Unique Suggestions For Team Building Activities

Summary

In this video, Chad presents unconventional, effective team-building activities that work in various contexts—remote or in-person. He introduces 'past, present, and future' exercises, where participants use photos and reflective questions to build deeper connections. Chad also discusses using intentional reminders and questions as tools to foster teamwork, and suggests creating user manuals for better understanding within teams. He emphasizes sustainable, meaningful interactions over forced bonding. Chad invites viewers to attend the Connector Summit for personalized team-building solutions and offers more insights on how to manage up effectively.

Takeaways

• 🤝 Team building activities should feel natural and foster genuine connections, not forced bonding.
• 📸 Use the 'Past, Present, Future' method for team building: reflect on the past using photos, discuss the present, and plan for the future.
• 👥 Group activities work best in groups of three, providing more perspectives without the pressure of public speaking.
• 💭 A great present-focused question is 'What's been taking up lots of your brain space lately?' to connect teams through meaningful conversations.
• 📅 Future-focused questions like 'What is something you'd like to do more of?' help team members express aspirations and shape future interactions.
• 🔄 Conversations and powerful questions can materially change a team's direction by enabling meaningful reflections on individual goals and challenges.
• ⏲️ The 'Reminders Conversion' exercise can help teams sustain their values by setting shared calendar reminders based on team discussions.
• 📆 Simple, recurring reminders for team values, like checking in on each other, help maintain team connections during busy periods.
• 👨‍🏫 Personal stories and context (e.g., a team member's loss) can highlight the importance of empathy and understanding in team dynamics.
• 🌐 The Connector Summit is a live, virtual event where specific team building challenges can be addressed, offering personalized solutions for participants.

Q & A

What is the main purpose of the video?

The main purpose of the video is to provide unconventional, unique, and universally applicable team-building exercises that can be used in various contexts, including remote and in-person settings.

What is the first team-building exercise mentioned in the video?

The first team-building exercise is based on the 'past, present, and future' framework. Participants use their phone's photo app to reflect on a past moment, discuss what is currently taking up their brain space, and talk about something they'd like to do more of in the future.

How does the 'past, present, and future' exercise help teams connect?

This exercise helps teams connect by encouraging participants to share personal stories, challenges, and aspirations in small groups. It creates meaningful conversations that build trust and understanding among team members.

Why are groups of three recommended for team-building exercises?

Groups of three are recommended because they provide a balance between vulnerability and openness. They allow multiple perspectives while avoiding the pressure of public speaking, which occurs in larger groups.

What is a powerful question to access the present in team-building?

A powerful question to access the present is: 'What has been taking up lots of your brain space lately?' This question invites participants to share what’s on their minds, fostering understanding and empathy within the team.

How did the CEO in the video change their mind about firing their right-hand person?

The CEO realized that the person's recent poor performance was due to the loss of their mother, which had been taking up a lot of their brain space. After learning about this personal challenge, the CEO gained a deeper appreciation for the person and decided not to fire them.

What is the purpose of the 'future' part of the exercise?

The 'future' part of the exercise allows team members to discuss something they’d like to do more of. It helps teams talk their way into future plans and build shared goals, which strengthens team cohesion.

What is the 'reminders conversion' exercise?

The 'reminders conversion' exercise involves teams discussing what makes a great team and converting those values into shared calendar reminders. These reminders serve as prompts to stay intentional about team-building practices over time.

What is the Connector Summit mentioned in the video?

The Connector Summit is an annual virtual gathering hosted by the speaker. It allows participants to engage in deeper, more specific team-building discussions tailored to their challenges and contexts.

Why does the speaker recommend creating a 'user manual' for team members?

The speaker recommends creating a 'user manual' for team members because humans are complex and don’t come with instructions. A user manual can help team members understand how to best interact with one another, preventing misunderstandings and improving teamwork.

Outlines

00:00

💡 Unconventional Team Building Strategies

The speaker introduces the video, aiming to provide unique, useful, and brain-friendly team-building activities applicable in various contexts. He recounts a conversation with his friend Paul, a principal seeking effective team-building ideas for faculty meetings. The speaker proposes a concept called 'past, present, and future,' developed by Dan Sullivan. This approach uses time periods to facilitate meaningful group discussions. He suggests using photos from the participants' phones to teleport them back in time, allowing for personal story sharing in small groups of three to foster connection.

05:01

⏳ Exploring the Present in Team Building

The speaker shifts to the present, recommending the question 'What has been taking up lots of your brain space lately?' as a tool to understand what matters to team members. He shares a story about a CEO who was planning to fire his right-hand person, but after a retreat, realized he valued them. The revelation came from understanding what was occupying her mind—her mother's recent death. This demonstrates the importance of checking in with teammates and knowing what's happening in their lives.

10:02

🌟 Future-Oriented Team Conversations

In this section, the speaker suggests focusing on the future by asking team members, 'What is something you'd like to do more of?' He recounts a personal story about how answering this question led him back to scuba diving after years of not practicing. The speaker emphasizes that future-oriented conversations help teams envision and shape their collective path forward. Thoughtful questions act as an 'edit button' for the future, allowing teams to shape the direction they want to head.

🧠 Using Time and Intentional Reminders for Team Success

The speaker introduces an idea from his friend Chris Danilo, who discovered the power of recurring reminders. Instead of rigidly scheduling tasks, Chris uses reminders that prompt him to think about his goals, which increases intentionality. The speaker suggests that teams could adopt a similar practice by discussing what makes a great team and converting those ideas into shared calendar reminders. These reminders would act as sustainable touchpoints for ongoing team building, going beyond typical activities like bowling.

🔧 The Power of a User Manual for Teams

The speaker wraps up the video by promoting his upcoming Connector Summit, where he offers more personalized team-building advice. He concludes with a teaser for his next video, which will cover the concept of creating a 'user manual' for individuals in a team. This manual would guide teammates on how to interact with each other effectively, similar to how a vacuum comes with a user guide, but for humans. This approach can help prevent misunderstandings and strengthen team dynamics.

Keywords

💡Team Building

Team building refers to activities and exercises that are designed to improve teamwork, communication, and collaboration among group members. In the video, the speaker introduces unconventional team-building exercises aimed at fostering genuine connections among participants without making it feel forced. Examples include using past, present, and future storytelling to encourage bonding.

💡Past, Present, Future

The 'past, present, future' is a team-building framework that encourages participants to reflect on and share personal stories from these three time periods. The speaker uses this concept to structure a 30-minute activity where team members share photos from their past, discuss current challenges, and talk about future aspirations. This approach fosters deeper connections by tapping into meaningful memories and goals.

💡Timeline Teleportation

Timeline teleportation is a creative exercise where participants use their phone’s photo app to jump back to a specific moment in the past, share a story, and reflect on its meaning. The concept is designed to help people connect over personal experiences, breaking the ice in a non-pressured way. It is one of the unique tools for team building introduced in the video.

💡Groups of Three

Groups of three refers to the ideal group size for team-building activities. The speaker explains that this size creates a balance between intimacy and openness, encouraging deeper conversations without the pressure of public speaking. In the video, the speaker emphasizes that small groups can reduce vulnerability while enhancing participation and engagement.

💡Brain Space

Brain space refers to the thoughts, concerns, or ideas that occupy someone's mind at any given moment. The speaker suggests using the question, 'What has been taking up lots of your brain space lately?' to foster present-focused conversations. This question helps team members understand each other's current mental states and concerns, which is crucial for building empathy and support within a team.

💡Connection Before Content

Connection before content is the principle that prioritizing human connection over the task at hand leads to more effective collaboration. The speaker encourages this idea in team-building sessions by focusing on relationship-building activities before diving into work-related discussions. The idea is to create a sense of trust and camaraderie, especially in high-stress periods like tax season.

💡Intentional Reminders

Intentional reminders are recurring calendar prompts that encourage team members to reflect on important team values or goals. The video suggests converting team goals into shared calendar invites to reinforce positive behaviors and practices over time. For example, a reminder to check in with a colleague during busy periods can strengthen team bonds.

💡Sustainable Team Building

Sustainable team building involves creating ongoing practices that continually strengthen team dynamics, rather than relying on one-time events like a retreat. The video highlights exercises like setting up calendar reminders for team values and activities to keep team-building efforts alive throughout the year, embedding these practices into everyday routines.

💡User Guide for Humans

The 'user guide for humans' concept suggests that just like machines come with manuals, teams should create 'user manuals' for each member to outline how they work best, communicate, and prefer to collaborate. In the video, the speaker proposes this as a team-building tool to reduce misunderstandings and improve how people work together by offering a clear guide to each person's preferences.

💡Questions as Edit Buttons for the Future

This metaphor refers to the idea that asking thoughtful questions can shape and influence future outcomes. The speaker emphasizes that when teams discuss their future aspirations and challenges, it helps them 'talk their way into tomorrow,' effectively editing their collective future. Questions like 'What is something you'd like to do more of?' enable team members to share goals and align on a vision.

Highlights

Unique and brain-friendly team-building exercises that are industry-agnostic and work in both remote and in-person settings.

Team-building should focus on connecting to the purpose of why people are there, rather than feeling like forced bonding.

The 'Past, Present, Future' tool involves using three time periods as instruments for conversation: 10 minutes for past, 10 minutes for present, and 10 minutes for future.

Using 'Timeline Teleportation' by inviting participants to look at old photos on their phones and share stories from the past.

Small groups of three are ideal for team-building as they reduce vulnerability and provide more perspectives without feeling like public speaking.

A present-focused question like 'What has been taking up lots of your brain space lately?' helps to build awareness of team members’ current challenges or interests.

Sharing personal experiences during team-building can shift perspectives, as demonstrated by the story of a CEO who changed his mind about firing an employee after understanding her personal struggles.

Future-focused questions like 'What is something you'd like to do more of?' can help individuals visualize and work toward their future goals.

Asking meaningful, powerful questions fosters connection over important topics, which is essential for building a strong team.

A practice called 'Reminders Conversion' helps teams create shared calendar invites based on what they value to ensure consistent team-building practices.

A simple reminder on a calendar can be a profound tool for staying intentional and focused, such as a reminder about fitness goals or a countdown to the end of the year.

Instead of a one-time team-building event, making it a sustainable practice by scattering team values across the calendar can help build better teams.

The Connector Summit offers live, virtual opportunities to dive deeper into team-building challenges specific to attendees’ contexts.

The 'User Manual' concept suggests creating a guide for how each person in a team operates, improving communication and reducing misunderstandings.

Powerful team-building tools come from thoughtful questions and shared experiences that bring people closer together over what truly matters to them.

Transcripts

I'm thinking you landed here because you'd like some good suggestions for team building activities. And in this video,  

I'm going to give you some unconventional, unique,  yet wildly useful and universally applicable  

team building exercises. If you choose to invest  your time in this video, you will walk away  

with some really clever, smart, sustainable tools  to build your team, no matter what the context is.

It's remotely, in person, industry agnostic.  These tools just work because they're brain  

friendly and they allow people to connect  to the purpose of why they're there and  

not just feel like they're doing  this team forced bonding thing.

So, the first one actually came to me when one  of my friends Paul, who's a principal in  

at a school in Pennsylvania reached out and said,  hey, I got these faculty meetings happening every  

month, and I want to do something for about a half  hour dedicated toward team building. But I don't  

want it to feel forced and I ideally want it to  be something that kind of uncrosses people's arms

that is easy to get by into. Please  no animal sounds or any other weird  

team building kind of stuff. And  before he even finished, I said,  

I got it. All you need are my three absolute  favorite tools. They are called the past,  

present, and future. Dan Sullivan, the founder  of strategic coach was the first person  

that framed them as tools to me. But  I was like, whoa! Past, present, future.

I've never thought about using those times, time  periods as instruments or tools to help a group  

teleport to useful conversations. And so, what  I said to Paul is if you've got a half hour,  

you take three questions. 10 minutes with  the past, 10 minutes with the present,  

and 10 minutes in the future. The  easiest way to do this in the most fun,  

personalized format is to invite everybody to take  out the supercomputers that live in their pocket.  

Open up the Photos app, and on  most photo apps, most phones,  

when you click the top of the screen, whoa! It  jumps all the way to some of your oldest photos.

And so, you can invite people to, I call this  timeline teleportation. You can invite people  

to teleport into some distant or recent period  of their past and choose a photo that... And this  

is where you apply your intelligence and your  knowledge of your own group and your own context.  

And invite people to choose a photo  that represents a story they'd love to share,

or choose a photo of a memory  that they totally lost sight of,  

but would love to share with somebody else,  or choose a memory from March of 2020 as  

a way of reflecting on how far we've come, right? So,  10 minutes living in the past, sharing photos,  

pairing up. Ideally for me, team building  happens in groups of three. Change happens,  

I would suggest in small groups. And groups of  three are really nice because it allows for  

not the vulnerability of a pair, but  opens up for a couple more perspectives.

But you're not public speaking if you're in a  group of three. You get seven people together  

and that's public speaking. And so, you don't  go around in a circle and have everybody share.  

Do it in small groups, it lowers the risk,  which is what you want when you're building a  

team. The present, my current favorite question  to access the present is this one right here.

What has been taking up lots of your brain space  lately? This question is like a teleportation  

device right to the heart of what matters for  somebody. What is something taking up lots of your  

brain space lately? This could be something  they're excited about, a challenge, anything  

else. But if you want to build a team. Teams got  to know what's going on in each other's lives.

My late co-founder and co-author,  Will, who we wrote Ask Powerful  

Questions together was on his way to  facilitate a retreat for a company. And he  

was jumped in the car with the CEO of this  company. And the CEO opened up and said,  

I'm not going to lie, I am planning  on firing my right hand person  

after this retreat and possibly during  or even at the beginning of this retreat.

Whoa! Hahahaha. Team breaking, not team  building. And he ended the retreat.  

I'll kind of skip the middle. He  ended the retreat by saying, wow!  

I thought that I was going to fire.  His exact language was I thought that I  

hated this person, or I'd grown to hate this  person. And I realized I loved this person.

Not in a romantic sense.  But he realized, he really,  

really appreciated who this person was. And  what he found out was that their Mother had  

passed away recently. And somehow he had  been so busy and caught up with the doing  

of work that he failed to recognize what was  taking up lots of her brain space lately.

And so, her performance was suffering. Duh.  Her Mother had passed away, right? So, for  

most people, most of the time, something  that heavy isn't going to be on people's  

mind. It's just going to be something that's  present for someone. And so, it's just like a  

really good check in question. What has  taken up lots of your brain space lately?

And you spend 10 minutes in the present.  That's it. And then you want to build the  

team. You got to be talking about where you're going to go.  

You got to have conversations that actually  allow people to talk their way into tomorrow,  

that talk their way into the future.  My current favorite question for that

is what is something you'd like to do  more of? And the reason this is one of  

my favorite questions is a mentor  about a year and a half ago asked  

me this question. What is something you'd  like to do more of, Chad? And I said,  

scuba diving. Haven't gone in four years really,  really love scuba diving. I just got certified  

when I was 12 grew up pulling lobsters  out from underneath rocks in New England.

Hadn't gone diving in about four or five years.  

He asked me this question. And the profound  part for me was that six months. Almost the  

day after he asked me that question. I was  underwater scuba diving, hunting for shark  

fossils before giving a keynote to a bunch of  learning and development professionals in Florida.

If you want to build a team, ask questions  that allow them to talk their way into the  

future. Because the conversations we have together  materially change what happens next. Questions  

are like the edit button for the future. And  and you can see that literally. Because if I ask  

you right now, watching this YouTube video. Hey,  what's taken up lots of your brain space lately?

Or what is something you want to do more  of? I am quite literally editing the words  

that come out of your mouth. And I think that  really thoughtful team building that respects  

people, asks powerful questions.  And I say powerful because it gives  

people the power to answer with something  that is meaningful and important to them.

And when humans, whole groups of them connect  over what's meaningful and important to them.  

It turns out that is actually what builds teams.  Second concept, super clever came from my friend  

Chris Danilo, who is a nerd about the  brain. And he just kind of stumbled upon  

this practice for himself that  has been extremely effective.

What he noticed is, when he time blocks stuff  like, hey, work on this project at this time.  

And I related to this. Like notoriously  rebellious. You time block something on my  

calendar. I will do anything except for  that thing on that time block. And what  

he realizes all he needed was was a  reminder to be thinking about that.

And so, he would put reminders on his calendar  that were recurring every year. And one of  

the examples was, are you. So, he  put this on his own calendar. Chris,  

are you making progress toward your fitness goals?  Or a hundred days before the end of the year, he  

just has a recurring calendar invite that just  says there's only a hundred days left this year.

What are you going to do with it? And  so, it's just these little reminders,  

little prompts to make you more intentional  throughout your day. I think this  

concept is really quite profound.  There's probably a book that Chris is  

going to write on it one day. How the heck are  you going to use this to build your team?

I would suggest getting together, having  a discussion about what actually makes a  

good team. What's a team that they want to be a  part of? So, you talk about that and you list out  

a bunch of characteristics of a team that they  want to be a part of and what would help build  

their team. And then I would just go through.  I would call this like reminders conversion.

This exercise can be called reminders conversion.  Where you take what makes a great team for you,  

and then you convert those into calendar reminders  that actually become shared calendar invites on  

everybody's calendar. So, you agree to say, oh, we  really value the concept of connection  

before content. But we know we get really busy  around tax season because we're accountants.

And so, you just put maybe April 1st. You  put a shared calendar invite that just says,  

do you have two minutes to text somebody just  to check in with them to see how they're doing,  

right? Just simple reminder like that. But if  you get together and in a two hour period, you  

convert all these things that build a team  into reminders, plot them on your calendar.

What you've done in a team building session  isn't just had a nice time bowling for two hours.  

But what you've done is taken what builds a  good team and scattered it all across your  

calendar to make team building a much  more sustainable practice. Really the  

most ideal thing that could happen  right now on YouTube is I say, hey,  

comment below and tell me what specific  context and purpose you're gathering for.

And I'll offer some team building suggestions. Now,  that might be unrealistic for me to offer in full,  

which is why this December I'm hosting  the connector summit. Which is this  

annual gathering that I'm hosting for  the first time happens live virtually.  

I facilitate it. You may live on Zoom where  I'm actually asking for your challenges,  

problems, questions, etcetera, and  speaking specific to your context.

And I created the Connector Summit  because ideally I'd love to just  

have coffee with every single person  that watches any one of my videos.  

But that would probably ruin my marriage  and make me a bad Dad because I would just  

be getting a lot of coffee with people. And  so, this is the our chance to meet live,  

go deeper than the YouTube videos, go more  specific, more applied in your content.

And there is a link below. summit. And frankly,  

it's going to be pretty awesome. If you want  one more really clever idea, watch this next  

video on how to manage up. Where I describe this  concept of a user guide. Where you actually,  

as a team get together and write a user manual for  yourself. Like vacuums come with a user manual,

but humans don't. Humans are way more  complex to operate and work with in a team,  

but we come with no user manual. And so, one of  the reasons teams break down is because we have  

no flippin clue on how to interact with  given people. But if you create a user manual,  

in this video, how to manage up walks you through  that process. And I think you'll really enjoy it.

I'm Chad. Have an awesome day.