Activity: Meet your teammates

Congratulations, you have a new team! Today's activity is intended to help you build trusting relationships with your new teammates.

1. Find your team assignment Links to an external site. here.
2. Go to the corresponding Discord voice channel.
3. Turn on your sound and video (if feasible, and if not, explain why)
4. Introduce yourselves
   1. Name. Make sure everyone can pronounce it.
   2. Major(s) and minor(s).
   3. Where you're participating from.
   4. What time zone that's in.

After these basic introductions, you're going to participate in something called a fast friends protocol. This is designed to help you get to know each other better, to develop trusting relationships, and perhaps even become friends at some point. This is important for any team, but also critically important for remote teams, who may never meet each other in person.

Here's how it works.

• There are three sets of questions, increasingly personal.
• Everyone should take turns answering them, taking your time, but try to get through them all before class ends.
• While you answer them, the TA and I will be rotating around teams, introducing ourselves, and answering whatever question you're on, so you can get to know us better to.
• If you don't finish them, come back to one or two of them at the beginning of team meetings to get to know each other better.

Here are the questions:

• Set 1 - Slightly personal
  • Given the choice of anyone in the world, whom would you want as a dinner guest?
  • Would you like to be famous? In what way?
  • Before making a telephone call, do you ever rehearse what you are going to say? Why?
  • What would constitute a “perfect” day for you?
  • When did you last sing to yourself? To someone else?
  • If you were able to live to the age of 90 and retain either the mind or body of a 30-year-old for the last 60 years of your life, which would you want?
  • Do you have a secret hunch about how you will die?
  • Name three things you and your one of your teammates appear to have in common.
  • For what in your life do you feel most grateful?
  • If you could change anything about the way you were raised, what would it be?
  • Take a minute and tell your teammates your life story in as much detail as possible.
  • If you could wake up tomorrow having gained any one quality or ability, what would it be?
• Set 2 - More personal
  • If a crystal ball could tell you the truth about yourself, your life, the future, or anything else, what would you want to know?
  • Is there something that you’ve dreamed of doing for a long time? Why haven’t you done it?
  • What is the greatest accomplishment of your life?
  • What do you value most in a friendship?
  • What is your most treasured memory?
  • What is your most terrible memory?
  • If you knew that in one year you would die suddenly, would you change anything about the way you are now living? Why?
  • What does friendship mean to you?
  • What roles do love and affection play in your life?
  • Alternate sharing something you consider a positive characteristic of a teammate. Share a total of five items.
  • How close and warm is your family? Do you feel your childhood was happier than most other people’s?
  • How do you feel about your relationship with your mother?
• Set 3 - Personal
  • Make three true “we” statements each. For instance, “We are both in this room feeling…”
  • Complete this sentence: “I wish I had someone with whom I could share…”
  • If you were going to become a close friend with your teammate, please share what would be important for him or her to know.
  • Tell a teammate what you like about them; be very honest this time, saying things that you might not say to someone you’ve just met.
  • Share with your teammates an embarrassing moment in your life.
  • When did you last cry in front of another person? By yourself?
  • Tell your teammates something that you like about them [already].
  • What, if anything, is too serious to be joked about?
  • If you were to die this evening with no opportunity to communicate with anyone, what would you most regret not having told someone? Why haven’t you told them yet?
  • Your house, containing everything you own, catches fire. After saving your loved ones and pets, you have time to safely make a final dash to save any one item. What would it be? Why
  • Of all the people in your family, whose death would you find most disturbing? Why?
  • Share a personal problem and ask your teammates' advice on how they might handle it. Also, ask your teammate to reflect back to you how you seem to be feeling about the problem you have chosen.