Switch If…
If it's true of you, you're out of your seat. One chair short, every time.
A circle of chairs with one fewer than there are people. The screen calls a statement — you've had coffee today — and everyone it's true of has to find a different seat. Later the middle person calls one, with three ready on screen if they want them. It is loud, it is quick, and people learn more about each other in four minutes than a round of introductions manages.
Grab a chair in the circle — there's one fewer than people. The screen calls something like “switch if you've had coffee today.” If it's true of you, get up and find a different chair, not the one next to you. Whoever's left standing goes in the middle.
The room has split into the groups they arrived in and you want them physically shuffled without announcing that as the goal.
Props: Chairs — one fewer than the number of people
Run this when…
If none of these is your room, pick another.A group that has met but not mixed
Straight after lunch, when a seated activity would lose them
Breaking up cliques who arrived together
How to run it
Written to be glanced at mid-room, not memorised.
- Set the chairs in a circle, one fewer than there are people. One person starts standing in the middle.
- The screen calls a statement. Anyone it is true of gets up and finds a different chair.
- You cannot take the chair next to the one you left. Whoever does not get a seat goes in the middle.
- For three cards the round goes silent: the middle person acts the statement out and the room guesses, then moves.
- Later the middle person calls one themselves — three ready-made lines are on screen if they would rather.
- Keep it fast and stop at the last card while it is still fun.
Running it well
Only the host sees these. Participants never do.
- The statements are deliberately mild and drawn fresh each run, so the room never runs dry and never has to be clever on the spot. Resist adding spicier ones of your own.
- Say “nothing you wouldn't say to the whole company” once, before the your-turn cards. Those are the only moments the room writes the statement.
- Stop at the last card. This is the rare activity that gets worse after eight minutes, not better.
- If the same person lands in the middle three times, put them back in the circle and let the next statement do the work.
Watch out for
Space, safety and the traps worth knowing before you start.
- Chairs, not stools, and no wheels. Moving fast between chairs on castors is how someone goes over.
- Keep the middle clear and make the circle wide enough that two people crossing do not collide.
- Anyone who would rather not move can call from their seat and stay in as a caller.
Seated version
“Everybody stand up” is not a neutral instruction. Offer this alongside, not instead.
Instead of swapping chairs, everyone it applies to stands up, turns around and sits back down. Keeps the reveal, drops the scramble.
Variations
For the second time you run it with the same group.
- Themed rounds: switch if it is about how you work, not who you are.
- A second run reshuffles the statements, so the room gets a fresh set rather than a repeat.
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
- Chairs — one fewer than the number of people
- Big screen
- Required
- Teams
- Individual only