Speaker 1: Are you looking for a quick and fun team building activity at work that only takes 10 minutes? Well, I'm going to share with you my all-time favorite that I have had huge success with. Stay tuned to the end of this video because I have for you one of my amazing number one tools for meeting success free. Hi, if you're new here, welcome. My name is Adriana Girdler, a business productivity specialist and a professional meeting facilitator. I have for you a very unusual team building activity that I have used in many workshops and have got complimented for. So now I want to share that with you. This fun, quick and very unusual team building exercise is called the poncho exercise. So now I want to share with you exactly how we do it. So the first thing you need is you need flip chart paper. So ensure that you have this around the room. And what I usually say for all my participants, I don't even tell them what we're doing, by the way. I just say we have a poncho exercise. Go to flip chart paper and grab yourself flip chart. Once everyone gets one, I actually guide them through this process so that at every moment they really have to listen to me and they have to pay attention in order to know what the next step is. So once everyone has this particular sheet, you need to ask them to create a poncho. And the easiest way to do that is by folding it in half and then folding it in half again. I know the joys. And then you actually can cut yourself space for your head so that you will have a poncho. So here it is. Here's my poncho. Next, I say, OK, everybody, put it on. And then I have everybody walking around with a poncho. Grab a sharpie. Now, right away, if there's a woman in the room or a man who has a white shirt, they go, whoa, whoa, whoa, Adrienne, isn't that going to bleed through? It's never happened yet, OK? You can't do this with pens. You really need to do this with a sharpie because you need to see it. So I have everyone in the room with these ponchos on and then I have them with a sharpie. Usually it's black. Mine is green, but that's OK. Then what I say is I want you to look around and every single person in the room, you need to ensure you write on their poncho. But here is what you have to write. You have to write down something that you are grateful for in regards to them. What appreciation do you have? And right away from that note, they're like, what? And if they don't know each other, you can give an example. Like, OK, if you don't know somebody, just say, I really appreciate your warm smile or I really appreciate you making room for me at the table. And if you do know them well and you know the work that they're doing, maybe give them a great appreciation on some of the work that they've done for you or that you know that they've done. The whole purpose of this exercise is to really get teams to come together and think positively about what and how they feel about their teammates. So it's super fun. So now we have this. Now everyone understands those rules. They go around and they start writing on everyone's back. Superman, here's my team. Do you mind writing on my back? And you stand there. Now what usually happens is a train occurs and that train is everyone's kind of one behind the other writing in the back. It is fun. It's exciting. People are laughing. They're having a really good time by doing this. Once everyone is done, I say, OK, if you're done, leave your ponchos on. Sit down at the table or wherever that we're at and don't take it off. Now this is the really important part. You want everyone to take off the poncho at the same time. But the key is we're not reading it out loud. We're going to spend two minutes where everyone can just take in the beautiful words that their teammates wrote about them. So everyone sits down. OK, guys, on a count of three, you are going to take off your poncho. You're going to read your words and take it in. And literally one, two, three. Take off that poncho. And since everything is written on the back, they read it. And as I'm looking around because I'm the observer, the smiles on people's face, even a little bit teary eyed, where people are super touched with what people said about them is powerful. I have people who then fold it up and they put it in their knapsack or their briefcase because they want to keep it. It is super powerful, really easy. I get extreme, extreme success with this. I've done this with people who are so into this stuff, but I also done it with other groups like security teams who you think are walking around with ponchos giving gratitudes. Yes, they do. And you'll be amazed. Everyone needs a little bit of love. And so what a wonderful exercise to bring into your organization. Now that you've gotten everyone into this really fun, cool team building activity, it is time to go to another level of great meetings. And that is to get your free download on Meeting Rules. Not only are team building activities really great and helpful, but understanding what you're supposed to do in a meeting also plays a part in all this. On that note, I want to thank you for watching this video. If you can give it a thumbs up, if you can subscribe to my channel, and let me know if you're going to try this poncho exercise in the comments below. Until next time, bye.