A great thing when collaborating with trainers having different backgrounds, is that you ever learn something new at each encountering. I discovered this activity thanks to Claire Thomas, Trainer, fellow Zero Generation founder and alumni from IFMSA, during Leadership Summer School 2010!
Let me introduce you to the mutual appreciation round and how to get the best out of it.
A Mutual appreciation round is an activity during which participants will mutually express their appreciation towards each other. Studies show that both the act of telling others about good events and the response of the person with whom the event was shared have personal and interpersonal consequences, including increased positive emotions, subjective well-being, and self-esteem, and relationship benefits including intimacy, commitment, trust, liking, closeness, and stability (Good News! Capitalizing on Positive Events in an Interpersonal Context).
In order to run this activity, you need at least 3 people, even though you can have fun with fewer and even a mirror…
It’s very important to find a nice and cosy place, grass, chairs, sofa though no table!
You gather the participants of the activity in a circle.
Every participant will be in the spot light. All the participants are invited to say something positive about the one in the spot light. “I like you when you …“
Variations in the phrasing can be:
– What does inspire you about that person?
– What makes that person great?
– What will you take home from that person?
A time duration can be set for the exercise.
When everything is clear, one facilitator is selected to strive to divide praise time equally.
As trainer initiating the exercise, you can facilitate the process yourself or let the participants do it and be an active part of the activity or even initiate the talk and let them do as in the following picture.
I had the privilege to participate in and run the activity several time since Summer 2010 and mutual appreciation round has proven to boost the energy level, self esteem and attention span of the participants.
One of the great benefit of this exercise is, when you set an event’s atmosphere, to foster peer sharing, support, collaboration. The activity is a time when you can let people express what they’ve been noticing about their colleagues and, by setting the right question, you can keep the discussion on the positive side.
It helps to ease tension, to re-motivate people in order for them to continue to work together and to cement relationship among people.
Some of you might think it’s just about being nice and maybe too close to Care Bears spirit. I will just answer that even in a tough world, some care, communication and trust need to be built among team members and this activity is a great tool for your toolbox! 😉 Sharing good news with others is one way that people can savour common experiences while building personal and interpersonal resources. Are you happy for me?