Sometimes, you’re dealing with a number of new employees or volunteers, or you’ve brought together people who don’t usually work together, you may want to employ an activity rather than posing the same question to everyone in the room.
3 things in 3 minutes
The design firm Ideo recommends this exercise for when you want to “break down barriers.” Everyone in the room has to partner up, preferably with someone they don’t know well. Each pair has to find three things they have in common, in as many minutes. They should go beyond the physical or immediately obvious—as Ideo notes, “we’re both wearing glasses” is a cop-out. When time’s up, everyone shares their findings with the room.
Design a scavenger hunt
This is a little more time-intensive, and sure, it might be a little hokey. But as The Muse points out, for new employees, it can be a quick way to get up to speed on company history or where to find the free food. It can also liven up a team offsite or retreat, especially if you divide people into teams and introduce riddles with photo and video elements.
Tell your story redux
To help build empathy and trust, have people share a bit about themselves with their neighbor for two minutes—then have them do it again, but tell the story differently.
Source: Pavithra Mohan, Fast Company Digital. Retrieved from this link.
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