5 fingers introduction exercise

When to use this tool?

When you have new team members, are a new team, or just want to get to know each other on a deeper and more personal level. It’s a playful exercise.

How does it work?

Step 1: explain the 5 fingers. This exercise is a simple way to get to know each other a little bit better. Each finger stands for something related to the finger.

Step 2: draw your own hand. Everybody take a flipchart and draw your hand. Write in large letters next to each finger something about you that you like to share. This takes 5-10 minutes

Step 3: speed date. Take your poster and find a colleague! Have a nice conversation together. And change to another colleague in 3-8 minutes. In a couple of rounds, you have met your whole team.

Sometimes this round feels done after ~5 exchanges. Then it’s ok to stop it even if you haven’t talked to everybody yet. If you have a small team you can present each poster plenary, but it does have a different energy level than speed dating 1-on-1.

What do you need to get started?

Just some flipcharts (or large paper sheets) and pens. You can do this virtually of course as well with a digital board and breakout rooms.

This exercise is for:

• Team size: 2 to 13+

• Team development phase: Forming, storming

• TEAM framework: trust

• Difficulty: easy

• Duration: 15-30 min

Source: Exercise written by Teambooster. We learned this exercise from one of our clients. The original author is unknown.