In the previous post, some ideas for you, dear managers, on why your team would benefit from year-end reflection. Just as regular individual self-reflection strengthens and changes us.
In the quoted post, there are also some thoughts on externally moderated vs. self-moderated team events. Both have advantages and disadvantages!
Here are a few thoughts from our practice that can help you if you want to moderate yourself:
▶️ Images can convey many things that are difficult to express. If you were to describe your team with a picture, what would it be?
▶️ Visualizations help to make feelings and thoughts tangible. Take a rope and lay the development of your team on the floor as a kind of ‘fever curve’. What do you see?
▶️ We make automatisms, patterns and emotions more visible through activities with a physical component than just verbally and cognitively. Place a scale from 1 to 10 on the floor – and stand on ‘your’ number – what do you feel? And why?
▶️ Slowing down: Use elements to deepen and slow down conversations, e.g. A speaks, B paraphrases, A confirms or corrects => B speaks, A paraphrases, B confirms or corrects, etc.
▶️ Reinforcing elements: Grasping the unspoken elephant in the room, making it visible sometimes requires reinforcing elements such as doubling or the fishbowl. Very powerful methods that can also hurt and damage the team.
▶️ Structuring: In some cases, it helps if you also name group dynamic forces once they have been made visible. Input, for example on the rank dynamics model or the group field, can classify the dynamics, allay fears and make them discussable. But too much theory can also limit the field of vision to the purely cognitive.
There are a variety of exercises and activities for your team, all of which are aimed at finding a good view and a good way forward. The good selection, preparation, implementation and follow-up of these activities are the basis for a successful team event.
By the way: events for a good feeling (climbing together, rafting, Lego crafts) are great. As a joint, social activity, as a reward. But they will not strengthen your team deeply and sustainably. They won’t solve your team’s problems.