Invocation Exercise

Choose this exercise

Purpose: Practice collective focus, patterned listening, and thematic heightening by building on each other's language.

Use it when: Use during ideation or team warm-ups to practice collaborative convergence and creative callbacks.

Skip it when: Skip when participants are sensitive to religious ritual parody or when the group needs analytical problem solving rather than playful exaggeration.

Group arrangement: Single semi-circle facing an open center point

Timing: UWT plan structured around the source's 3-phase progression.

Materials and tools

• One everyday mundane object (such as a stapler, mug, or paperclip)

Before participants arrive

1. Place the mundane object on a small table or stand in the center of the room.
2. Arrange chairs or standing marks in an open semi-circle facing the object.

Say this to open

Today we are going to explore an improv exercise called Invocation. We will look at this everyday object in the center and treat it as a grand deity. Together we will address it through three distinct phases: first, describing its concrete physical details; second, praising its abstract or intangible qualities; and third, making wild requests of it. Anyone can speak at any time into the center. You may repeat phrases, mirror cadences, or call back details that others mention.

How to run it

1. Introduce structure and choose cadence 3 minutes

   Explain the three phases and establish an opening repeated phrase, such as 'Oh, God...' or 'Great Stapler...'. Demonstrate how each player will offer short spontaneous lines directed at the object without formal turns.

2. Phase one: Physical description 3 minutes

   On the facilitator's cue, players address the object using only its observable physical traits (for example: 'Oh, God, with your cold steel jaw,' or 'Oh, God, with your painted blue shell'). Encourage people to repeat key descriptions and mirror language patterns. Stop when 6 to 10 distinct physical details have emerged.

3. Phase two: Intangible qualities 3 minutes

   Shift the group into phase two. The group now addresses metaphorical, emotional, or unseen powers of the object, recalling details from phase one (for example: 'Oh, God, who binds all chaos into order,' or 'Oh, God, who never bends under pressure'). Continue for about 3 minutes.

4. Phase three: Requests and supplication 3 minutes

   Shift to phase three. Players make direct requests for the deity to act upon them or their world, using callbacks from earlier phases (for example: 'Oh, God, fasten my enemies together,' or 'Oh, God, press down upon our doubts'). Facilitate a natural group crescendo to conclude the ritual.

5. Reflect and debrief 3 minutes

   Lead a brief whole-room debrief focusing on listening, mirroring, and collaborative building. Ask 2 or 3 participants to share observations.

Debrief questions

• Which repeated phrases or details helped the group feel united in its perspective?
• How did early concrete physical details shape the abstract ideas and requests in later phases?
• Where did you notice opportunities to build on someone else's idea instead of introducing a completely new one?

Finished output: A collectively built spoken ritual with distinct escalating themes based on a single object.

Remote

Have all participants switch to gallery view with cameras on. The facilitator displays an image of the mundane object on screen or in a spotlighted tile. Participants speak freely using open microphones, leaving natural pauses so voices do not clash. Those who prefer not to speak aloud may drop phase-appropriate lines directly into the text chat for others to voice or incorporate.

Hybrid

In-person members face the central camera and room display in a semi-circle while remote members appear on the main room screen. Turn priority is conversational: remote participants can chime in verbally or post lines in chat, which an assigned room ally reads aloud as part of the invocation.

Access and participation choices

• Participants may sit or stand anywhere along the semi-circle.
• Speaking aloud is optional; participants may participate silently through focused gaze, vocal agreement, or by handing written ideas to a partner.

If the session gets stuck

People talk over each other constantly, causing chaos.

Remind the group to embrace short pauses between statements and encourage echoing or repeating the last spoken line before adding a new detail.

Statements become too random and disconnect from previous lines.

Pause briefly and prompt the group to use a callback: 'Take the last physical detail someone said and turn it into an intangible quality.'

Terms used here

• Heightening: Taking an existing idea or pattern and increasing its intensity, specificity, or absurdity.
• Callback: Referencing a specific detail, word, or concept introduced earlier in the exercise.