Exercises and Activities

II. Describing Yourself to Others

Purpose: This activity allows participants to describe themselves to strangers in a fun way, using the characteristics of the object indicated on the piece of paper or on a randomly sent email.

Group Size: 5 - 10
Time Required: 15 - 45 minutes
(In a distance environment time will be related to the number of time zones represented by the group.

Materials: small pieces of paper with names of inanimate objects written on each. Examples are: door stopper, scissors, paperclip, window, a musical instrument, fan, bed, etc

You can choose a theme e.g. use musical instrument names only, or use office supplies, etc. (A more generic theme works better if this is done online, i.e. things that stick, things that dont stick, things that are reliable, or things that need. In this way the characteristics will also speak of that person's unique contributions to a team collaboration.)

Instructions:

• Create small slips of paper with one inanimate object written on each. (Or send email from MS Word with a form field macro that radomly choses from an excel list.)
• Fold them so they are not visible and pass around for participants to take one slip each.
• Ask each person to introduce him/herself, then describe themselves, explaining how they may be similar to the object written on the slip of paper. For example, someone who has "glue-stick" written on it might say that they are very friendly, people navigate toward them like a glue stick; they are the ones who organize events and bring people together, etc.

Submitted by: Jean Hotta, Cal State Fullerton

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