A Fistful of 

Facts (full)

Setting it up:

This is by far one of our favorite teambuilding exercises. It’s simple, easy to remember, you have the one tool needed for the basic edition with you always. You can take it as a tool to introduce people to each other, making it a tool about introducing personalities, or you can use it as a way to debate different angles on specific topics.

Using this in a business setting, have the group go into pairs. Split them into A and B, find out who is A and who is B by having the one with the biggest hand be A.

With the topic currently being debated, give person A 2-6 minutes to comment on the current situation by using each finger to represent different angles to the topic. It could go like this:

Topic: We’re in the middle of a change process introducing LEAN to our company.

• The thumb (thumbs up!): Which part of this process do you like? What do you find is a success? Where will this make your work easier? Where does it change your workflow for the better? What other positive things can you say about the change process?
• Index finger (point): Which direction do you think this is taking the company (besides the obvious). Which opportunities comes from this? Which new goals become possible? What do you see could be something to pursue now, which was unthinkable before? Which mission can this put you and your colleagues on?
• Middle finger (f**k this!): What about this process suck!? What annoys you? What are the things that makes you shake your head and give up on this?
• Ring finger (where the wedding band sits): What are you committed to do in this process? What is most important to you with this and how do you want to pursue it? Where is your loyalty in this, where do you see a chance to make a difference for others? How can you stand out and be a driver?
• Pinky (wiggle wiggle): What are the small things which is important to preserve? What makes this process special and unique? What should you be careful to keep focus on?

Once A has done his/her part, it’s B’s turn.

Make up some great questions relating to the topic you’re working on or specific to your team. The above questions are of course only inspiration for you.

The above were just quick examples for one of many possible processes. I’m certain that you see how this can be used with implementing or finding the company values, strategy meetings etc. We haven’t given you all the answers (or questions) here, but if you need help, watch the video above.

Facilitation/Teambuilding:

If you decide to take this further as a teambuilding exercise, you can have people go together in groups of 4-6 people and talk about their answers. Have them share their thoughts, concerns, opportunities, directions and so on.

Once they’ve done this, have them talk about “The Company Hand” or similar. If we had to combine our personal observations into one united observation, representing the company as a whole, what would we put down?

Get large pieces of cardboard and have them draw up a poster representing their opinions, their optimism and pessimism. Have each group present their drawing for the rest of the group and talk about why the group feels this way. Take turns, get the debate starting and take notes! Likely you’ll find many valuable inputs from this exercise.

You’ll find much more information about how to use this energizer with different angles on different topics, by watching the video above.

Facilitation notes:

For a basic/light version of this, check out “A Fistful of Facts” which is exactly the same but with a purer icebreaker angle.

If you wonder why we decided to make two versions of this, it’s due to the search capabilities of the engine. The business version of this exercise takes longer time, requires props and as such the search engine can’t tell the difference without two unique exercises.