To help with team morale during the pandemic, I created a group activity called Monsters Field Guide: where I hosted sessions with 100+ people. The activities were designed to surface how we each have different—and valuable—interpretations of requests and directions. A large part of my motivation as a manager is to encourage confidence and exploration.
“Having Lina facilitate the Monster’s field guide was the highlight of the ‘Digital Symposium’ for me. She provided the structure and framework for the exercise, whilst also giving everyone space to explore their creativity. She encouraged multiple perspectives and diverse viewpoints. Having a facilitator with such leadership qualities was beneficial for the team. At Monks, we all come from diverse backgrounds and hold different perspectives. This exercise reminded me that there is no ‘one-way’ to approach a problem, and a solution derived through collective decision making is key. Lastly, I want to mention her positive nature. She brought bright energy to the room, which is difficult to do “virtually”
Were you ever afraid of
monsters as a kid?
Fear not, friends. The purpose of this activity is
to help us use our imagination by drawing monsters
and having a good time together.
The following are the steps for this activity:
UNO:
Take a minute (or less) to imagine the monster of your desires.
DOS:
Start describing your monster to us. You can add descriptions such as: its scientific name, height, diet, temperament, and habits. (Please do this slowly, so others have time to illustrate what’s being narrated). The idea is to spend about 3 minutes describing my monster.
TRES:
In the meantime, while you describe your monster, those who are listening, will start drawing said creature.
CUATRO:
You’ll take a picture of your drawing and place it in the deck, so we can all see everyone’s version of the monster.
CINCO:
See the amazing results as a team.
SEIS:
We will switch to another narrator to describe their monster.
This activity has proven the following:
UNO:
That none of the illustrations you see here are wrong. They just show that we have different points of view - which is wonderful.
DOS:
That more often than not, we’ll find a client narrating ‘a monster’ project to us. But happily, with our different set of skills, we always find a creative way to make those asks work.
TRES:
That it’s always better to learn new things while having fun.
