Ten Things to do with Playdough

1. My favorite: just put it in front of people and let them do whatever they want with it.
2. Use the color as a way to get people to form new groups.  Shuffling people can be such a confused, time-wasting, grumpy time.  People are fine once they move, and they intellectually understand the benefit of sitting next to (and working with) new people, but getting them to leave their old seats is hard. Therefore, I am always looking for ways to simplify the logistics of the move. Let’s say there are eight people at each table, and there is a playdough at each place: green, yellow, blue, purple, white, orange, red, and pink.  When you need to shuffle the groups, ask the reds to go to the ‘red’ table and so forth.  It works.
3. In training, where levity is a bit more acceptable, after teaching a concept have each group prepare a teaching module of the concept, and have one of the groups use the playdough to illustrate whatever it was that was just taught.  (Other groups could do a limerick, a TV commercial, a teaching module for 2nd grade, and so forth.  –Believe me, people will remember the concept!)
4. Ask people to change something about their playdough.  People will change the shape.  Ask them to change it in another way.  They might change the size by dividing it into smaller pieces.  Ask them to change it again, and they will probably be stuck for a minute.  Then someone will figure out that they can give some of their playdough to another person, or borrow some.  This is a quick, inoffensive reminder about reaching outside one’s own little box.  I never belabor the point. 
5. Quietly monitor what is happening to the playdough and use that as feedback for what the group needs.  Sad sculptures, happy sculptures, bored sculptures, frenetic kneading—all of these are indicators. 
6. Illustrate Le Chatelier’s principle (equilibrium) with the playdough by having a little playdough/snowball fight.  Don’t do this with people who are dressed nicely or where there are walls that would be stained.
7. Have the parties use playdough to make systems diagrams.  Rather than being cute, this is just practical.  It is a lot easier to amend the diagram by pinching the playdough than it is to keep using different paper and/or an eraser. 
8. Use the playdough instead of dots in a ranking exercise.  Each person starts with the same amount of playdough, and they can pinch off small bits for options they like a little, and big bits for options they like a lot.  Then compare the allotments of playdough.  Again, it’s not cutesy, it is actually very practical.  (Note this has different implications for the ranking system, and may or may not be the design you wish.  Use this instead of dots if you want people to be able to weigh their votes.)
9. As a variation to exercise 3 or 7, allow other people to modify the playdough as a second step.  I would only use this in a friendly training.  People don’t like to have their artwork modified by adversaries.
10. Make a playdough dart board.