I recently co-facilitated an offsite for the Human Capital team within a government agency.  The leader of the group started the session with an fun, simple, and powerful activity.  She began by asking each person to quietly think about their team as it is today and then draw an animal that represents the team currently.  Next she asked everyone to draw an animal that represents the team they would like to become.  Finally everyone went around the table and shared their drawings and what they represented.

I was fascinated by how rich the resulting discussion was.  While people chose different animals, there were a lot of similar references. The animals they chose for the future tended to represent characteristics such as speed and agility coupled with teamwork.

While not a member of the team myself, I played along with the activity privately – doodling in my own notebook.  Without even realizing it I drew an owl and wolf.  Hmm. . .  All of the sudden I realized the owl represented the intellectual aspect of my work – the writing, which I love.  But the owl is solitary – you almost never see two owls together!  The wolf to me represented being a part of a strong, devoted, and powerful pack.  Still fiercely independent but able to come together to bring down prey and share in raising the young. This metaphor told me that I need to be working more with other people!

Wow! I never would have predicted that such powerful individual and team insight could come from such a simple (seeming) activity!  My guess is that it unleashes that non-judging right side of our brains and tells us what we are really feeling without slowing us down with left-brain rational processing.

Give it try yourself or with your team.