5 Questions for a Team Building Activity.

Are you looking to host a team building initiative with your team, but struggling with what exactly to do. Check out these five questions designed for a successful team building session.

1.) Did you notice_________?

By opening with a closed-ended question (yes or no), you give the group a common starting point. This opening question will set the tone – so try to make it a positive observation.

As a facilitator take special notice of what is happening. Pay attention to the power dynamics. Who’s taking the lead and who’s following? Watch body language and focus on how topics are being addressed and spoken about. See what tone people are using when answering the questions.

2.) Why did that happen? What factors led to that happening? Or, how does something like that happen?

All variations on the why did the first question that was noticed happen. Allow group members to discuss, keep them at the current position, DO NOT GET AHEAD, and maintain the focus on why that occurred in that activity. Allow a sufficient amount of time for the group to discuss, and when the energy drops and the group is silent for 45 seconds or more, move on.

3.) Does this happen in life? Or, does that occur in the office, classroom, playing field, team meetings?

Insert the proper context, depending on who you are working with.

Returning to a closed-ended question will again give the group a common concept to think about. At this point, you are transferring the program to their lives, moving into the conceptual concrete of the learning.

4.) Why does that happen? What factors lead to that happening? Or, how does that happen in the office, classroom, life, etc.?

Now, returning to an open-ended question, facilitating the group to a convergent thought of the activity in the context of their lives.

5.) How can we apply this?

At this point, challenge the group to find the connections and develop some action items on learning and transference of gained skills, techniques and behaviors can return to work with them.

Idea from Open to Outcome (Jacobson & Ruddy 2004)