I am a tree – an exercise in collaboration

• February 2, 2025
• Esther Waterhouse

We usually do an exercise called ‘I am a tree’ towards the end of a session, as it pulls together lots of concepts around supporting, listening to and collaborating with others.  Someone stands in the centre of a circle and says ‘I am a tree’, standing in a tree like pose (arms outstretched to represent branches).  Other members of the group are asked to come up, one at a time, to add to the picture and help to create a tree, assuming a pose/position and stating what they are, for example ‘I am a leaf’ or ‘I am a twig’.

Almost invariably, the first person to come up decides to be a twig, branch or a leaf.  Someone else will be a different part of a tree – and then the fun begins.  Delegates add more and more things to the picture – often including the sun, grass, animals, maybe someone lying on the grass.  We always end up with a picture of a park, rather than a tree.  People feel that they need to be ‘clever’ or ‘funny’ and that, if someone has already been a twig or a leaf then somehow that has been taken and they need to think of something else.  We have really interesting discussions about why this happens – where the rule comes from and why being clever doesn’t necessarily support the first person’s idea.  

When we rerun the tree exercise, we end up with a lovely tree complete with branches, leaves and sometimes flowers or fruit.  Delegates start to think of interesting things to be that are part of a tree – the last time we ran it we had bark and a knot in the bark.  With the pressure to think of something clever taken off, the delegates were able to really focus on what was part of a tree.  

We then ask delegates to come forward and ‘be’ something else – it’s great to see what they choose.  Recent choices include a house, a car and an ocean liner.  This opens up discussions around listening to what has already been added – we want a car with 4 wheels, not 3 or 7!  If the opening statement is ‘I am a wall in a house’ then we are building a wall, not a house.  

There are of course no wrong answers in this exercise – it is improv, after all.  We focus on the collaborative aspect of the suggestions; thinking about what is needed to support the person who has asked for help in realising a picture.  I’m sure we can all see the applications of this to clinical practice and to work in the NHS.