Bring your next session to life.
Want more participation, connection and meaningful learning, without forcing the fun? Find an activity that fits your group, shape a thoughtful session and turn shared experiences into learning that sticks, action with purpose and change that lasts.
Need someone to lead the room? Work with Leif →
Free activities and a free personal Studio. No account needed.
With Leif Hansen · Certifications in Applied Improvisation, Coaching, Positive Psychology and Dynamic Facilitation; strategic foresight training with the Institute for the Future (IFTF). Meet Leif →
Less searching. More confidence in the room.
Running out of fresh ideas?
Find an activity for your group’s purpose, whether you need connection, energy, focus, skill-building or reflection.
Want to be more engaging and playful?
Start with a clear invitation, practical facilitator prompts and room for people to participate in their own way.
Too many pieces to plan?
Bring activities, timings and backup options into one session plan, with an energy arc you can see.
A great activity. Now what?
Use debrief prompts to connect the experience to what matters, then capture reflections and next steps.
“If you're looking for a skilled facilitator who can get the serious to play and the playful to get serious... check out this man :-)”
Find something you can use in your next session.
What does your group need: more energy, stronger connection, fresh thinking or time to reflect? Start with an activity, check your session setup or draw a debrief prompt. All three tools are free, with no account needed.
Explore all ten activity flavors →
+ The Surprise Factor… you can't rate it. You can only leave room for it.
From a good activity to a thoughtful session.
Bring the pieces together in your free personal Studio: choose activities, plan the flow, guide the room and keep the learning in view.
Illustrative examples of the four rooms. Prompts and participant view run on the facilitator’s device; participants’ phones are not connected. The sample harvest is illustrative, not an AI synthesis.
Most people defaulted to old patterns until play made it safe to fail.
Build a session block by block, see the flavor ribbon and energy line, and keep alternatives ready to swap.
Activities and debriefs with facilitator moves, sources and suggested pairings.
Project a prompt, pace the session with a timer, and capture notes, votes and spectrum reflections on your device.
Gather notes, media and commitments. Copy your harvest, download a CSV, or print a session summary to PDF.
“Play is the birthplace of aliveness.”
Meet Leif, the facilitator behind Playformation.
Leif is a transformational facilitator, coach and author who has spent more than 20 years helping people and teams come alive. His facilitation career began at the Applied Improvisation Network conference in Banff, and he later helped grow the network's online community into a global gathering of thousands of practitioners.
Through Spark Interaction, his practice since 2006, he has led team-building, leadership and customer-experience programs for organizations including Microsoft and Sodexo, alongside personal growth retreats, coaching and workshops on creativity, facilitation and AI. In 2026 he was a guest facilitator at the Advanced Applied Improvisation training on Spain's Costa Brava.
Leif combines a background in futures thinking and the improvisational arts. He is also a dancer, and his work has been featured on NBC's Today Show and PBS. He lives on the Big Island of Hawaiʻi and works with groups around the world.
Explore credited activities and debrief prompts, then bring them together in your personal Studio. Curated and adapted by Leif Hansen, with source credits carried through the tools.
Certifications & training
- Certification in Applied Improvisation
- Certification in Coaching
- Certification in Positive Psychology
- Certification in Dynamic Facilitation
- Strategic foresight training with the Institute for the Future (IFTF)
“My team was fully engaged, and had a lot of fun. They were learning without realizing that they were learning.”
Grow as a facilitator. Or bring Leif in.
Use the tools on your own, explore coaching for your next step, or find support for a gathering that needs more participation, connection and meaningful learning.
Working on how your team adapts to AI? Explore AI Team Alignment with Distinctly Human →
A little play.
A real shift.
In their own words, from Leif’s workshops, retreats and community gatherings.
Swipe or scroll to explore. Use the arrow keys, Home or End when this area is focused.
I've been teaching groups successfully for almost 20 years, and Leif opened my eyes to an entire world I didn't know about.
His facilitation brought the group to a more honest level of communication, a greater awareness of each other's needs and bonded the staff together towards solutions during a time of high transition and demand.
Leif's playful activities had us mixing, mingling, sharing, coaching, and ultimately collaborating with each other.
Thank you for creating such a safe/comfortable space for me to be who I am. I felt completely at home.
It made me let go and filled my belly with laughter and fun. It allowed me to relax and decompress, but at the same time brought a different awareness of myself, a deeper self, one that I could work toward improving.
Surprising fun. Innovative and creative without the self conscious downside to improv situations. Good genuine contact with locals.
Every activity has a purpose. Name it first.
Ten core flavors describe what an activity is for. Activities can carry several flavors; use them to choose a suitable invitation and debrief. The Studio also includes Closer as a session-ending category for integration and goodbye.
Hover, tap or focus a flavor to peek at an example. Click to keep it open; click again or press Escape to close.
Invite each person to name their inner weather: sunny, foggy, stormy or a light breeze. Listen without trying to fix it.
Activity credits & sources →Offer a playful ritual for mistakes: arms up, “I failed!” and a bow, with the group cheering. Invite people to take part or pass.
Activity credits & sources →Stand in a circle and pass a clap with the words Zip, Zap and Zop. Try a quicker pace, then notice how the group responds to mistakes.
Activity credits & sources →In pairs, offer an imaginary gift with a shape and weight. The receiver opens it and names it; the giver replies, “I knew you’d love it, because…”
Activity credits & sources →Cross your arms and notice which arm is on top. Try the other way, then discuss what that unfamiliar feeling suggests about change.
Activity credits & sources →Plan an imaginary party in pairs, beginning every reply with “Yes, but…” Then try “Yes, and…” and compare the conversations.
Activity credits & sources →Count to twenty together, one voice at a time with no set order. If two people speak together, begin again at one; afterward ask what helped the group listen.
Activity credits & sources →In pairs, give a story a title and tell it one word each. Reflect on when you led, followed or blocked the story.
Activity credits & sources →Draw a line showing life’s highs and lows, then optionally share a chapter in a small group while others listen. Offer this only when the group is ready, with permission to pass or choose a lighter story.
Activity credits & sources →Start with the facts of what happened, then explore patterns and meaning. Close by naming a concrete next action.
Activity credits & sources →Play with purpose. Leave room for discovery.
Purposeful play gives people another way to connect, experiment and reflect. Begin with your group’s purpose, invite participation without pressure and make space to notice what emerges.
Explore the Playformation philosophy
Play is the birthplace of aliveness.
Somewhere along the way most of us forgot how to play. We became strategists, optimizers and performers, and we lost the part of us that could be spontaneous, ridiculous and free.
Playformation brings purposeful play, applied improv and reflection into group work. Choose an invitation that fits the moment, make participation optional and leave room to notice what emerges. The activity is a beginning; the conversation afterward helps people connect it to their lives.
It's a dynamic answer to the conditions so many groups walk in with:
Purposeful play invites people to experiment, listen and reflect. Begin with a clear purpose and respect each person’s readiness.
Blend conversation, movement, drawing and reflection. Choose ways to participate that fit your group and offer alternatives.
Use structure as a starting point. Adapt the pace, invitation and debrief to the people in the room, with permission to pass.
Accept offers and build on them, in conversation, creativity and life.
Trust your first impulse, bypass the inner critic, find real creativity.
Get out of your head and into your body, where intuition lives.
Treat mistakes as gifts. Less perfectionism, more resilience.
Read the subtle dynamics of power, presence and connection.
The magic that emerges when people truly listen and co-create.
“In improv we say follow the fear. Go toward what makes you nervous, because that's where aliveness lives.”Leif Hansen
Want to save a session plan to your account?
Your personal Studio is free and works without an account. Free Player membership adds two private session plans saved to your account. Save updates manually with “Save to my account”; sessions and harvests remain in this browser.
Need to save more session plans? Facilitator membership includes unlimited session plans and activity submissions for admin approval. Compare memberships and pricing →
Playformation Lab, phone participation and AI harvests are coming soon.