Have you noticed that people often join with their friends when you form teams?
Do you regularly use the 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 4… technique, or the (disastrous) ‘pick two captains’ strategy?
There are better ways of forming teams, and I’m going to tell you how.
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So you’ve got a large group and your next activity needs smaller groups or teams. So if what you do here looks a bit like forming a circle and counting 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 4, and so on, or you pick two captains and have them pick their teams, this article is for you.
There are so many other fun and engaging ways to form smaller teams, be it two teams or multiple teams and that’s exactly what I’ve got in store for you.
Okay, so they’re really popular techniques to use to break larger groups into smaller groups, but let’s be really honest, even though they may work on occasion, there are some real downsides here.
I don’t know about you, but when I see this occur or I’m part of a group where this occurs, you know, the leader starts going around the circle, 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 4. I don’t know about you, but I’m way ahead and I’m working out ahead of the numbering and I shift my position so I can be in the team with my friend.
Or how do you actually police that every single person you gave that number is actually going to end up in the team with that number? Impossible, too hard to do.
Or in the picking two captains, have you ever noticed those poor lost souls left at the end? That was me at school, you know, that poor person left at the end, you know, who the other two teams fought over who had to take me. Not a real self-esteem-building exercise.
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There is a much better way of forming small groups and I’d like you to take advantage of these hot principles the next time you dive into that exercise.
The first one is, is to take a leaf out of my Play to Grow framework and that is to follow the play, interact and share a model in that sequence.
If you use that sequence, if you’re using playful opportunities that invite people to interact and also take advantage of them to share with one another, not only have you formed these smaller teams, but you will have built just a little bit of investment in the relationships of that group, which of course we all know, the stronger the relationships, the more you’ll amplify whatever you’re trying to get on, get done.
And then of course, make it fun. You know, sure, one, two, three, four, one, two, three, four, or picking two captains, we all can expect to know what’s going to happen there. But when you give them something that’s a little left of centre, it’s like, ooh, you’ve engaged them and it also is fun. And I’m going to share one of my all time favourite ways of doing it later on in this article.
And my third thing is to use a variety of techniques.
A variety of techniques means that you might use a bunch of them. And then when you feel that the groups are the most diverse or the most equal or the most fair, whatever you choose, that’s where you stop. So the group doesn’t see it coming. They see it as just a fun little exercise. Maybe it takes 60 seconds and then you find, ah, great. I’ve got the best split.
Okay. Are you ready? You’re going to need pen and paper.
They’re going to come thick and fast with lots of ideas. And I promise you at the end of this, you’re going to have 20, 30 or more different ways of being able to take your large group and form small groups.
Let’s start with crossing your arms. You can do it right now. Cross your arms in front of you. What do you notice? Which arm is crossed over the other? So I’m going to start first of all, with a set of two team splits.
There are many activities where you just need two possibly even splits. This is a great one because generally speaking, the population falls into 50% with their left arm over their right, or I’ve now changed their right arm over their left. And if it doesn’t work out even, then just move a few people around if you needed to from a random perspective.
Another unique two-team split is to ask people their preference for cooking or cleaning. Most people fall into one of those two categories. You can’t sit on the fence.
You may not get an even number of people. You can always swap a few people over, but generally it can be a 50-50 split.
You could consider a set of favourites or even pets as to which one do you prefer? So are you a cat person or a dog person? Tea or coffee? Hot beverage, cold beverage? Do you prefer to stay at home or go out? Go to the movies or sit at home and watch Netflix? There’s lots and lots of ways, categories you can get a fairly even half-half split.
And again, move a few people around if you really do need an even number of people.
Odds and evens. So many numbers that rule our world. Think of the last digit of your mobile phone or your cell phone or your street address or your security number or your credit card. Whatever. Find the last number and then divide up according to the odd numbers and the even numbers.
Surprisingly, for an even split for two teams. How about good news, bad news? Most people fall into one of two categories and it sounds a bit like this. When someone comes up to you and says, I’ve got some good news, I’ve got some bad news.
Which do you prefer to take first? The good news followed by the bad or the bad followed by the good?
It could be as simple as just looking at the first letter of your first name, middle name or last name and dividing up according from A to K and then L to Z, for example. That tends to be a fairly even split. Of course, that might depend on where in the world you are and of course, the names of the people you’re with as well.
Okay, I’m going to give you a bonus one. This is one of my favourites, particularly when people think they’re going to get away with something. First thing I’ll do is I’ll actually say the words, pick a partner, find a partner. And of course, naturally they go find a friend. And then I ask one of them to kneel down.
So just one of the pairs kneels down and then here’s the critical part. Be sure to ask the people who are still standing to move over here to form a team. They thought they were going to be with their friend and in the end, you’ve actually split them up. That’s really simple, requires no props and you know, they often don’t see that one coming.
Okay, let’s have a look now at a bunch of activities and strategies you can use to find multiple teams for your group.
A simple one would be just looking at the month of the birth of each person. So for January through to December, there’s 12 teams.
If you only need six teams, put two months together. It could also be based on the date or the year of birth, or again, it could be based on the state, the town, the country in which they live.
Thinking about one’s family, a couple of different ways you can split here. Eldest get together, youngest get together, and the in-betweens get together. There’s three teams.
But it could also be more diverse. You could go all the only children together, those in twos, those with three kids in the family, four kids in the family, and so on and so on. Naturally, as the numbers get bigger, there’s fewer and fewer people. You might bunch all of those people like five and above all together into one team.
What about favourite holiday destinations? Favourite books? Favourite movies? Favourite genres? Lots of different favourites that you could choose there as a way to split multiply into smaller groups.
Okay, now here are two of my all-time favourites.
I ask people to think that when they put a jumper or a sweater on, which do they do first? Do they put their head through before they put their arms? Or do they put their arms through and then their head? Or do they do all of that at the same time or maybe one arm at a time? There are at least three or four different variations there.
Interesting, possibly never thought about it before. Some people need to test it off to the side before they join a group, but a bit of fun as well. They’re going to end up with people possibly that they wouldn’t have mixed with otherwise.
And one more, I’m going to focus on an animal. I’ll ask everyone to form groups of four. Again, I won’t give them any other qualifications.
They’ll probably bunch together in groups of four friends, which is cool. And I ask them to form the four elements of, let’s say, an elephant. There’s two people who form the big ears on the side of one person in the centre who is the trunk and then one person at the back who is the body or the tail.
So there’s two ears, a trunk and a tail and a body. And there’s four people. And then having formed that, we all have a little bit of fun creating those little animals.
Then say, okay, all of those who are left ears go over here. And then all those that are right ears go over here. And I have a very quick but fun way of teams.
If you need six teams, just find six different elements of an animal to make that work for your purposes.
Okay, now it’s your turn.
My invitation to you is to list something in the comments below about what is one of your favourite ways or most successful ways of taking a large group into smaller teams, two teams or multiple teams, it doesn’t matter.
And here’s the bonus is that you’re adding to the collective wisdom of practitioners all over the world who will see your comment and add to it. And here’s my promise is that I will respond. More than likely, steal your idea as well.
Now, here are two last-minute tips.
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Original post July 2024, last updated August 2024.
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Thanks for sharing so many clever ideas! I like to ask participants to find a partner who has the same thumb length they have, or same hair length (or even opposite lengths). I sometimes use a deck of cards and ask same suits to get together or same numbers (this takes pre-planning to get the right amount of cards ready).