Uncommon Commonalities
This activity pushes participants to look past surface-level similarities to find three truly unique or surprising things they share. It is a powerful tool for building deep rapport and psychological safety in a short amount of time.
To foster genuine connection and break down social silos by encouraging participants to share personal stories and quirks.
Solves: Surface-level networking that fails to create meaningful bonds or lasting team cohesion.
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Step 1: Divide the group into pairs or trios using breakout rooms (2 minutes).
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Step 2: Instruct groups to find three things they have in common that are 'unlikely' or 'unique'—avoiding basics like hair color or job titles (5-7 minutes).
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Step 3: Bring the group back to the main room and have each pair share their most surprising commonality (5 minutes).
- Model an example first, like 'We both lived in a yurt' or 'We both have a collection of vintage stamps.'
- Encourage participants to keep digging if they find 'easy' answers first.
- Increase the group size to 4 to make finding commonalities more challenging.
- Themed commonalities (e.g., 'Uncommon commonalities about our work habits').