⭐Launch: Life Journey
I've been using a very powerful tool to help the members of various leadership teams to better understand one another on a personal level.
When the tool is used effectively, it leads to better communication and collaboration. Each member of the team understands everyone else on the team better - as a result of understanding their background, motivation and ambitions.
What is the tool?
It's called the “life journey” exercise
It's very simple!
Try to gather your group for ~3 hours of uninterrupted time. Minimum group size of 3-4, maximum group size of 12. Meet in a place away from where you run your organisation day to day.
Each member of the group has 15 minutes to sketch out their life on an A2 piece of paper or whiteboard.
The sketch can be a timeline, a comic strip, a list of bullet points, anything that helps you articulate the story of your life so far.
Each person then gets 20-25 minutes to present their story to the rest of the group. They can take follow up questions if they feel comfortable.
When done well, this leads to a level of vulnerability and openness that is difficult to reach in day to day operating conversations. We truly understand where each person in the room has come from and where they want to go.
When done badly, this is a shallow resume readout without any insight into the real life of the person. We don't really understand one another any better than before we entered the room.
As the facilitator, our role is to create a safe and productive space for the “done well” scenario to play out.
If you are leading a team or are part of a team where you feel everyone has an opportunity to get to know one another better, then I recommend trying this out. This is particularly effective for new teams or to do when new hires join.
Get in touch (by replying to this email) if you would like me to come and help facilitate this session for your leadership team and we can discuss. Feel free to share this with anyone who you think needs to read it!