Activities: Conversations and Team Builders for Individuals and Teams
Team Activities – Conversations and Team Builders
Feel free to use these resources with your team at work. Most of them are conversation-style activities for the team. A few are more like icebreaker-style or team building mini-activities.
Formal Activity Guides
Emotional Intelligence Activity Guide (editable pdf)
Reflection Activities – List of Words
These resources are “inventory” style reflections. Be sure to tee up the idea that it’s a spark for self-awareness, and that they can be great conversation-starters to help the team get to know each other better. Of course, each person might have a better word(s) to describe their situation, so encourage them to make up their own words and phrases if they feel more relevant than the list.
Before using one of these as a team, think over whether the team is ready (trust-wise) for conversations like this. For example, naming a word from a list of things they love—that’s easy and safe. Naming a negative emotion they’re experiencing lately—that can feel very risky on some teams. Be sure to start “safe” so that the insights can build over time.
PDF Resources
Easy Virtues Related: “Fed” page in the section below.
Energizers Related: “More Of” page in the section below.
Frequent Negative Emotions Related: “Negative” and “Positive” page in the section below.
What Makes You Redline Related: “Insulted” and “Honored” page in the section below.
Web Pages with A Word List and Activity
Adjectives – This list is especially helpful for narrowing to a top 3 that represent you at your best. Be sure to pick things that are “easy to be,” even on bad days.
Fed – This is a list to represent your strengths, as they’re perceived by others, when you’re at your best. Although it’s similar to the Adjectives list, the idea of this one is to focus on perceptions – how you’re received by others.
Honored – These are situations or cultures that seem to honor who you are. When you do this exercise as a team, focus on the Top 5 you need in your environment to be at your best.
Insulted – These are situations or cultures that seem to insult or ignore who you are. When you do this exercise as a team, focus on the Top 1-3 that cause you to quickly “redline” with frustration.
More Of – Use this exercise with the team when you want to get a “wish list” of things they’d love to spend more time doing. It’s an energizing exercise to do as a team, and an insightful exercise for people managers.
Negative – Recognizing your emotions is important so that you can choose how to respond to them. If you have solid trust on the team, this can be a meaningful and highly enlightening exercise.
Positive – People are energized when they feel positive emotions at work. It’s a powerful exercise to consider the tasks, thoughts, people, or situations that seed their energizing emotions.
Quotes – This is a fun personal branding exercise to do individually or as a team. Since it often feels braggadocious to talk about yourself in a positive light, it gives people a way to express their strengths through a favorite quote.
Songs – This is a fun personal branding exercise to do individually or as a team. Since it often feels braggadocious to talk about yourself in a positive light, it gives people a way to express their strengths through song titles or song lyrics.
Starved – Pick 1-2 that represent you when you’re at your worst: when your patience is low, you’re feeling grumpy, or you’re triggered by something that frustrates you. This list is the “opposite” of the “Fed” list. You can use it in conjunction so that you have an At Your Best and At Your Worst discussion.
Values – Rather than doing this as a “pick your top values” exercise, make it more practical. Apply it to a situation at work. For example, imagine a time when you felt most in flow. Think of the culture, the team, and the role. Now, circle the values it supported. Click through to the page to see more info on the practical application.
Yays – Use this when you want to pump up the team – to remember what they love about the role. Also, you can use it to know where they’d love to spend more of their time. It’s a great way to assign projects, and it helps them feel like they’re crafting their roles to their strengths.
Yucks – Use this when you’re ready to honestly chat about (and address) the soul-sucking factors of the job. You can use it to know where they’d love to spend less of their time. It’s a great way to assign projects, and it helps them feel like they’re crafting their roles away from their weaknesses.
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