In the current series of blogs I'm looking at "oppositeness" in teamwork.  Today's short ice-breaker exercise gets people moving and mixing at the start of an event, and can be used to make a number of important learning points.  You'll need between 5 to 15 minutes, depending on the size of the group, and space in the room for everyone to form a line.  This exercise can work with almost any number of people, and I've used it typically with groups between 8 and 80 (but sometimes with more or less).

The goals of the exercise are to show that oppositeness exists in the team and emphasis some important learning points right at the start of the team building event.  Lessons that you can draw out include, for example:
 • the value of diverse contributions of team members
 • opposites can also be complementary
 • the amount of experience and knowledge in the team
 • there are those who can offer a new/fresh perspective
 • the previous experience brought from outside the team
In new and/or large teams, the exercise will also help to start building rapport between small groups of members (by standing them next to people with whom they share a characteristic).

The process needs to move with pace but also humour/informality, to encourage everyone to relax and chat with their neighbours:

Ask everyone to stand and form a line or semicircle according to some specific, quantifiable and relevant criteria – eg: I often use 'the length of time they have worked for the company'.

Point out: 
 • where in the room they should form the line 
 • the “longest serving” end of the line 
 • the “newest” end of the line 
 • the specific criteria to sort on (eg: date since you first joined)

Start at the newest end of the line and ask each person to say: 
 • Their name 
 • Length of service 
 • Other info relevant to the day (eg: “what do you do?”).

To avoid tedium, for large groups this personal intro needs to be very limited so you can move around the room at pace.

If you are able, keep an approximate tally of years of experience in your head. If, at the end of the line, there is someone with a long service (eg: 20 or 30 years with the same company) there is often a desire/urge in the group to applaud them. As the tutor/facilitator it can sometimes be appropriate to start that applause.
 
Make learning points appropriate to the workshop/course.  For example, declare the total number of years of experience (approximately) and compare it with your own experience of the company/team: you can use this data to highlight that your role is to facilitate shared learning not teach. This helps counteract the tendency to listen more to an external consultant than the expertise in their own team.
 
Make some statements that draw out the opposite or different contributions from various points of the line.  Eg: if you have lined the team up by length of time with the company, then one end may bring lots of experience, the other fresh perspectives; one end brings in depth knowledge of the company, the other breadth of knowledge of other companies;  one end brings a tendency towards continuity, the other towards change and trying things new.  Make sure that you value both ends of the line, and the middle - eg: the middle groups bring a balance of the two and can help to bridge the different perspectives.

If you have any questions about this exercise, please leave a comment (see link just below)