Steps

1. Have everybody in the room stand. Then announce that they are going to go around and greet other people in the room. They will follow your announcements: “Greet the other people like they are your long-lost best friends – your best friends whom you haven’t seen in years!” The effect of this is remarkable. People often start hugging each other with passion and enthusiasm. It’s often difficult to stop this, because people are so excited and boisterous. It’s hard to get people’s attention to go to the next greeting. When you do get everyone’s attention, go on to this next instruction: “Greet other people as if they have bad breath.” This is humorous to watch for completely different reasons. People typically laugh for a moment, and then they hold out their arms to shake hands, standing as far away as they can. After they have greeted each other for a moment, you can go to the next one: “Greet other people as if they are celebrities.” Now participants often are very deferential towards each other, even shy and coy. After a minute or two of this, you can move to the final one: “Greet other people as if they are cowboys or cowgirls.” Even when we have done this in Texas, people resort to stereotypes from old Western movies. Some people will strut; others will swing an imaginary lasso; others will do some kind of square dancing. (Note: Even though all of these are stereotypes, they are all meant to be positive. This activity is not meant to make fun of anyone’s culture.) You can invent your own categories as well.
2. After several minutes, you can finish.