How well do you know your fellow team members?

Teams that know each other well are more likely to perform well.

Here red10 ‘s Sarah Barber describes a simple “getting to know you” tool for teams.

Pecha Kucha

Pecha Kucha is a storytelling format where you “talk less, show more”. You can read about it here.  In our version, each team member prepares a single slide to help them describe themselves to the rest of the team.

The left-hand side of the slide is words. Under the heading “Need to know about me, my background and mojo” you add bullet points describing your qualifications and career history. And perhaps more importantly what motivates you and some adjectives describing how people will find you.

Under the heading “I’d like it if you could be like this with me” add bullet points describing how you would like people to behave towards you. This can be as simple as “text me if something is urgent” or a more complex “please tell me if you think I have done something well as I need encouragement”.

Now the pictures

The right hand side of the slide is pictures.  You add photographs of friends and family, your pets, special occasions, your hobbies. Anything really that captures what is important to you outside of work.

You get extra points for being willing to disclose photos of you as a child! ?

Sharing Pecha Kucha slides in the meeting

We at red10 had a virtual winter meeting in 2022 when we used Pecha Kucha ourselves. At intervals through the meeting, we asked 2 or 3 people to share their slide.

Guess where all the energy was directed? It was towards the pictures and people using these to talk about what was most important to them.

In this virtual format, the team coach (yes, we have one too) encouraged us all to respond to each Pecha Kucha in the Chatbox, with:

  • Questions
  • Commenting when something resonates
  • Anything human that connects us
  • Invite to discuss something further over coffee

In a physical meeting, the team coach would ask team members to write these responses on sticky notes and hand them over whilst saying them out loud so that everyone can hear the collective team energy.

By the end of the meeting, we had a deeper knowledge of each other that has helped us to make connections and find opportunities to work together.

Talk less, show more

In accordance with this principle, I am going to stop talking now and show you my Pecha Kucha slide instead!

Why not try this with your team?

Email us at office@red10dev.com if you’d like us to send you our template.