Team Building Exercise: Mad-Libs
According to all the recent data, including Gallup poll, employee disengagement is at an all-time high. Internal and employee surveys are not telling the whole story of what’s going on.
The organizations that spend time creating close connections through sharing activities are seeing significant productivity and performance returns. Creating psychological safety is the foundation on which all great teams are built. Without it, a team will be underperforming according to the research and my observations of more than 70+ teams.
For example, people who have their best friend at work perform 7x higher than the average employee in that organization. Also, people on teams who share more information about themselves perform higher.
Why? People who share more like the people around them more just by being able to open up.
Exercise:
Fill in the blanks exercise based on the kids game, Mad-Libs.
I picked these statements below for a particular reason. The answers people give are areas top managers and leaders wanted to other people to know about them.
Goal: Unlock the collective potential of your team through sharing expertise, strengths, weaknesses, and stories that would otherwise be hidden from yourself or others.
How to do it:
1. Have your team complete the worksheet individually. You can do it together or separately prior to the group activity.
2. Have each person use one word or a sentence for each blank.
3. Get the entire team together. Ask each person to read their Mad-Lib.
4. Discuss as a group. Each person answers two questions. What three things did you learn? How can this help you work together better as a team?
Optional: Put them in a communal area.
Mad-Lib Exercise
Hi! My name is ________________. I grew up in _________________.
The people that work with me (either in the past or currently) would describe me as _________________, but outside of work people would describe me as _______________________.
The position that challenged me outside my comfort zone the most was _______________________. There I learned new things and acquired skills such as _____________________________, and ___________________________
Most people believe I’m fantastic at ________________________________
However, my real expertise on this team could be _______________________________.
One thing I really hope to do more in my current role is ______________________________.
One skill I want to get better at is ______________________________ (and if you ideas on how to do this, please let me know).
To be at my best and work at my best I need ________________________.
My preferred communication style is (email, phone, in-person, etc.) ________________________.
One thing I may do that will possibly get on your nerves is______________________ if I do it, just let me know by doing this ___________________.
One of my biggest pet peeves is ___________________.
The best way to give me constructive feedback is to do _____________________________, and ___________________________.
The thing that always gets me in a good mood is __________________________. And I’ll usually laugh at ___________________________.
If you ever want to get me food, here is my favorite thing to eat _____________________________.
One thing you probably don’t know about me is _____________________________.
In my free time, I enjoy doing _____________________________, and ___________________________
NEXT STEPS
If you want to learn more and make rapid progress to become an extraordinary leader and significantly increase your key metrics, contact me for individual or group coaching, https://jasontreu.com/services You can check out several dozen testimonials how coaching was business- and life-changing for individuals.
You can also download my free team building game, Cards Against Mundanity, that more than 3,000 people have played and more than 75+ organizations. I also perform a team building performance that will increase performance, innovation, problem solving and collaboration in 45 minutes. It’s based on university research and interviewing executives at most of Fortune/Forbes Top 10 Workplaces in 2017/2018.
