Want a quick and easy team building activity to get to know each other or get to know each other more? Four Corners is easy to prepare and guide, and can be easily adapted. It is also a fun, creative, and colorful way to share a little bit about yourself and learn more about others.
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Preparing for This Activity
- Anticipated Duration: 20–45 minutes
- Preparation Level: Low
- Suitable for: In person and remote meetings
- Materials: Paper and crayons, colored pencils, or markers
Instructions
- Ensure each team member has access to a piece of paper or flipchart and markers, crayons, or colored pencils.
- Instruct them to divide their paper into four equal quadrants. Possible quadrant questions:
- What do I bring to this team?
- What do I need from this team?
- What is an interest and/or hobby I have?
- What is my vision for this team in the coming year?
- Invite them to draw — not write —  their responses to four questions (one question for each quadrant).
- Tip: Let people go where they go with these questions. There is no need to add more details or specify exactly what you are looking for in their responses.
- Let them know that there will be up to 10 minutes to work individually.
- After 10 minutes, bring everyone back to a large group.
- Invite everyone to use tape or magnets to hang their drawing around the room, almost like a “gallery” of the images.
- Ask each person to take 4–5 minutes (depending on time available) to share their images and responses with the group.
Prompt Library
You can adapt the four questions to what feels relevant to the moment. Other possible questions could be:
- What is a gift(s) I bring to this team?
- What I appreciate about this team is…
- What is something this team does/can do that no other team in our organization does?
- What motivates me in my work on this team?
- What was a personal or professional defining moment?
- What is a personal or professional moment of pride?
- What does team success look like to me?
- What makes me proud to be part of this team?
- What is a current challenge I am facing?
- The things that motivate me the most at work…
- The things that stress me the most at work…
- How I like to be recognized and appreciated at work is…
Closing Thoughts
This is a great exercise to encourage interaction, connection, and boost energy. If you are working with a hybrid or fully remote team, it is easily adaptable to online use.
To share drawings in a virtual space, you may upload images to a shared document or in Chat; invite team members to share their screen and show their image; or hold up their drawing to the camera for everyone to see.
Attribution
Leigh Ann Rodgers at Better Teams.