Round 1: Everyone gets 10 seconds to draw a self-portrait.
Round 2: Another 10 seconds to add a detail that shows something they love doing outside of work.
Round 3: Another 10 seconds to add something they love about their job.
Then: pair people up with someone they don’t know well. Give them 5 minutes to look at each other’s drawings and guess what it all means.
Simple, right? No elaborate setup, no special materials.
It works because the time pressure makes it impossible to overthink. Nobody’s precious about a drawing they made in 30 seconds. The layered rounds build gradually from silly to personal, so by the time people are sharing, there’s actually something to talk about. And pairing up rather than debriefing in plenary keeps it cozy and low-stakes. People connect, laugh, and open up in ways they simply wouldn’t in front of a full room.
We’ve got a whole toolkit of exercises like this. We train research teams, public administrations, and innovation professionals on how to design sessions that people actually enjoy being part of, from icebreakers to full workshop design. Whether you’re running a project consortium meeting, a public consultation, or an internal strategy day, the fundamentals are the same.
If your sessions could use some life, let’s talk. Reach out to us:
info@stickydot.eu
