Additional Info

• Hours: Less than 30 min
• Participants: More than 10
• Methodology: Virtual or Face to Face
• Objectives:

  Care for the team's health and give them a comfortable environment to reduce stress.

• Materials:

  A PC with webcam or similar device with conference call capability for online collaboration.

• Procedure:
  

  Prior to your team conference call, email the haiku instructions to team members and request that they create a personal haiku to share during the call.

  • Haiku is a Japanese style of poem.
  • Haiku have three lines.
  • The first and last lines have five syllables.
  • The second line contains seven syllables.
  • Haiku do not usually rhyme.

  During your conference call, have team members read their haiku to the team. If you wish, post the completed haiku on your online collaborative tool or your team website.

  Discussion Questions

  1. How did you feel about sharing your haiku? Did you stretch your comfort zone?
  2. What communication lessons can we learn from the structure of a haiku?
  3. Building structure into email can improve consistency on a virtual team. What are some ways we can structure our emails to each other?
  4. How does an activity like this help develop trust?
  5. What are some other ways that trust is developed on a virtual team?