PowerPoint Karaoke

The surprisingly effective team-building activity that blends improv, absurdity, and low-stakes chaos

Have you ever had to organize a team meeting specifically focused on team building? It can be a daunting task to find the right activities that are engaging yet effective.

I was assigned to organize our yearly team day and luckily, it was a huge success! So, I figured that instead of posting my somewhat longer-form articles, I would share with you the activity that was the biggest hit:

PowerPoint Karaoke.

Do you have to sing? No.
Do you need to be a consultant to do this? Not at all.
Is it fun? Absolutely.

What is PowerPoint Karaoke?

The idea is as follows:

• You will stand in front of your team - either as individual or in small groups of 2-3.

• You or someone else selects a PowerPoint presentation you have never seen before.

• You don’t know how many slides it has (usually 6-12) or what’s coming next.

• You can choose to advance the slides yourself or set an automatic time.

• Your job is to deliver a coherent, engaging, and convincing presentation of this material that you’ve never seen before.

It’s improv meets practiting presentation skills meets standup comedy. It’s a fun challenge and a great way for people to loosen up a bit. You may find that some colleagues, who you considered a bit quiet or usually in the background, can be hilariously funny. At one point, someone in our team tried to explain a serious transformation roadmap using a stock photo of a horoscope chart - and made it work.

Where can I find the PowerPoints?

You can, of course, create them yourself. But we selected some PowerPoint decks up front from Deckdazzle, a free website. There are paid options too, but honestly, it doesn’t really matter. The point is to be surprised.

Tips for PowerPoint karaoke

• Just start with talking - Don’t overthink it and just go with the first idea that pops into your head. After all, you don’t know what’s coming. Just go with the flow!

• Act it out - moving your body, making gestures and acting things out is an effective way to engage the audience

• Relate to your audience - Reference inside jokes or recent team events.

Final advice

If someone in your team hates public speaking, they might find this intimidating. Totally fair. I recommend starting with small groups, and only doing it if your team feels like a psychologically safe space.

We started the day with a discussion of our CliftonStrenghts, which is a great way to get to know each other on a deeper level.

Let me know if you want me to share more about that in the future, or if you have any questions on how to use PowerPoint Karaoke in your next meeting.

Have fun!

Yours in ugly PowerPoint slides,

Cécile

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Thanks for reading Colleague, Interrupted. I’m Cécile, a management consultant and coach at a Big Four consulting firm in Europe. I write the things I can’t say in meetings. Mostly, I turn corporate rage and hard-earned lessons into advice for anyone in their 20s or 30s trying to build a successful career. I help you be the best version of yourself, so you get promoted faster without losing your mind.