A big part of building trust in a team is to get the team to know each other. Focus your team on individuation.
According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary:
Definition of INDIVIDUATION
1: the act or process of individuating: as
a (1) : the development of the individual from the universal (2) : the determination of the individual in the general
b : the process by which individuals in society become differentiated from one another
c : regional differentiation along a primary embryonic axis
2: the state of being individuated; specifically : individuality
Individuation is the process by which people differentiate themselves from others. Without Individuation, your view of people will be based on what you have heard and not on what you know. The only way to trust a person is to get to know them better.
It is important for a team to get to know each other. What does each member bring to the team? How does each member contribute to the team? What are the differentiators for the team members?
There are many games and exercises that can help with this; I would like to share a couple of games/exercises that I have used that have helped me help my teams in getting to know each other.
Team Interviews
This exercise originated from Lencioni’s book, Overcoming the Five Dysfunctions of a Team: a Field Guide. I have made a few minor modifications to suit my teams.
Time Required: 15-25 Minutes
Directions:
Pair people in the team and have them interview each other to find three things they did not know about the person they are interviewing
Debrief: Ask team members to share what they learned about one another that they didn’t already know. This reinforces the purpose of the exercise and allows for a natural ending to the conversation.
Learning Points:
- To help the team focus on individuation – helping them get to know each other based on facts and what they hear from each other, rather than from stereotypes.
Line Up
This exercise originated from Tastycupcakes.org and was posted there by Stefan Nijenhuis . I have made a few minor modifications to suit my teams.
This is a simple and quick game that can be used as an energizer and get to know each other a little bit. It also gives you hooks to talk about acceptance criteria, self-organizing teams and process improvements
Participants: 4-50
Timings: 15-20 minutes
Materials: none
Instructions:
Round 1:
- Ask everybody to stand up
- Assign a ‘manager’ and ask him to make the group stand in a line, ordered by middle name (pick something that may not be common knowledge to all)
- Wait to see what happens.
- After everybody is lined up, check the result with them. Is the result ok? How can you do this faster?
- Thank the ‘manager’ for his/her help.
- Did the ‘manager’ specify the end result? Or was he/she managing the process?
Round 2:
- Specify the expected end-result very clearly: “After I say ‘Go’, I want you to line up, ordered by the number of years you have been part of this organization, less than 1 year starting on the left to 5 plus years on the right”
- Verify if the team understands the expected end result.
- Say “Go”
- Wait to see what happens.
- After everybody is lined up, check the results with them. How can you check this? (E.G. make everybody say their tenure out loud). How can you do this faster?
- Show that being clear about the end result (acceptance criteria) enables the team to self-organize.
Round 3:
- Specify the expected end result very clearly: “After I say ‘Go’, I want you to line up, ordered by the month of your birth ascending, January starting on the left to December on the right”
- Specify that the team is not allowed to speak to each other while doing this
- Verify if the team understands the expected end result.
- Say “Go”
- Wait to see what happens.
- After everybody is lined up, make everybody say his or her birth month out loud).
- Show that being clear about the end result (acceptance criteria) enables the team to self-organize.
Variations
Use some other to line up, like: years with this company, years in this business, travel distance, hometown.
Learning Points
- Get some energy in the room
- Get to know each other a little bit and let people speak up to each other
- Show that if the acceptance criteria of the expected end result are clear to the team, they are able to self-organize
- Length is an extrinsic value, so this can be used without talking. First name is an intrinsic value, so you have to speak and ask. Finally favorite hobby is an intrinsic value that’s really hard to guess, even in a group that knows each other’s first name.
- See which roles people take. Who is taking the lead? Who is ‘freezing’? Who is easily led?
Who Dun it/Who is it
Time Required: 30-60 Minutes
Directions:
- Ask every team member to write three things about themselves on three pieces of paper that they believe no one in the team would believe about them. Put all the pieces of paper in a box.
- Ask each team member to walk up to the box, pick a piece of paper, read it out aloud and then look around the room to see if they can figure out Who DUN it or Who is it.
- They can ask the team members to help them as well.
Debrief: Ask team members to share what they learned about one another that they didn’t already know.
Learning Points:
- To help the team focus on individuation – helping them get to know each other based on facts and what they hear from each other, rather than from stereotypes.
- Get to know the team a bit and get them talking to each other.
- Get some energy in the room
There are many more games and exercises that will fit your team. You just need to find the right one. Any activity that helps a team to get to know each other better is a step in building team trust. You could try the trust game and see if the team is willing to fall backwards on blind faith, but they might be more willing to do that after they know each other better.
This article is a follow up on the previous article – https://agilemethis.wordpress.com/2013/10/30/building-trust-not-just-a-cliche/.
Agile Me This! 