Exploring team strengths
Always remember you matter, you’re important and you are loved, and you bring to this world things no one else can. ―Charlie Mackesy
👥 Serves: 11-25 people, 2-10 people
🎚 Difficulty: Medium
⏳ Total time: 11-30 minutes
🥣 Ingredients: 1 sheet of paper, coloured pens/pencils or any art supplies you have available, calming music
🤓 Wholebeing Domains: Community, Liberatory Learning, Positive Emotion
💪 Wholebeing Skills: Affirmation, Celebration, Check-in, Co-creation, Collaboration, Creativity, Fun, Relating to Others
Exploring team strengths
📝 Description
Using animals to identify team strengths.
It is sometimes easy to forget that we don’t have to figure it out alone and we’re stronger as a team. This activity can be used to identify – and celebrate –strengths of individuals and remind the team that you are stronger together. It also gives space for team members to ask for help and support. You might also find these additional recipes useful: “Recognising brain strengths” and “VIA Character Strengths”.
This recipe has been kindly donated by Angela Mathew Verma, Simple Education Foundation.
👣 Steps
Step 1 – Check-in (5’)
Start the activity by inviting the team to check in to their feelings. Ask each team member to choose an animal that they resonate with the most at this moment and invite them to imitate the animal (gestures and/or sound). Encourage them to also share why.
For example, “I feel like a fish swimming against the current because work has been challenging and I am struggling to keep going.”
If you are more than 4–5 people, form small groups so everyone has the chance to check in.
Step 2 – Draw the top half of the animal (5’)
Hand out a sheet of paper and a pen/pencil to each participant. Ask them to hold the paper vertically and fold it in half. Now ask them to think of an animal that best represents one of their strengths. For instance, “Chameleon because I can adapt to any situation”.
Now invite each person to draw the top part of their animal on the top half of the paper. Reassure them it is okay if the drawing is not perfect, it is just a representation of their strength. When done, ask them to write their name, label the animal, and their strength. Finally, ask them to fold the top half so the drawing is hidden.
Step 3 – Pass your drawing (30’’)
Ask participants to pass their drawing to someone else until everyone has someone else’s paper.
Step 4 – Draw the bottom half of the animal (5’)
Ask participants to think of another strength of theirs and invite them to draw the bottom part of this animal in the bottom half of the paper. Ask them not to peek at the drawing on the top half. Like before, ask them to write their name, label the animal, and their strength.
Step 5 – Talk to a partner (5’)
Now invite participants to pair up with someone else they haven’t talked to much. Ask them to open their drawings and give the new animal a name. Then share about the four strengths that they discovered through these new animals and how they might help them make their work easier/better.
Step 6 – Stronger together (5’)
Reconvene as a large group and ask a few participants to share what is something new they have learned about someone else through this activity.
Step 7 – Strengths wall (5’)
If it feels right, ask team members to stick their art work on a wall to remind themselves of all the strengths they bring to the team.