Group Pulse
Pass a clap around the circle. Then send one the other way too.
A single clap travels around the circle, person to person. Then it goes faster, then it reverses, then a second pulse starts in the opposite direction and the two have to cross. It is the quietest activity here and one of the most focused — a whole room doing one thing in sequence, and knowing it.
Stand in a circle. The person nearest the screen claps once to the person on their left — that clap is the pulse. They pass it on, and it travels all the way round. Look at whoever you're passing to. When the screen says REVERSE, whoever gets it next sends it back.
You want everyone involved and attentive without raising the volume — a good closer, or a reset in a room that is already too loud.
Props: None
Run this when…
If none of these is your room, pick another.A calm reset that still requires everyone
Before something that needs collective concentration
Closing a session on a shared note
How to run it
Written to be glanced at mid-room, not memorised.
- Stand in a circle, close enough to see the whole way round.
- The person nearest the screen claps once, turning towards the person on their left.
- That person passes the clap on, and so on round the circle.
- Get all the way round once, slowly, then again faster.
- On REVERSE, whoever gets it next sends it back the way it came.
- For two pulses, the person opposite the starter sends a second one the other way. The two will meet — let them work out what happens when they cross.
- Finish by trying for the fastest clean lap.
Running it well
Only the host sees these. Participants never do.
- Insist on eye contact with the person you are passing to. Without it the pulse dies about four people in, every time.
- The two-pulse round always collapses the first time. Let it, then let them fix it themselves.
- Timing the lap and beating it gives a shape to what is otherwise just a nice moment.
- This is the one to reach for when a room is over-stimulated rather than flat. It brings energy down and attention up.
Watch out for
Space, safety and the traps worth knowing before you start.
- Everyone needs to see across the circle. Over about fifty, run two circles.
- A clap is not accessible to everyone — a stamp, a nod or a hand raise passes just as well. Offer it at the start.
Seated version
“Everybody stand up” is not a neutral instruction. Offer this alongside, not instead.
Works completely unchanged sitting in a circle of chairs.
If you want a debrief
Optional. Plenty of energisers are better left as the thing that woke the room up.
- What made the difference between a lap that flowed and one that stalled?
- What happened when the two pulses met, and who sorted it out?
Run it yourself
Free for thirty days, no card. Put it on the projector and step through it — nobody in the room needs a phone.
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- Where
- Needs a room
- Props
- None
- Big screen
- Required
- Teams
- Individual only