Get2Know Your Team

WHAT

This template is about a workshop with a team that needs to better understand / get to know each other. So the idea is, that each team member is going to create a "User Manual" of him-/herself during this workshop, that describes "how to work with him/her".

WHO

This template can be used by any kind of team (no specific business area, positions etc. required). Probably it is most useful for teams that have been setup quite freshly or when new team members join a team.

Also, the team should not be too big, recommendation: between 4-8, maybe 9, otherwise the session will be too long and probably boring)

WHEN

We use this approach for new teams, where team members do not know each other well or when new team members join a team. In the latter case usually it does not harm that some in the team already know each other - still it is nice to share something about yourself (again).

HOW

Most instructions can be found on the board directly. But a few hints and tipps:

depending on the situation, size and dynamics of the current team, it can be useful to work with smaller break-out groups, where a group of 2 meet in break-out rooms. For instance, one is interviewing the other with regard to the sections of the User Manual and is filling it out for him. And vice versa. Later in the big group the interviewer is just pointing out some elements of the User Manual of his interviewee.

Also depending on the specific context it can be a good idea to replace some of the sections / questions of the template with other elements that are interesting for this particular team.

For instance: instead of using the personality tests, you can use the "Riemann-Thomann" model with two axis where the participants locate their preferred behavior according the 4 quadrants.

For instance: instead of asking for the "needs", you can use the Motivator cards from Management 3.0 and ask "how would you rank the 10 motivators - which of the motivators are more important to you than others?"

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Thanks especially to the provider of those elements in our User Manual that we took from external sources (Big 5 Test, 16 Personalities; see links on the board). The section about the "What I need to stay motivated" is inspired by David Rock´s "SCARF" model - thanks to him as well.

Also thanks to the colleagues from Finanzcheck, especially the teams where we have tried this approach and have been adjusting it according to the feedback from them.