Ever need to get back on the same page with someone or with a group of people?
Could be your coworker, your team, or your spouse or your family.
I get it- we’re all busy. And sometimes that busyness means losing touch with important people in our work and our lives. No matter who you work (or live) with we tend to fall out of sync with the people around us.
These are the factors that typically effect my own rate of “de-sync-ification”:
1. How much stress we’re each under separately
2. How big the task is that we are trying to accomplish
3. How much precise communication is required
ETC!
Basically, you just need to know that it’s normal, and (most of the time) it’s no one’s fault. It’s just a fact of life when working with other intelligent, autonomous, and creative people – they will have their own activities, interests, and agendas. That’s a good thing!
What doesn’t feel so good about it is when we are out of sync we are more likely to get upset or forget to give the benefit of the doubt, and we just miscommunicate more often.
If you have the opportunity for a big team-building retreat in the woods, or a trust fall seminar, well, I am a big fan of those! But sometimes, you just need a quickie activity that can take 10-20 minutes to reconnect with people in your work and your life.
It’s time for the Toothpick Game!
All you need for this activity is toothpicks – one set for each person. A set is one toothpick for every member of the team.
If you have 5 people on your team, you need 5 sets of 5 toothpicks.
If you have a very large team, divide them into groups of 4-7, depending on how much time you have (more people in the group will take more time).
Now, you’ll go around the circle and each person will lay down one toothpick at a time right in front of themselves. When you lay down a toothpick, you will point it out from you toward another person, and say something you appreciate about them.
You will also point one toothpick toward yourself, and say something you appreciate about yourself. You can choose whoever you’d like to appreciate 1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc. as the group will just keep going around until each person has set down all their toothpicks. Eventually, you all will have toothpicks pointing from you to each other person, and one to yourself.
Note: If you are just doing this with one other person, give each of you 6 toothpicks, and point 5 of them to the other person, and one to you.
It is shockingly powerful to physically see the energetic connection we have to each other. And once you have heard 4-7 appreciations from your team, your attitude and productivity often go through the roof!
I have found that small weekly exercises like this are necessary to fill in the spaces between big retreats and team-building events and parties. They smooth out the day-to-day friction, and allow minor infractions to be effortlessly forgiven, and teamwork to thrive.
Amanda’s passion is working with women who find themselves in higher levels of leadership than they planned – needing to speak, negotiate, or sell. She shares tools to help them stay in Joy & Authenticity as they lead. You can find out more at Everyday-Light.com.