Freeze Frame

Step-by-Step Instructions

Ask your group to spread themselves evenly throughout a large open area.
Invite everyone to walk aimlessly and silently about the area.
After approx 10 seconds has elapsed, any one or more individuals may choose to freeze and stop walking.
Anyone who spots another person who has frozen is invited to freeze immediately too.
Time how long it takes for the whole group to freeze, ie from the moment the first person freezes to the last person.
Aim to record the quickest time to freeze the whole group.
Allow many rounds, inviting the group to improve their performance (time.)

Video Tutorial

Video Transcript for Freeze Frame
presented by Mark Collard

I’m going to ask you to simply walk. You don’t have to do any talking, you’re not going to be touching anyone. You’re going to simply walking randomly filling all the spaces as you’re moving about.

Here’s your objective though as a group, as you’re moving about, after about ten seconds, I don’t need you to be literal you can all probably hopefully count to ten seconds although surprisingly much quicker than it really takes, but roughly ten seconds or more any one or more of you can choose to stop walking. And that is you’ll freeze.

So you’re walking, walking, walking, ten, twenty, thirty seconds elapse you decide to freeze. Here’s your objective as a group how quickly can you as a group freeze because as soon as a person or more than one person freezes if you see them freeze I invite you to freeze as well.

So that as soon as you freeze someone else sees you they freeze. It keeps going. As I said small group won’t take long. The objective for this group is to see how quick it takes us from the first person who freezes to when the last person freezes. Got the idea? Go.

Just walking around. Remember wait at least ten seconds feel free to wait much longer if you wish.

(Group walks around the room. Group freezes.)

Okay remember it is a freeze not vogue. Okay and go!

(Group walks around the room. Group freezes.)

Okay quick ten seconds and go!

This time briskly with sharp corners. Go!

(Group walks around the room. Group freezes.)

And relax.

Bunch in on back in again, nice and close.

Okay, again you could suggest we raised our heart beats, we’ve moved about, blah, blah, blah. Yes, you can tick all those boxes.

But here’s my question to you. What was necessary to get the whole group to freeze? What was necessary to get the whole group to freeze? There are many elements at play here.

(One person has to make the decision to stop.)

So, one person needed to choose to stop. Great, so we’re all very happily walking around doing all the same thing and then someone chooses to do something different. They took a risk, they stopped.

In the life of not only an individual but also a group, that’s a really powerful piece. There was one time and it’s only ever happened once, but there was a group I swear I wasn’t timing it. It must have lasted thirty, I’m sorry, it was more than three minutes. I’m thinking could they understand me? No, no one felt safe to stop.

In the life of this group there was an extraordinary insecurity around being different. And so stopping in the world of their group was “well you’re different you don’t fit in.”

And so we just kept on walking. Now really it gave me a lot of information about how to work with this group. It changed my sequence, it changed my language, but yeah it actually represents a risk. And it took one person to do something different.

Good, what else was necessary to get the whole group to freeze?

(You have to be aware of what the other people are doing.)

Great yeah, so if you’re not watching them, you’re not going to see that they froze. Great, so that’s one part.

Reminds me again of a year nine program, large oval, outdoors (blah blah blah) Two boys just kept on walking towards the sunset. Figured that they wouldn’t turn around, because if they did they would have seen us frozen and they would’ve had to have frozen as well. Where they thought “Oh we’ll just keep on walking.” And it was great so after about five seconds it was clear what was going on and… “go” and we just went back into it and they found their way back.

But yeah, if you’re not observant you’re not going to know that other people have stopped.

Great. What else? There’s quite a few other elements.

(Copying)

Excuse me?

(Copying)

So what do you mean?

(Copying. Someone else has stopped, so I could have stopped)

Okay so and you’re choosing to stop. So the element there is that you’re willing to stop. Like my two boys, that I’ve just described, were not willing to turn around. Were not willing to stop. So you’ve identified another piece that’s critical to get everyone to freeze. You have to be willing to stop. Got that, great.

What else?

(Everyone understood the rules)

Yeah, so what, and in particular the goal. So can anyone in the own words describe what was the goal of the activity? What was the objective as a group?

(To freeze as quick as possible?)

Great yeah, as a whole group to freeze as quickly as possible. Please raise your hand if you believe that to be the goal of this activity. It’s not a test.

Pretty much unanimous. Great.

Here’s the piece that connects for people. My guess is for many of the groups you work with, maybe many of the groups that you’re a member of, maybe many of the groups that you lead. It’s possible that the goal is not clear.

So it might be, metaphorically speaking, this activity provides opportunity to talk about the fact that maybe only three quarters of our group actually understand our goal is to freeze. And there’s always a part of the group that thought that lying on the ground was the goal. There’s a couple that choose to stand on their head, and there’s three or four that decided to leave the room because they thought that was the goal.

Does that sound like any group you know of?

Yeah, there’s very few groups out there where it is all about everyone knows to freeze. But the object is that the more we know about, the more we are clear about that, the more likely that we are going to be successful.

My guess is your head’s thinking about ways in which this opens up conversations about the group that you work with. It extends clearly beyond physical education. It’s about the life of the group. It’s about them as an individual as well. You know, in terms of their ability to work within that environment too. Make sense?

You’ve just mentioned three, four, five different things that were critical and all I asked was one question. What was necessary to get the whole group to freeze?

You mentioned a whole string of things. And that extends it beyond just the running around, raising the heartbeat, having fun. Now suddenly you got permission to talk about… okay so where, where might this actually occur or not occur in our sporting team? Or in our class project? Or in the family? I don’t know, I’m not sure what your work is. But all those sorts of things. Going “ah yeah.”

Have a group turn up, those that do turn up only half of them believe this is the reason we’re here. The other one thinks that “uh, uh uh.” Yeah it’s around no clarity of goal. Okay, we get that right we’re more likely to be on the same page. Make sense? Yeah.

How To Play Narrative

This activity is so simple, yet so powerful.

Spread your group evenly throughout an open space. Explain that in a few moments, you will ask them to wander aimlessly within the boundaries of the space, simply observing other people as they move about them. No talking, no touching, just walking.

Next, explain that at any point after ten seconds has elapsed, any one or more people can choose to ‘freeze’ their movement, remaining absolutely dead-still mid-wander. This event will invite anyone and everyone who observes this immobilisation to immediately freeze their movements too, and so on the frozen ripples extend.

The object for the group is to see how long it takes for every individual to freeze from the time the first person freezes.

Hold the ‘group freeze’ for a second or two to ensure that there are no belated moves, then introduce a second, third and as many successive rounds as your group has the energy, and then… finally relax.

There is little point in actually timing the attempts (ie with a stopwatch,) and even if you did, this task would be difficult because the initial freeze will be triggered at random moments every time. You just get a sense of what is quicker.

Repeat the task five or six times, perhaps with a few variations thrown in for good measure (see Variations tab below.)

Practical Leadership Tips

Note, how curious it is that most people have no concept of how long ten seconds lasts, ie almost without fail, someone will freeze much earlier than ten seconds. Even after you make this observation (just for fun,) it will make little difference to the next attempt. Hilarious!

In the beginning, people are often focused on little else than themselves. This exercise invites people to look beyond themselves. It’s amazing what is achieved in such a short space of time, when a group of individuals constitute themselves as ‘community,’ focus on other people and agree to achieve a common goal (eg everybody frozen as quickly as possible). Can you see any connections here to your program goals?

This exercise, at first glance, is clearly a good warm-up or energiser. However, leading a brief discussion about what else is happening and how it relates to the ‘day-to-day’ life of your group, may also open up some useful insights which relate to the ‘connectedness’ (or lack thereof) of the group. For example, asking “What was necessary to get everyone to freeze?” will help the group explore what it takes to achieve a common goal. Go to the Health & Wellness Programming tab for more.

Many powerful metaphors can be developed within the essence of this exercise. For example, the connectedness of your group, and the skills required for the group to achieve a task.

A stopwatch may be a useful prop, but you don’t really need it unless you are striving for precision within the context of a group initiative.

Take a look at Fill The Space as the perfect segue into Freeze Frame.

Social-Emotional Learning

You could integrate Freeze Frame as part of a well-designed SEL program to develop your group’s ability to manage their emotions, thoughts and behaviours effectively in different situations and to achieve goals.

Specifically, this activity offers ample opportunities to explore and practice the following social & interpersonal skills:

Self-Awareness

Linking Feelings, Values & Thoughts
Demonstrating Self-Confidence, Honesty & Integrity
Experiencing Self-Efficacy

Self-Management

Controlling One’s Emotions
Demonstrating Self-Discipline & Self-Motivation
Setting Personal & Group Goals
Taking Initiative

Social Awareness

Taking Other’s Perspectives
Demonstrating Empathy & Compassion
Respecting Others

Relationship Skills

Communicate & Listen Effectively
Seeking and/or Offering Support
Build Positive Relationships
Work Collaboratively
Showing Leadership

Responsible Decision-Making

Demonstrating Curiosity & Open-Mindedness
Making Reasoned Judgements
Anticipating & Evaluating the Consequences of One’s Actions
Promoting Personal & Collective Well-Being

You can learn more about SEL and how it can support character education here.

Health & Wellness Programming

Behavioural Norms

This is one of my go-to activities I present when preparing a group to discuss goal-setting and/or the development of full value or behavioural norms. I lead the activity as described above and in conclusion, facilitate a discussion that invites my group to consider a range of behavioural choices and outcomes. For example, in addition to those described in the Reflection Tips tab, I may ask the following questions to help my group explore the impact of their behaviours on others:

What were all of the things you and/or your group had to do to achieve a total group freeze?
What was the most important action? Why?
Why was achieving your goal so successful?
In the life of a group, what does one person doing something different to everyone else represent or mean?
How did leadership show up in this exercise? What did it look like, or not look like?
How did it feel to conform to the group’s expectations? What did you have to give up?

Popular Variations

Different Pace: After several of the introductory rounds, ask people to increase the speed of their mingling, and then in a later round, add sharp, random turns in direction. Note the sequence here – it’s deliberate. If your group demonstrates a good level of safety consciousness in the first introductory rounds, then you may feel comfortable to present these more challenging later versions (or not!)
Speed Round: Permit very brisk walking (shy of a jog or run) if you feel the group can keep it safe, especially with the sharp corners.

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Useful Framing Ideas

This exercise is a classic example of what appears at first glance to be a simple warm-up or energiser, but can very easily be transformed into a powerful team-building metaphor…

Have you ever heard the term ‘Are you on the same page?’ It means, in other words, that everyone is thinking the same thing. While it’s an easy concept to grasp, in practice, it is often very difficult to achieve. This exercise will explore some of the key skills involved in helping our group to understand what is necessary to be on the same page…

One of the most important ingredients of a successful team is having a common goal. Yet, simply posting this goal in a prominent place on the wall is not enough to make it effective. Several other key skills are also necessary, such as a willingness to contribute, and connecting/communicating with others. In a very simple manner, this activity will highlight how important each of these and other key skills are helping a team achieve its goals…

Reflection Tips & Strategies

Coupled with one or more reflection strategies, here are some sample questions you could use to process your group’s experience after playing this active energiser game:

Did your group continuously improve its time with each round? How did this happen?
What was required to get the whole group to freeze?
How might what was required to be successful in this exercise relate to your work, school, sport, etc?

Program Templates

Fun, Interactive ‘Warm-Up’ Session

What You Need:
8+ people, 15 mins

Fill The Space – series of fun group walking challenges
Freeze Frame – simple team-oriented walking exercise that sharpens observation skills

Fun & Challenging ‘Team-Building’ Program

What You Need:
8+ people, 2 hours, deck of playing cards, stopwatch, set of poly spots

Elevator Air– quick exercise to successfully frame your group’s experience
ESP– partner activity which explores the importance of common goals
Jump In Jump Out– hilarious and fun energiser which will focus your group’s attention on listening skills and working together as one unit
F reeze Frame– simple walking exercise to focus your group’s attention on what it takes to work as a team
Spectrums Debrief – quick, non-verbal exercise to debrief important teachable moments so far in the program
Change Up– dynamic exercise to focus on problem-solving and goal-setting
The Maze– excellent initiative which develops an awareness of critical communication, trust and leadership skills
Paired-Share Debrief – non-threatening small and large group discussion designed to debrief the program’s key learning outcomes

Source

The inspiration for Freeze Frame, and many more active energisers, was sourced from the following publication:

No Props No Problem by Mark Collard. 150+ interactive group games including ice-breakers, energisers, trust exercises & team-building activities

NO PROPS NO PROBLEM - $49.00 AUD

Contributor Mark

Add your Comments...

Have you played this activity? What worked, what didn't work? What type of group? Do you have useful advice for other users? Do you know a fun variation?

Comments (1)

texasteambuilder September 28, 2017
Love this simple and powerful activity. It is my current favorite transition from ice breakers into more serious problem solving. I used this recently with 20 adults and was amazed at the rich conversation that came from this activity and ow well it worked to set up the day.

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Freeze Frame

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Step-by-Step Instructions

Video Tutorial

How To Play Narrative

Practical Leadership Tips

Social-Emotional Learning

Health & Wellness Programming

Popular Variations

You Might Also Like...

Become a Memberto Access this Activity

Fill The Space

Walk & Stop

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Funny Walk

Useful Framing Ideas

Reflection Tips & Strategies

Program Templates

Fun, Interactive ‘Warm-Up’ Session

Fun & Challenging ‘Team-Building’ Program

Source

Add your Comments...

Comments (1)

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