3 ms·
The goal with any of these icebreakers is to encourage the team to be humble and approach work related problems in a thoughtful manner. It's easy for someone t
by jarjoura 2y ago
The goal with any of these icebreakers is to encourage the team to be humble and approach work related problems in a thoughtful manner.
It's easy for someone to assume you are asked to open up about non-work related stories, but it's never the intention. For example, talking about how your Aunt passing away being the reason you got into software engineering, is not really going to help the team in any meaningful way.
However, it is quite valuable to share a story about how a coworker left you a huge unfinished project before abruptly going on vacation, and how you struggled to pick up the slack. You can use that story about the pain and frustration you felt and how you learned the value of having your work in a proper hand-off state when you eventually plan to take extended time away.
Don't ever feel like you need to talk about your hobbies, or family, or even your love of cats or dogs. In time you will build your work friends and connect with people who share some your interests, but it will never be forced, and a few of them may become lifelong friends.
- kelnos 2y agoThat's fair, but that's not how the author presented this request from their manager. Judging from the stories shared, people seemed to believe that they were being asked to share stories from their personal lives. It doesn't really matter what the manager intended; if they were primarily looking for vulnerable professional moments, they should have said so. And if they were indeed looking for personal stories, that's inappropriate.
- jarjoura 2y agoOh, I realize there's a misunderstanding somewhere, and likely the manager's fault more than anything. I imagine at some leadership training, they were probably encouraged to get their direct reports to open up and misunderstood the scope of that.