With an average of 30% new hires within teams each year, it is critical team members are able to build relationships quickly. 

Trust is the foundation of any effective team. It is very difficult for relationships to grow and for trust to build if you don’t know each other. 

There are two exercises in this section which help build the foundation of trust within a team.  We recommend doing both together to build on momentum. 

• Exercise 1 – Identify Things in Common. This is intended to be a fun exercise, building camaraderie within the team. It often throws up all kinds of interesting results. We once had a team who, not only realised they liked to travel, but they had all been up the Empire State building at similar times! 
• Exercise 2 – Working with me Profiler. When going into meetings with colleagues, it is just as important to prepare for the people you are meeting with as it is for the meeting itself. This is a powerful collaboration tool.  

Instructions on how to use these are included further down.

The team manager should own introducing this to the team.

Share these simple exercises in your team meeting. Don’t find time, make time! 

Exercise 1 – Identify Things in Common 

Team Manager: split the team into small groups. In 7 minutes, ask them to find out how many things they have in common. 

• This cannot include what you are wearing, body parts or anything business related.  
• The most creative/obscure answer, wins! 

Capture the findings from each group and share with the rest of the room. 

Note: This is a race to see how many each group can find and who can find the most detailed answer. 

Exercise 2 – Working with Me Profiler 

These Profilers can be used by your colleagues to understand who they will be meeting prior to arriving at internal meetings. 

Team Manager: Use the Working with Me Profiler to show an example of what a completed profile should look like. There is a blank version on slide 2 which you can distribute electronically to each team member.  

Ask each person to complete their own electronic copy of their profiler and ask them to be as vulnerable as they can be. This will help to build TRUST within the team. Tell them not to be afraid to add humour! 

Note: Agree internally where these will be stored so they can be readily accessed by anyone in the team. 

 

Working with me Profiler