to their left picks up the count by saying 2 and tapping one of their own shoulders; likewise, to the player on the right, if player 1 taps their right shoulder, instead. The game continues in this way with players allowed to switch shoulder direction, left or right, at any time.
To start, there is only one additional rule: whoever is responsible for passing numbers 9 and 19 must point to a person across the circle, instead of tapping their own shoulder. Not only does this help ensure that more people get involved in the game (in case there are a lot of back-and-forth shoulder "wars" between the same few people), it adds an important element of tripping people up. In fact, the game is designed to trip people up as means for celebrating participation and mistake-making.
For this reason, each time a player misses a cue, either by waiting too long to continue the count after a shoulder has been tapped in their direction and/or by forgetting to point on numbers 9 or 19, they must get into the center of the circle and yell, "I failed!!", while the rest of the group authentically applauds and cheers for their effort. This mistake-maker then re-joins the group and starts the game anew, from number 1.
If the group manages to count all the way up to 20 they should celebrate and applaud together (no single person "wins" this game, it is always a team effort) and then start another round, with a new rule added.
Each iteration of the game keeps the same rules from all previous iterations while adding new rules (*see below) to trip people up, increasing the chances that everyone involved, at some point, has the opportunity to get into the middle of the circle and yell, "I Failed!!" with the rest of the group cheering for them. If this doesn't happen organically by the time you wish to move on, anyone remaining who hasn't had the chance can jump into the center of the circle together to take their "I Failed!" moment together.
*New rules can really be anything and it's fun to let participants create them on the spot. That said, it is helpful to have a few new rules ready to keep things moving.
Common new rules include:
Switching two numbers around, like 6 and 12, where the count would sound like this: "1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 12, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 6, 13..."
Skipping a number entirely, like 3, but still continuing the direction of the count in the normal way: "1 -right shoulder tap-, 2 -right shoulder tap, __ -right shoulder tap, 4 -right should tap, etc."
For a certain number(s), players most cue up the next person by doing some other than tapping their shoulder or pointing, possibly meowing like a cat.
For certain number(s), players must replace the number with another word.
Be certain the larger group cheers authentically for players who failed, have them redo their cheer if it isn't authentic.
INSTRUCTOR DISCUSSION POINTS / LEARNING TAKEAWAYS
AGILITY
A lack of agility often stems from a fear of failure. Underscore that that this fear often guarantees failure while providing no opportunity to succeed when conditions change. Encourage players to consider whether their fear of failure actually increases its likelihood.
COLLABORATION
Participating means risking failure. In environments that punish or deride failure people quickly learn to avoid participation. This forces the work of many to fall to the few. Celebrating the failure of your colleagues has less to do with any one particular task and more to do with keeping your team engage and giving 100% participation.
CREATIVITY
A lack of creativity is actually self censorship disguised as a paucity of ideas. This is commonly due to a fear of failure. Share that improvisers learn to blurt out whatever is on their mind, making others see them as creative. If you want your team be more creative, be more okay with their efforts that fall short. If you want to be more creative yourself, apply the same advice inward.
EMBRACING MISTAKES
Trying anything means you will make mistakes, it is gauranteed. Basketball teams do not throw their hands up in dispair every time their opponents score a basket, because they know they won't shut out the other team. Since mistakes will happen, all we can control is how we handle them.
By celebrating our own mistakes and the mistakes of our teammates we rob failure of its power.