Team Workshop

Create an Acrostichon

Improve trust by increasing on satisfaction

15-35 minutes

3-10 people

Remote & on-site

Background

Satisfaction at work and in a team is central to building trust. The psychologists Hackman & Oldham have already discovered that significance, diversity of requirements and autonomy are fundamental to intrinsically (self-driven) motivated and satisfying work.

Team workshop instructions

Preparation

Select an acrostichon that you’d like to use for the workshop. (e.g. company name or the product you’re selling)
On Site: provide paper & pencil
Remote: provide whiteboard

Tip: You can adapt the length of the acrostichon to fit your desired workshop length. Also maybe have a “backup” acrostichon in mind in case your initial suggestion proves to be too long/short/hard.

Check-In (5 minutes)

Welcome the team and introduce the workshop
Explain what an acrostichon is
Use the background shown above to explain why satisfaction with your work is important to build trust

Overview: Share your personal thoughts and feelings by creating an acrostichon regarding your workplace.

Goal: Build trust by focusing on what makes you satisfied with your work and workplace.

An acrostichon is a collection of words, the first letters of which make up a word of their own when you write them beneath each other.

Step 1 (5-10 minutes)

Each team member creates their own acrostichon about why they’re satisfied with their work/team/company
If you’d like, you can also choose another topic with your team, e.g. what you’re thankful for

Here is an example of how an acrostichon is structured:
E ducation
C reativity
H onesty
O wn initiative
M ade to order
A pplied
T echnology

Tip: When on site the acrostichons should be written on paper sheets, so they are visible for everyone later on. When working remote the acrostichons can be collected on an online whiteboard (hidden at first)

Step 2 (2 minutes / person)

After creating the acrostichons, each team member presents their work
If you want, the team members can select the best one and present it in the office or online.

Step 3 / Outro (10 minutes)

Summarize the results, read the best achrostichon again
Emphazise how job satisfaction is important for trust *

Example
“I hope this little exercise has shown that working with our colleages in a team can be fun. Together you have come up with different words for each letter showing how versatile our thoughts can be, even if we all had the same task and the same word. I hope this has also shown you how many great features this workplace/team/company has to offer that we can all thrive of and connect through. “

First Aid

Team members have troubles finding words for each letter
Ask if there are more people that would like some ideas for words. If that is the case stop the exercise and collect ideas as a group before you continue. If it still seems too hard for them or they are really unhappy with the suggestions you can switch to a different word for the acrostichon (see preparation). 
The acrostichon is too short/too long and therefore the task is completed too quick/takes too long
See preparation: have multiple words for the acrostichon at hand, in case you wanna do a secnd one or switch to a different word.
There are very different opinions on which acrostichon is the best
If there is more than one “best one” with the same vote, just hang them all up; stress that there is no real winner and everyone’s achristichon is individual and matters. You can always suggest that everyone hangs up their own acrostichon as well.
When the acrostichons are presented by a team member, someone else completely disagrees with the words they found.
Remind everyone its a very personal choice of words and that there is no right and wrong. Every idea should be respected despite the personal opinion/ preference.

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