Last week, I led a team building program for a group of international students on the first full day of their summer together. I lead a hundred or more programs like this each year, but it quickly became apparent that this one was special. The group was joyful, engaged, and excited about the time they had together. The students came from all over the world, and while they started off the day not knowing each other’s names, they jumped right in with a series of activities using Ubuntu cards.
“Ubuntu” is a Bantu term and philosophy from Nguni culture in Southern Africa, often translated to “I am because we are” or “humanity towards others.” In Xhosa, the term is often meant in a more philosophical sense to mean “the belief in a universal bond of sharing that connects all humanity.”
Each Ubuntu card has a single image on one side (a lightbulb, a fish, a train, a calculator, etc.), and multiple images on the other side. Each card is unique, but the side with multiple images shares one item in common with any other card. I regularly lead participants through a series of activities using the cards that highlight both: a) the blend of DNA and lived experiences that makes each of us uniquely who we are, and b) what we have in common with each other (both one-on-one and in a larger group), and what can be possible if we allow each other’s uniqueness to shine rather than assimilate to become the same as each other.
Ubuntu activities tie nicely into the idea of Unique Diversity and Diverse Unity, which is the cornerstone of the work of Building Bridges Leadership, so in this case the activities themselves are also a great example of “connection before content.” By spending time connecting with each other in meaningful (and relevant) ways, we were able to start building a team that was incredibly supportive of each other’s needs when we got to our high ropes course activity – climbing up a 40-foot telephone pole and jumping from the top – a “leap of faith.”
Connection before content can take other forms too, of course. Icebreaker questions are common (our years-old list of a handful of icebreaker questions continues to be one of our most popular pages), but they are often handled as a “pre-meeting” activity to get people laughing and smiling before getting down to more serious work. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with that (I use those all the time), but there’s also a place for an activity that’s more deeply connected to the work that is to follow.
Chad Littlefield, co-founder of We and Me, Inc. argues that we should phase out the term “icebreaker” and instead focus on connection that is relevant to the content of the meeting. One example he uses is a collaborative journaling exercise called “Goldmine of Goodness,” in which he asked people at the beginning of a strategy meeting to take three minutes to write down on a Google form a best practice or a tip to share with others that has made a huge difference for their team over the last year. At the end of the three minutes everyone hits submit, at which point all the responses are available for everyone to read through. The group takes another three minutes to read through them before proceeding with the rest of the meeting. This is a perfect example of an engaging activity that works for introverts as well as extroverts, amplifying voices that might otherwise be missed. The prompt can also be tweaked to fit the content of any meeting.
While it may seem frivolous to use precious meeting time on an icebreaker, educational psychology research shows that when we are connected and related to each other, we create communication shortcuts and builds trust that can benefit our team ongoingly, and we can reduce the time we spend in meetings on a week-to-week basis.
So how might the concept of Connection Before Content be helpful to you this week?
This Week’s Tip:
Consider ways you can use Connection Before Content in your team meetings:
- If you run the meetings, consider activities you can use that connect with the content of the meeting. If you meet on Zoom/Teams, use the whiteboard functionality for collaborative journaling. This can also be done in person. Consider using some open-ended questions that are relevant to the topic of the meeting, and give people time to reflect before sharing responses with the group. In the longer term, you may want to order a set of Ubuntu cards, We! Connect cards or We! Engage cards (Building Bridges Leadership does not benefit in any way from sales of these products).
- If you don’t run the meetings, make suggestions to the people who do. You might offer to run that part of the meeting, but be okay with them running it instead. Consider some of the activities mentioned above, or you might have your own ideas that would be perfect for your team!
Try this out this week, and let us know how it goes! We’d love to hear from you.
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