Connection Toolkit
Curiosity Ping-Pong
This exercise is perhaps the easiest, most relevant way to spark immediate curiosity, connection and conversation. It is also infinitely flexible and adaptable to different contexts.
Frame It
“Before I share anything that I know with you, I’d love to hear your responses to this question: [fill in your connection before content question here]? … Great! Now seeing (or hearing) each other’s responses, I’d love to start a little game of Curiosity Ping-Pong.”
Objective
Listen to what others have shared. Pay attention to answers that pique your curiosity and follow up with a question to that person. We’ll continue this for multiple rounds to experiment with what happens when we pursue our curiosity.
Guidelines
- Respond to the question posed by the facilitator. Ask a question following up on somebody’s response to take the conversation further.
- Each question must be directed at a new person that hasn’t shared yet.
- Enact the “Law of Unmutation” where everybody is invited to respond and ask a question at any time (i.e., come off mute anytime).
- Continue for anywhere between two and seven questions.
Leadership Tips
- Start off with a question right off the bat. Don’t over frame the start of this exercise. Just dive in. This sets the tone for contribution—not consumption. And you get a ton of data out first which allows you to personalize the rest of the session.
- The ping-pong part happens once all that data is out in the chat or verbally via the popcorn method. Like ping-pong, don’t worry about questions flying around in a variety of directions. Diversity in responses adds spice and intrigue to the conversation.
- This is a perfect way, especially when you are remote, to replace the organic connection and conversation that may not otherwise happen in a virtual environment. When used in person, it immediately invites people into the role of contributor which turns the brain on.
