Five Handshakes in Five Minutes

Choose this exercise

Purpose: Offer a low-stakes physical warm-up to acknowledge people across the room before seated work begins.

Use it when: At the start of an in-person workshop or following long sitting when attendees need quick movement and interaction.

Skip it when: When tight floor space makes circulation unsafe, when physical touch causes discomfort, or when quiet focused reflection is needed.

Group arrangement: Whole group milling and pairing in rapid rounds

Timing: Source specifies five greetings in under five minutes; UWT structures an exact five-minute schedule.

Materials and tools

• Stopwatch or digital countdown timer for facilitator

Before participants arrive

1. Clear floor space so participants can walk around freely without tripping over chairs or bags.

Say this to open

We have five minutes to do five quick greeting rounds. In a moment, I will demonstrate the first two greetings together so we can roll straight through them. When I call go, circulate and share that greeting with as many people as you can. Non-contact versions are always welcome, so pick whatever feels comfortable.

How to run it

1. Introduce and demonstrate first batch 1 minutes

   Speak opening script. Demonstrate greeting 1 (high-five or an open-palm wave) and greeting 2 (fist-bump or peace sign). Explicitly show non-contact alternatives for both. Have participants stand and find space.

2. Run rounds one and two 1 minutes

   Call go for round 1 (high-five/wave). Time 20 seconds. Call change to round 2 (fist-bump/peace sign) without pausing to re-gather the room. Time 20 seconds. Call pause.

3. Demonstrate and run rounds three, four, and five 2 minutes

   Quickly demonstrate greeting 3 (elbow-bump or hands-clasped nod), greeting 4 (pinky touch or thumbs-up), and greeting 5 (two claps and a point, or slight bow). Call go for round 3 (20 seconds), round 4 (20 seconds), and round 5 (20 seconds) with quick vocal cues between rounds. Invite everyone to return to their seats.

4. Debrief 1 minutes

   Call the room back to focus. Ask one debrief question. Take two brief verbal responses from volunteers to conclude the warm-up.

Debrief questions

• Which greeting felt smoothest to exchange, and why?
• What cues helped you match greeting styles with each partner?

Finished output: The full group completes five greeting rounds and returns to their seats.

Remote

On video calls, run the five rounds as gallery-view screen gestures rather than walking. In each 20-second round, call out a gesture (such as jazz hands, thumbs up, heart hands, peace sign, or screen wave). Participants look across gallery view and mirror gestures with each other.

Hybrid

Split delivery between spaces. An in-person co-facilitator runs physical milling while an online facilitator guides remote attendees through gallery-view gestures on the same 20-second timers. When bringing the full room back together for the one-minute debrief, take one response from the physical room and one response from a remote volunteer or the meeting chat.

Access and participation choices

• Non-contact gesture variations (waving, peace signs, nods, or thumbs-up) are demonstrated alongside every physical contact option.
• Anyone may participate from a stationary seated position, invite others to approach them, or observe without moving.

If the session gets stuck

Participants rush or collide while moving quickly across the room.

Remind the group before round 1 that rapid walking is unnecessary and announce walking pace only.

Someone does not want to make physical contact with others.

Model non-contact equivalents during every demonstration so passing on touch feels standard.