With year-end deadlines and pandemic disruptions threatening the culture of your team, it’s more important than ever to carve out some time for connection and fun. To help you with this, here is an icebreaker that is easy to deliver and proven to be effective…virtual or in person. Enjoy!
High Fives and High Hopes
It’s been said that negative experiences stick to our brains like Velcro, but positive ones roll off like Teflon. Because of this, it’s easy for our teams to focus on our problems and the long list of things we need to improve on. We have to be disciplined to also focus on what IS working, and what we are looking forward to in the year ahead. Here is a great way to make that happen.
Step One: Before the meeting, create a slide or a handout with the following questions and have it ready to hand out or project during your team meeting
- HIGH FIVE – Looking back on the past year, what is one thing that you’re proud of?
- HIGH HOPE – Looking to the year ahead, what is one thing that you’re hopeful for?
Step Two: During the meeting, share the questions with your group. Have your answers ready and share them with your team before you ask others to share. If the team is 10 people or less, go around and hear everyones answer. If it’s 11 or more, break the team up into groups of 4 to 5 people and give each group 10 to 12 minutes.
Step Three: Have some closing comments ready to share with the team after hearing from everyone, thanking them for their hard work and resilience this past year and some inspiring thoughts on the year ahead.
Have fun!