If you landed here, you’re probably looking for some good suggestions for team-building activities. In this blog post, I’m going to give you some unconventional, unique, yet wildly useful and universally applicable team-building exercises. Whether you’re working remotely or in person, these tools will help build your team because they’re brain-friendly and allow people to connect to the purpose of why they’re there, rather than just feel like they’re being forced into team bonding.
Three Tools You Can Use
The first tool came to me when my friend Paul, a principal at a school in Pennsylvania, reached out. He said, “I’ve got these faculty meetings happening every month, and I want to dedicate about a half hour toward team building. But I don’t want it to feel forced, and ideally, I want it to be something that kind of uncrosses people’s arms, that’s easy to get buy-in for. Please, no animal sounds or weird team-building stuff.” Before he even finished, I said, “I got it. All you need are three of my favorite tools, called past, present, and future.”
Dan Sullivan, the founder of Strategic Coach, was the first person to frame them as tools for me, but I never thought of using those time periods as instruments to help a group teleport into useful conversations. Here’s how you do it: If you’ve got a half-hour, spend 10 minutes on the past, 10 minutes on the present, and 10 minutes on the future.
For the past, invite everyone to take out the supercomputers that live in their pockets and open up their Photos app. On most phones, when you click the top of the screen, it jumps all the way to some of your oldest photos. I call this timeline teleportation. You can invite people to teleport into some distant or recent period of their past and choose a photo that represents a story they’d love to share. Or maybe pick a memory they had forgotten about but would love to reflect on. You could even choose a photo from March 2020 as a way to reflect on how far we’ve come.
Team building, for me, happens best in groups of three. Change happens in small groups, and three is great because it allows for more perspectives without the vulnerability of a one-on-one conversation. It also avoids the pressure of public speaking, which starts to happen when you gather more than seven people in a group. Small groups lower the risk, which is what you want when you’re building a team.
For the present, my current favorite question is, What has been taking up lots of your brain space lately? This question teleports you straight into what matters most to someone. It could be something they’re excited about, a challenge they’re facing, or anything else. If you want to build a team, people need to know what’s going on in each other’s lives.
My late co-founder and co-author Will Wise, who helped write Ask Powerful Questions with me, was on his way to facilitate a retreat for a company. On the drive, the CEO of the company confided, “I’m planning to fire my right-hand person after this retreat.” But by the end of the retreat, that same CEO said, “I thought I hated this person, but I realized I love them.” What he found out was that the person’s mother had recently passed away, which had caused her performance to suffer. He had been so caught up with work that he didn’t even realize what was taking up her brain space. This story is an example of how just understanding what’s on people’s minds can change everything. So, spend 10 minutes in the present asking, What has been taking up lots of your brain space lately?
For the future, ask this: What’s something you’d like to do more of? This question helps people talk their way into tomorrow. It’s my favorite forward-thinking question because it encourages people to think about what they want to create, experience, or achieve. The conversations we have together can materially change what happens next. Questions are like the edit button for the future. When you ask, What’s something you want to do more of?, you are literally shaping what people are thinking about and bringing their attention to what’s meaningful to them. And that’s what really builds teams.
Time Blocking for Team Building
Here’s another tool, courtesy of my friend Chris Danilo, who is a brain science nerd. He stumbled upon this method that has been extremely effective for time-blocking. But it’s not about forcing yourself to do tasks at a specific time. Instead, it’s about setting recurring reminders that prompt you to think about something important. For example, Chris puts reminders on his calendar like, Are you making progress toward your fitness goals? or There are only 100 days left this year—what are you going to do with them?
Here’s how you can apply this to team building: Have a discussion with your team about what makes a good team. List out the characteristics that everyone agrees on. Then turn those into reminders and put them on a shared calendar. For example, if your team values connection before content but you know you’re busy during certain times of the year, set a reminder like, Do you have two minutes to text a colleague and check in? This turns team building into an ongoing, sustainable practice, rather than just something you do once in a while.
Join the Connector Summit
If you’re looking for even more specific team-building suggestions tailored to your group, I’ve got something for you. This December, I’m hosting the Connectors Summit, a live, virtual event where I’ll be facilitating exercises, answering questions, and addressing the real challenges you’re facing. This is a chance for us to go deeper than we can in a YouTube video and focus on your specific context. Whether you’re leading small teams or organizing large events, the summit will provide tools and insights you can use immediately.
If you’d like to dive even deeper into how to build meaningful connections within your team, check out the Connector Summit. It’s going to be awesome, and I’d love to have you there.
One More Idea: The User Manual
Before you go, here’s one more unique idea: Write a user manual for your team. Just like a new gadget comes with a manual explaining how to use it, you can create a user guide for yourself that explains how you work best, what motivates you, and how to communicate effectively with you. This can help avoid misunderstandings and improve collaboration. If you’re curious about how to do this, check out my video on managing up, where I walk you through the process.
So, there you have it—unique, practical, and sustainable tools for team building that actually work. Use these suggestions to build a stronger, more connected team, and don’t forget: meaningful conversations are the foundation of great teamwork!
I’m Chad Littlefield. There are 500 other videos like this with really useful stuff. Consider subscribing. Have an awesome day!