Exercise: Shared Drawing

Shared Drawing is great exercise for exploring group dynamics. Participants take turns - in silence - contributing to a drawing. The drawing should look like something (no Jackson Pollocks), so the idea is that the participants are trying to build on the ideas of others as well as find shared themes. After a pre-set length of time, the participants name their drawing in the same manner in which they drew it: taking turns and in silence. The name should make sense and use real words. The exercise is over when someone places a period at the end of the name.

Great discussion questions for the group:

Were there times when you were frustrated because one of your team mates made a mark (or letter) that did not fit with your vision?

What would you have communicated to your team mates had you been able to talk? How would this exercise have gone differently?

At what point in the drawing did the group seem to come to a common understanding of what the drawing (or name) was going to be?

This exercise is a lot of fun, but we love it because it highlights how frustration arises from expectations when those expectations are not clearly communicated.

Try it with your team today!