11 Playful November activities

Monthly ideas for a playful mindset

As we close out the end of the year,  and exhaustion starts to kick in,  maintaining a playful mindset can seem a little more challenging.  To help out,   here’s 11 playful ideas to test out in the 11th month (see what I did there?)

Want more?  Luckily – I  have a newsletter!   Join for more monthly suggestions and keep in touch for the upcoming 12 ideas for a playful Christmas season.

1. Garage Sale Trail

This month across Australia it’s the annual garage sale trail.  

November 12-13 and November 19-20, Australians across the country will hold household sales to thrift their wares.  And it’s needed.  We have a fast fashion problem.  Every year, Aussies purchase 56 items of clothing and send 23kgs per person to landfill.

So by getting involved is not only fun, but you are also doing a massive fist-pump to the planet.

Your organisation can get playful with this concept by holding it’s own fun.  Try these things:

• Hold a silent online auction selling contributions from employees and give all the money to your company charity for feel good endorphins

• Use the opportunity to increase your sales techniques – ask each team member to bring a useless household item and do their very best to sell ‘ice to Eskimo’s’.

2. National Mason Jar Day

November 30th is National Mason Jar Day (yes… Mason Jars). 

It’s an international day to celebrate the utility of the humble glass jar and how it has been responsible for pickling our wonders since 1858.  Of course it needs a day of celebration! 

So can you think of anything more playful than a day to pay homage to a glass jar?

Try this brilliant ideas and I challenge you to go all out on this special day!

•  Ask all staff to bring ‘something’ to work in a mason jar (it doesn’t have to be jam or pickles.. its could be M&M’s or celery sticks) and then have a ‘meeting feast’ to create harmony over food

• If you are WFH, get to know each other a little better by holding a ‘guess how many mason jars’ day – ask each team member to count the amount of mason jars in their pantry and then try to get the amount of each team member (this will weed out the jam makers)

3. National Novel Writing Month

 November is also National Novel Writing Month,  where a challenge is set to write 50,000 words on a novel in the month of November. 

 Now,  I’m not suggesting you do this (although I thoroughly applaude you if you do – let me know how it goes!) BUT – Storytelling is a highly valued workplace must-have and here is a great opportunity to scrub up those creative skills by becoming playful with words.

• Work together to write a story about your product or service.  It could be a fairytale or a mystery?  It’s up to you.. but start with one team member.  If you are work from home, have someone write a paragraph and then pass the story on via email.  Copy and paste and keep going.  If you are back in the office, try it by hand..for more information – watch this video.

• Up your communication techniques by each staff member comes to a meeting bringing with them one word. It is then your mission to create a story out of those words. 

4. Holiday sharing

Christmas this way comes.  And for a lot of us,  it’s holiday time. So take the opportunity to share your knowledge and become a playful knowledge bank of cultural experiences.

•  Have everyone write (or create a picture collage) of places they have been.  Collate the information on a board or table (think Miro or Monday. Com or whatever team collaboration software you use) and then pair that up with where everyone is GOING.  If there are any matches… it’s to a break out room for them!  And this should at least prompt robust conversation about interesting and exciting places across the world.

• If you are in the office,  do the above but rather than a picture collage,  bring a national food from the country you visited.. who doesn’t love a feast!

5. Describe yourself as a slogan

 This is a wonderfully playful way to check in with the well-being of your staff without asking ‘How are you?’

 Tread softly with this one. For introverts and those who don’t consider themselves creative (MYTH.LIE. WE are ALL creative……..anyway) this may feel confronting and pushing pushed too far into a playful state takes the play away and loses the psychological safety.  SO –

• For a confident group.. ask them to start the meeting by describing their mood for the day in some kind of ad campaign.   They can make up their own if you have a confident bunch

• For a more reserved group. Supply a bunch of slogans and have them insert their own name (Think:  “Trudi. Just Do It”).  Here’s a list to get you started 

This is a great one for managers as you can check in on your staff by being aware of the slogan they associate with themselves.

6. Sodoku Together

Full disclosure:  I’ve never done this.  However, I saw a lovely couple playing sodoku together on the train and they added one number before passing it on. They were incredibly playful together and I wondered whether it would be a good way of collaborating as a team and problem solving.

• Play a game of sodoku together (share a screen if WFH) and see how you go together. (and let me know how it goes!)

7. Use your common sense day.

November 4th is Use Your Common Sense Day.  Ha!  Awesome.

This is a great time to create awareness around our every day activities and take notice of some of the things we do every day that effect who we are, how we work and how we function as a society.

It’s a fabulous playful opportunity to notice our habits and see if there is anything we can do differently – or is it just ‘common sense’.

• Awareness is the key here.  As you go about your day, log the things that are just ‘common sense’. Keep a common sense diary and share with your team the surprising things that you become aware of. (I always put my coffee on the right hand side of the desk…etc..)

• Use the day to pull apart a process or customer journey that you’ve been meaning to add some awareness to. Work through it and continually ask at each step ‘does this make common sense?’ – you may find a playful way to improve how you do things

8. Choose a charity

With the holiday season approaching,  now is a good time to connect with each other around your CSR or ESG policy (do you even have one?) the social and personal benefits of kindness are well documented. It produces serotonin, decreases anxiety, it will even help you live longer  

So the question really is:  Why aren’t we doing more of it???

There is nothing more playful than kindness.  It helps those giving and receiving in playful ways that are off the chart..  So why not start now!

• Spend some time together as a team discussing which charities are close to peoples hearts.  Mark down the charities together and see if you can decide on a common charity to support over the holiday season.  Be kind to each other as you do this,  and really listen and deepen the connection with each other by understanding what moves us as people

• Write a list together about HOW you can help that charity.  Can you tell your clients about their good work through a Christmas message?  Do they take volunteers? Get playful with your solutions! 

9. Reflection – what have you achieved in 2022

As December is always a whirwind,  use November to come together and take stock of the year with a reflection session for 2022.  We’ve all been through a lot in the last two years and here is a wonderful opportunity to stop. Collaborate and listen (yes..that IS MC Hammer)

• Get playful with this!  We don’t have to reflect with words.  Mail your staff a bunch of tiny playdoh blobs and create reflection sculptures (as abstract as you like) do a collaborative white board on zoom or a word cloud.  Think about different ways you can express reflection through engaging the body.. the choices are endless

• Don’t forget to reflect on achievements beyond the workplace. Ask people for tiny achievements, home ones, personal ones… being in a space and sharing some insight on the year will bring the team closer together

10. Remembrance Day

11th November is Australia’s remembrance day.  Now you may say ‘you can’t get playful with war’ Trudi,  and I ask you to keep in mind that being playful is a mindset – and learning and reflecting, if done in the right way, is play.

 And remembrance day is a great opportunity to reflect and feel gratitude, both exceptional components of a playful organisation.

•  Purchase a world map and have each team member research a conflict. (either current or past).  Mark it on the map for a sobering reminder that the world is still a volatile place. 

• Ask anyone with ancestors or relatives who went to war (of any culture or conflict) to share a story about them (doesn’t have to be one of war.. just them as a person) to have a moment of gratitude for the bravery and human toll of conflict.

11. Musical Chairs

Here’s a litte one to end off a big month!  We will often sit in the same chairs (either home or office) – our bodies have memories, and we will subconsciously respond to our environment physically.

•  So change it up!!  Sit in a different chair today and take a moment to see how it feels (perhaps a little odd at first) Changing up little things can break us out of our daily habits – and habits are a key player in crushing our playful selves.. so take charge of your own playful mindset today by changing things up!

We made it.  These 11 suggestions should keep you going and don’t forget to sign up to the newsletter for more helpful advice.  Go forth. Be playful.