Stranger in a Strange Land--how to get Acquainted

[William_Thimmesch]

Good morning,

I am a long-time facilitator (organizational development). However, I'm fairly new to my agency. I will be hosting a kick-off meeting for a project next month. I'm looking for a team ice-breaker that would help folks get to know me, and for me to become familiar with them. Of course, in this situation I'm the new guy leading the group--the group members have likely known each other for years...Any suggestions??

Bill T:eek:

[Scott_Simmerman]

Hey, great on the new job, Bill. And I heard recently that "Job Opportunity" was an oxymoron in this business environment so that oxymoron may not be true!

Since you are working on a project, might as well use a tool that is project focused and will get people talking about the issues and opportunities around that. If you will drop me an email, I will send you an "icebreaker" that uses my Square Wheels wagon approach to get people thinking about how things work right now (thumping and bumping on Square Wheels), what might be done differently (Round Wheels in the wagon) and how to get things implemented within the current culture and situation.

One of the learning points, which may be useful to you as the New Guy, is, "Don't Just DO Something, Stand There." Getting people to step back from the wagon (dissociation) is a useful tool in this kind of team building and OD effort.

More than happy to donate this to a public organization and get you rolling forward.

--

For the FUN of It!

Scott Simmerman, "The Square Wheels Guy"
Performance Management Company - 864-292-8700
3 Old Oak Drive Taylors, SC 29687 USA

- Tools for Training: www.PerformanceManagementCompany.com/
- Informational materials: www.SquareWheels.com/
- Scott as a presenter: www.ScottSimmerman.com

Dr. Simmerman is a certified Professional Facilitator by the IAF

[Jan_Lelie]

When i was a stranger in a strange land - IAF Europe conference Sweden - i attended a few workshops by Malin Moren (see http://lorensbergs.se/lorensbergs/english/about/team/malin.html ). From her i stole this icebreaker (better a good steal then a bad design): "Who do you think I am?". Ask people in small groups to talk about this for a few minutes. Then ask people to reply and write the answers on cards. Stick the cards on the board and add what seems to be missing (in Malin's case it was quite a surprise). From here you can go several ways. One is about handling 'strangeness', another might be checking assumptions, a third one might be using projections.

This is one i made up and used one time. This new project is like a new land, a new country. You're going to plant your flag there. I let people make a flag for this country. At the time I used very small Post-its and a cheese pricker. People introduced themselves using the flags. (It is off course an adaptation of making a weapon shield).

Best,

Jan