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Exercises/Divergent Ideation/Social Loafing
Ideation Warm-Up ยท Divergent Ideation

Social Loafing

Learn what it means to be a social loafer and how to combat loafers on your team social loafing is people exerting less effort to achieve a goal when they work in a group than when they work alone

5 to 15 minutesTIME
Medium group (9-25), Small group (4-8)GROUP SIZE
ActiveENERGY
In personSETTING
High cognitive loadCOGNITIVE LOAD
Strengthens Participation Architecture This divergent ideation exercise strengthens Participation Architecture, one of the eight Gathering Effectiveness pillars.

How to run it

  1. Have participants watch this YouTube video demonstrating social loafing
  2. KWWSV // N$)9KR In People Science Teams or small groups, have participants discuss why it is that social loafing happens
  3. Under what circumstances have they been the loafers or the hard workers
  4. If they were the loafers, what could have made them less likely to loaf?
  5. up, make sure to touch on each of the points in the document below
Live facilitator

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.

Prompts to use +

Have participants watch this YouTube video demonstrating social loafing

KWWSV // N$)9KR In People Science Teams or small groups, have participants discuss why it is that social loafing happens

Under what circumstances have they been the loafers or the hard workers

If they were the loafers, what could have made them less likely to loaf?

up, make sure to touch on each of the points in the document below

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: Social Loafing. Readiness: Publishable Draft. Core moves: Have participants watch this YouTube video demonstrating social loafing; KWWSV // N$)9KR In People Science Teams or small groups, have participants discuss why it is that social loafing happens; Under what circumstances have they been the loafers or the hard workers; If they were the loafers, what could have made them less likely to loaf?. Return a concise facilitator script with timing, wording, safety notes, and remote/in-person adjustments.

Origin unverified

  • Where we observed it: The strongest current observations come from Relationship Makers Handbook; aggregators are listed as additional observations, not origin proof. (1 source observed, including Relationship Makers Handbook.)
  • 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.

Pairs well with