The Group Map Activity

Group Map is a simple and effective team building activity that gets everyone more familiar with each other. This is a fun and energizing icebreaker that can be used to emphasize the value of having different perspectives on a team.

There is a great deal of research suggesting that cultural diversity in teams is ideal for teamwork. But, is really important to get everyone acquainted so that individual culture doesn’t inhibit team performance.

The room represents a map of (the city, state, region, country or world). Decide the scope of the room map based on the people on your team.

If your group is international – the room map would be the world. If your group is from different areas of the same county – the room map would be that country.

And lastly, if everyone in your party is from the same city, the room map would be the city. Instruct them to move to the place in the room that represents where they live.

To help the team mentally grasp the room map, walk around the room and label a few physical “markers” in the room with certain geographic locations. For example, this chair is New York, or this corner is Australia.

Give the team about 30 seconds to move around, talk with each other and place themselves where they think they belong.
Ask each person to share their location and maybe something about it.

To debrief, point out that the diversity of backgrounds, geographies, cultures and upbringing is valuable to the team’s work, yet, it can also be divisive. Ask the team to respect the speaker and remember that differences in perspectives, when valued, enable teams to discover better solutions.

The topics of this publication: integration, self, diversity, empathy