Authentic Connection: Exorcise the Demons Opener Activity
Any time you’re collaborating with colleagues, a few short minutes spent on carefully chosen activities beforehand can seriously help you. Not just in terms of feeling more connected by learning new things about each other, but also in terms of getting comfortable with speaking up and actively contributing to the group.
– Eugene Chung
INTRO
While this activity functions as an icebreaker, it also serves the purpose of igniting topic exploration. This activity juices up everyone’s neuropathways before brainstorming – and helps people to resist any temptation to self-censor when the real problem solving begins. This one also boosts psychological safety because, hey, every idea is automatically going to be better than whatever’s already on the page.
OBJECTIVES
- Begin developing authentic connections by getting the group comfortable sharing ideas and communicating with each other
- Begin actively thinking about and brainstorming for the topic the group is working on
OPENER ACTIVITY
- Divide into groups of 3-6 people (if the team is 10 people or fewer, you can have everyone participate as one group; you can also mix up the smaller groups to ensure the team is still interacting as a whole)
- First, introduce the idea you’ll be brainstorming around in the main meeting.
- Then, using a shared space (ie. in Confluence or Trello), you all note down the WORST ideas you can possibly think of.
- After a few minutes, step back – asking each person to share their favorite worst idea.
Responses