Name Juggling
Name Juggling is a name learning exercise for relationship mapping: it helps participants build useful connections and understand how people, roles, or ideas relate.
How to run it
- Once any questions have been answered, toss the ball to the first person.
- As soon as they toss the ball, grab another one from your stash and toss it.
- a) there is exactly the number of balls going as there are participants (an almost Herculean task) or
- Notice how many balls the group has going, and retrieve them as they come back to you.
- Inform the group as to how many balls they had in the air when they were doing their best.
- Ask the group to consider how they might improve their performance.
- Name Juggling From Teampedia Jump to: navigation, search Contents 1 Objectives 2 Group Size 3 Materials 4 Set Up 5 Directions Objectives Name Games Icebreakers/Warmups Group Size Small Medium Materials 5 - 10 Throwable Objects (Small Balls, Dog Toys, Etc.) Set Up None Directions Stand in a circle.
- Go around the circle and have everyone share names, one at a time.
- Let participants know that its OK to ask someone else’s name if you don’t remember.
- Explain: "I'm going to start by tossing this ball to someone else in the circle.
Run this exercise live
The facilitator console stays in this browser. Its QR handoff is a short-lived participant snapshot containing only public exercise instructions, phase, prompt, and timer state.
What participants need now
Materials:
This is a participant-safe snapshot, not a response form. It sends nothing back to the facilitator.
Prompts to use +
Once any questions have been answered, toss the ball to the first person.
Ask the group to consider how they might improve their performance.
Name Juggling From Teampedia Jump to: navigation, search Contents 1 Objectives 2 Group Size 3 Materials 4 Set Up 5 Directions Objectives Name Games Icebreakers/Warmups Group Size Small Medium Materials 5 - 10 Throwable Objects (Small Balls, Dog Toys, Etc.) Set Up None Directions Stand in a circle.
Go around the circle and have everyone share names, one at a time.
Let participants know that its OK to ask someone else’s name if you don’t remember.
Explain: "I'm going to start by tossing this ball to someone else in the circle.
Run this with your AI assistant +
Works with Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, or your own local model: paste this prompt and your AI will co-facilitate this exercise with you.
Adapt this exercise for my exact room. Exercise: Name Juggling. Readiness: Publishable Draft. Core moves: Once any questions have been answered, toss the ball to the first person.; Ask the group to consider how they might improve their performance.; Name Juggling From Teampedia Jump to: navigation, search Contents 1 Objectives 2 Group Size 3 Materials 4 Set Up 5 Directions Objectives Name Games Icebreakers/Warmups Group Size Small Medium Materials 5 - 10 Throwable Objects (Small Balls, Dog Toys, Etc.) Set Up None Directions Stand in a circle.; Go around the circle and have everyone share names, one at a time.. Return a concise facilitator script with timing, wording, safety notes, and remote/in-person adjustments.
Origin unverified
- Where we observed it: The exercise appears across 2 observed source organizations in the current corpus. (2 sources observed, including Teampedia, SessionLab.)
- What that means: we track where an exercise has been observed in public sources. We do not claim to know who created it, or how popular it is.
- No efficacy claims: appearing in this library is not a claim that the exercise is proven effective. Facilitator judgment and context decide whether it works for a given room.
- Corrections: if you have evidence of an earlier or more accurate source, read our methodology and trust boundary and tell us.