Listen everyone: How to start an activity that is both fun and serious

Speed dating with no dating but lots of speed: 
















All fun and serious teambuilding activities starts with the same thing. The leader says: Please stand up and enter the floor. The leader should not tell them what to expect. Don't tell them about the method. Don't tell them to be anxious or safe. You are their leader and they should have confidence in you. So tell them the headline, the cause, why they are leaving their chairs to stand up together. 

Please get up and enter the floor

For your information you must have an objective inviting everyone out on the floor. This objective could be learning how to handle a new system, coping with stress, your company culture or the team and the way they work as a team. And you want them to talk about it in pairs.

Why this? I mean why talk about a vital topic in pairs? Well, first people tend to open up easier when they only have one to talk to. But there is another reason too. People always remember what they said themself. So if you come up with a good, intelligent and optimistic question that all pairs have to talk about, they all tend to remember what they said out of their own mouth. It was'nt something you said. It was'nt something a specialist said. It was'nt something a very close colleague said. The said it themself.

Try this out

Ask everyone to stand in a big circle. It is OK if the circle is a bit odd or is moving between tables and chairs. As long as everybody is standing shoulder to shoulder it's fine. Allow disabled to sit in chairs in the outer circle. Now you show them how to create an inner circle by moving every second person from the outer circle. You simply move one person, turn him or her arond so he or she is facing one from the outer circle. The next person in line will understand the system and everyone follows when it's their turn. And now you have 2 circles. You can move the innner circle whenever you like. Or you can move the outer circle if nobody is sitting in charis. This is entirely up to you - this is called speed dating - remember? 

Start with a question that breaks the ice 

We are all a little stiff when we have not warmed up. Even the voice is a little rusty. Our throats are dry. This is why we all need warming up. There is no ice but we all know that everybody is tense, that muscles are stubborn, that the entire body is untrained. If we were a choir we had to warm up voices. And even though we have all met many times we are gathered on a new day in a new order and with a new agenda. So - start with something that breaks the ice.

Many things would break the ice: 

  • Singing. 
  • Moving. 
  • Shouting. 
  • Counting. 
  • Closing eyes. 
  • Taking off shoes. 
  • Clapping. 
  • Dressing up or down. 
  • Guessing. 
  • Lying. 
  • Playing. 
  • Acting. 
  • Dancing. 

Just to name a few.

Ask everybody to close their eyes and then turn their body until they are facing north. When everyone has turned and ending up standing still they can open up their eyes. What do they see? What do you also see? What else do you see? OK. To conclude: We have not got a clue in what direction north is. But we all tried facing in that direction. Even though we have not had a chance to discuss it. And we have not had a chance to agree on it. This is the reason why we meet and talk and inform one another and agree on a number of issues.

Now your team is ready for a serious conversation in pairs. Ask them to ask one another the first question. You have to design your own questions. Make sure that they lead to something optimistic like these: 

  • What will we as a team miss if...
  • Which company culture do you and I want to be co-creators of?
  • What is a sure sign that the whole team is motivated?

The question you ask

It is wellknown that the question you ask determines the answer you get. Therefor you must be careful when you design your questions. 

Don't forget to debrief

Far to many leaders forget to debrief. But debriefing is the whole point. You can say that the exercise is the fun part and the debrief is the serious part. We learn all the way - both during exercise and debrief - but examine whats going on in the room when we debrief and underline the learning points so the entire team hears it. 

Congratulations

You have now created a facilitation proces with your team. 


Michael Meinhardt

LEADERSwarehouse.com 
☎ +45 71 92 55 63 


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