Three ideas to bring colleagues together

The ideas below might seem obvious, but sometimes we overlook the obvious! Again and again, we hear from participants that the time they've spent with colleagues in sessions is a welcome thing; they have the time to get to know eachother on a more personal level. It doesn't mean everyone becomes best friends, but it does mean people see eachother as human beings, with ups and downs, good bits and not-so-good bits!

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My wow moment was the honesty in the small group work.

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All of these ideas can be done in person or online, with big and small groups; just adapt them for your own needs.

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Try Chat Roulette

• Allow 10-15 minutes or so at the start of a meeting for this
• Send people into breakout rooms in small groups of 2-4
• Give everyone 2 minutes to share one thing about themselves; it could be how they're feeling orsomething that happened on the way to work
• When everyone is done, shuffle the rooms and repeat
• Bring everyone back to the main space and start your meeting!

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Have lunch together

• You could schedule a team lunch or leave it open to anyone who'd like to join
• You could make it BYOL (bring-your-own-lunch) or a pot-luck where people contribute to a shared pick n mix
• Ban all work-talk!
• Use prompts if you need to; we highly recommend the Serendipity Machine

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Take an emotional temperature check

• Use Mentimeter
• Ask an open question eg How are you feeling today? or Three things you're feeling right now
• Invite people to comment or elaborate on what they wrote; don't force anyone
• Summarise what you see eg everyone seems good today or we need to work on this...

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Let us know how you get on with any of these or if you'd like more ideas; contact Naomi

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