Team building workshop (2.5h)
IDOARRT (IDOARRT is a simple tool to support you to lead an effective meeting or group process by setting out clear purpose, structure and goals at the very beginning. Source: Text by Hyper Island Original source unknown)
Intention – Build trust and a common understanding of the team’s mission among team members
Desired Outcome(s) – Become a better active listener; get to know your teammates; Create a team flag with your team’s mission and top values
Agenda – Check-in; Energizer; Personal presentation; Active listening exercise; Break; Value definition; Mission definition; Team flag; Steering document (optional); Check-out
Roles – I will facilitate, document, and check the time. I expect from you that you actively participate.
Rules – To be fully present I kindly ask you to not use your mobile phones or laptop during the workshop.
This is a confidential space. Remember to listen actively, ask open-ended questions, don’t judge, no sweeping statements, speak from the „I“.
Time – This session will take 2.5 hours.
Check-in
How are you feeling about going into this team?
Energizer: Portrait Gallery (ICEBREAKER, FAST-PACED)
The Portrait Gallery is an energetic and fun icebreaker game that gets participants interacting by having the group collaboratively draw portraits of each member. The activity builds a sense of group because it results with each participant having a portrait drawn of him/herself by the other members of the group together. It also has a very colourful visual outcome: the set of portraits which can be posted in the space.
Facilitiation lvl: Beginner
How experience one should have to lead this exercise: Comfort zone
How stressful or challenging this exercise can be for the group: Safe
Materials: A4 paper or cardstock Thick Multi-coloured markers – 1 per person
Split the group into two equal halves, called group A and group B. Group A forms an inner circle facing outward; group B forms an outer circle facing inward. Each person in group A should be facing one person in group B.
Members of Group A, the inner circle, are the subjects of the portraits. Group B are the artists. Explain that group B will be the portrait artists for group A. Every member of group B should have paper and marker in hand and begin by writing the name of their subject at the top of the paper.
There should be many different colors of markers and they should be as thick as possible.
When the activity begins, the artists in group B begin drawing the subjects in Group A. They do so in 10-15 second intervals. After each interval, the leader calls “Rotate!” and the artists rotate one step to the left while handing their paper to the person to their right. Thus, each artist is standing in front of a new subject with that subject’s portrait in his/her hands. When they rotate, the artists must keep their markers.
Rotate at 10-15 second intervals until the artists in Group B have rotated all the way around. By this point, each portrait should quite developed (and quite messy). When the artists arrive back at their original subject, the rotation ends and they may hand back the portrait to that person.
Switch the groups and repeat. The artists become the subjects and visa versa.
With an uneven number of participants a facilitator must step in as an “extra”.
(Source: Text by Hyper Island Original Source Unknown)
Personal presentation (BUILDING RELATIONSHIP, TRUST, OPENNESS)
A simple exercise in which each participant prepares a personal presentation of him/herself sharing several important experiences, events, people or stories that contributed to shaping him or her as an individual. The purpose of personal presentations is to support each participant in getting to know each other as individuals, and to build trust and openness in a group by enlarging the social arena.
Facilitiation lvl: Medium
Materials: Flip chart paper Markers
Each participant prepares their personal presentation: a short presentation about “3 things (experiences, events, people, stories) that have contributed to shaping the person I am today.”
The presentation should be visualized using words and symbols on a single flip-chart paper or A3 paper. Give participants about 15 minutes to prepare this.
FLIPCHART SUGGESTION
-Personal presentation-
Think about 3 things that have shaped the person you are right now.
Write and/or draw your story.
You have 15 minutes to prepare.
Facilitator notes
It can be effective for one facilitator to do his/her presentation before participants be their own. This helps role model personal storytelling and supports participants to select their own things to share.
(Source: Hyper Island Original [modified])
This activity supports participants to reflect on a question and generate their own solutions using simple principles of active listening and peer coaching. It’s an excellent introduction to active listening but can also be used with groups that are already familiar with it. Participants work in groups of three and take turns being: “the subject”, the listener, and the observer.
Facilitiation lvl: Medium
Materials: Flipchart, Markers
Do a brief introduction to active listening. Explain that often, when we reflect and discuss, we tend to focus on multiple individuals and questions at once, moving around our attention and focus. Meanwhile, when we listen to others, we tend to do so in a discussion-oriented way, thinking about “what will I say next”, rather than listening to the other with full presence and attention. One powerful way to explore a question or a problem is to use active listening with focus on one person at a time. For this exercise, this is what we will do.
Using a flipchart, Introduce the three roles that individuals will take on during the exercise.
The subject:
Talks about the three things that have shaped the person he/she is right now.
The active listener:
Listens with full presence and focus; asks open-ended questions; paraphrases what she/he hears to support the subject’s reflection; do not offer advice; listens with the whole body (body language!)
The observer:
Observes without speaking; makes notes of what she/he hears; shares the observation with the others after the subject finishes
Set up the challenge. The subject should reflect verbally on the 3 things that have shaped the person he /she is today. Ensure that all participants understand what they should explore and reflect upon.
Have participants organize into groups of three. Make it clear that each participant should have each role for a set amount of time. Each round lasts 15 minutes. Explain that groups should pay attention to the time and make sure that there are three equal rounds.
Once participants have finished, debrief the exercise:
– How did this exercise make you feel?
(Source: Hyper Island Original [modified])
---- 5 minutes break ----
Take 3 min to write down 10 of your most important values, on each post-it.
Put them in front of you.
Now you got 1 min to choose the 3 most important.
Now get into your teams.
Present your three main values and explain to your team why this is important to you.
Agree on 4 main values that your team will have as building stones by drawing dots on 4 preferred values. The four post-its with the most dots will be your team’s main values.
(Source: The PopUp Agency, Julia Schierbeck)
Individually and from your perspective, think about the purpose of your teamwork in terms of outcome, areas of focus, and teamwork. Come up with as many ideas as possible. (3 min.)
Now choose your main purpose and write it down on a post-it. (1 min.)
Share your main purpose with the team and explain why this is important to you.
When everyone has shared their main purpose, the team chooses one purpose via dotmocracy.
(Source: The PopUp Agency, Julia Schierbeck)
FLIPCHART SUGGESTION
Draw your team’s flag!
Include your team’s main purpose and the 4 main values.
Use many colors.
How did you feel before this workshop and how do you feel now?
---- If you have 3 hours time ----
---- 5 minutes break ----
Create a notebook out of A4 paper. Let the team agree on:
WORKING HOURS
ROLES
RULES
DECISIONS MAKING
NEEDS
EXPECTATIONS
In a way, the steering document is your team’s manual.
(Source: The PopUp Agency, Julia Schierbeck)
