I knew about this team activity years ago but I was reminded of it again while chatting in a Facebook group I am in. This is a fun way for new teams to get acquainted or for a team that already knows each other to learn a little bit more about their members. When I have run this in the past, I learned about people who have hidden talents like being a ventriloquist or doing improv comedy. One woman had served in the military and nobody on her team knew about it. A man in one of the teams spent his free time outside of work playing in an orchestra. It is amazing what people want to share if you just ask them.
Activity:
1. Hand out pens and paper large enough for people to write a decent paragraph.
2. Ask each person to think of something interesting/funny/silly/etc about themselves and write it down without discussing or sharing with other people.
3. Collect the papers from each person.
4. Read the first paper and have the group try to guess who wrote it. Try to encourage the group to come to a consensus and agree on who they think belongs to the story.
5. The moderator/facilitator asks the person if they were the person who wrote that paper. If the guess was wrong, ask who actually wrote it. Allow the person to elaborate or explain a little bit about their story.
6. Continue with the remaining stories until they have all been read.
Variations:
The example above is with one group. If you have a lot of people, you can split into smaller groups to save some time.
For a team that has been working together for a considerable amount of time already, you can try to be more specific about what story they share. Describe a favorite memory from childhood. If you could pick one superpower to have, what would it be and why? Describe your dream vacation. You get the picture. Be creative and have fun!
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