Whether your group has already established its dynamics or is working together for the first time, creating a group contract enables people to mindfully ground their behaviours in inclusivity and respect, and promote psychological safety. These dynamics encourage trust, confidence, and inspiration–which in turn build engagement, encourage creativity, and result in wellbeing and success for all.
Explore any complex topic with Hopes, Worries, Risks, Chances seen by your participants. This creates connection, better acceptance for different angles and aspects of the topic and reduces the uncertainty of the group.
Everyone covers their camera and one person makes a statement that is true about themselves. If it is true for others on the call, they show their face to the camera as well. The initiation for the next prompt is passed to another person in the group.
People share a fear, it is received by another, and then they are asked to share the advice that a trusted mentor or friend would give them.
Facilitate a team conversation about personal strengths:
Ask participants to pick from a set of strength card, e.g. one strength each for everyone in the group (or more for small groups)
People take turns to “give” a strength to another team member, share how/when they have seen the strength in the other person and say thank you
Everyone will end up with a set of strengths provided by other team members and feel belonging and appreciation
In most meetings, 20% of participants do 80% of the talking. Unfortunately, remote meetings amplify this lousy behavior.
Some people like to talk to think, while others need to think before they talk. Some people are shy and quiet, while others are more vocal and outspoken.
This activity helps assess participation style and adjust behaviors.
Open your workshop / session / meeting with a visual check-in that enables people to be there as who they are and what's on their mind:
Players share things they're afraid of, and others who don't have that fear symbolically "take" that fear away.
One person turns their back to the group and the rest of the group "gossips" about them in a positive way.
The purpose of a retrospective is to reflect on the process of the team’s collaboration, rather than on the content of work itself. This opening icebreaker helps participants to get in a reflective mood and share their thoughts and feelings.
The Stuck Exercise is a process by which one experiences going through the whole U journey by moving from Sculpture 1 (current reality) to Sculpture 2 (emerging future). We do not know what the movements will be or where they will stop, but we can follow the movement and then reflect on our experience. Surprising insights can arise.
Container Building is the process of creating a safe space for a group or a team by establishing both trust and ground rules for engagement.