We all know that communication is the key to team success. How teams communicate makes a difference.

The reason we have so many different communication tools is now more apparent. But still, what makes communication suitable?

The key is to know a person as a whole human being.

That means we must encourage our team members to show their personality, not just their professional side.

Besides grabbing a beer after work or sipping coffee in regular breaks, there are a few other ways to explore our team members’ personal sides. Of course, they should share only things that are appropriate for them to share and for the group to receive.

So we need some group norms.

I run a workshop with twenty people and my team members, and I wanted to know how to create a good opening for this session. On the one hand, I needed a good icebreaker, but on the other hand, I needed something meaningful.

That was a newly formed team without well-developed trust. They didn’t know each other well, so I found that the Personal Map from Mng 3.0 would be a perfect tool for that. The tool is simple to explain and ignites creativity and playfulness among team members. That is why I use this exercise in almost all my training or workshops when the attendees don’t know or know just enough to communicate.So, let me share what I did in that specific workshop.

Facilitators or team leaders need to be role models, allow themselves to be vulnerable, and share their personal maps with others.

How does this work?

They create branches based on the main areas of their lives and go into appropriate details. I offered them some areas as a starter; the rest is for them to decide. The areas I proposed were Family, hobbies, Values, and Business.

We had such fun! Here are some of the drawings we laughed a lot:

• One of our attendees would become a shepherd and live without electricity
• The second attendee said he is an expert in soccer betting 
• In their spare time, one of the attendees grows his own vegetables

However, our common values were the most important thing we learned from this exercise. Everyone easily connected to Respect, Support, and Fun.

This workshop taught me that this exercise dramatically increases the speed of bonding team members or even just attendees from open training. I decided to use those common values they had just learned about their team (Respect, Support, and Fun) to create a Working agreement. I asked questions:

• How can we nourish an environment where we can respect and support each other?

Team members put sticky notes on the wall with so many ideas! We included some of them in our Working agreement.

“When we openly discuss our issues, we respect each other.”

“When we ask for help without being judged, we support each other.”

I asked another question:

• What do we need to have great fun yet produce the best outcomes?

Again, some of the answers were astonishing, and we put them in our working agreement:

“At Retrospective, everyone should tell a joke.”

“Anyone who is late on Daily Sprint will put 1 euro in the jar. At the end of the month, we will grab some beer with this money.”

Even though team members worked for more than six months, they were surprised by some facts shared by their colleagues.

What did I learn from this workshop?

Communication is essential in building high-performing teams, but the way we use communication tools makes a huge difference. Expanding knowledge of my team members about other team members creates a safe learning environment and promotes a culture of inclusion and respected diversity. Some team members are more open to sharing personal details, and some are not. I learned that some team members can disconnect from the laptop for a day or two. Some others can help us earn some money by betting. I learned a lot about team members, which helped me see real people behind my colleagues.

What are some of the pitfalls I faced while I was using this tool?

For this particular workshop, it was time. The workshop was scheduled for 4 hours, and people didn’t expect to do this kind of exercise. I needed to explain to them how to draw a personal map. It took me 30 minutes to do this exercise, which influenced my workshop (I needed to speed up some other topics).

Next time, I will prepare my personal map in advance.

• Thefirst thing is that people don’t like to draw in general. 🙂 That is why I ask them to visualize, not to draw, so they can write, too.
• The second thing that is hard for participants is to choose an appropriate level of detail to share. One way I solve this “issue” is to be a role model. Before the workshop, I prepared my personal map with an appropriate level ofdetail according to my standards, which are mostly average according to my audience. Then, the attendees can choose how far they could go with their story.
• The last pitfall I recognized in my workshops was time. Depending on the group, this exercise could take 20-30 minutes of your workshop. So, I am not using this exercise for shorter workshops (less than 3 hours).

And for the end, I would like to share some tips and tricks to apply this tool easily:

• Always prepare some A4 (or A3) papers in advance, as well as markers, pens, and colored pencils.
• Prepare your personal map before the workshop so you won’t waste your time in the workshop.
• Explain within a few minutes what is expected from the attendees. Don’t over-explain.
• Don’t insist if someone doesn’t want to share their personal map
• Put papers on the wall so everyone can see them.
• Leave all maps on the wall during the workshop, and people will approach the wall from time to time.
• Always remove personal maps from the wall at the end of the workshop. You can do it yourself or invite attendees to take their personal maps
• Besides what we learn about our team members, it’s great to see how much we have in common and how strongly connected we are on value levels.