How to build trust in 6 minutes and 40 seconds: Team Building with Pecha Kucha

First building the community, then making decisions

Are pictures worth a thousand words?

Our experience says yes! We use Pecha Kucha presentations where our five students and coaching team members have 20 slides to get to know each other through pictures. The students take turns introducing themselves this way. In just a few minutes, previously unknown people spark each other's interest by sharing intimate things like their desires, friends, and attitudes.

Building trust: Here's how it actually works

Many believe that genuine trust cannot be built within an hour. But it's entirely possible if everyone shares their attitudes and beliefs openly, it's entirely possible. Because trust is not a question of reliability, as Simon Sinek explains in this beautiful TEDx Talk, but of shared values and convictions.

If you want to connect with others and be part of a community, you need to talk about yourself, your interests, and what makes you unique. This process is called "Community Building First" and "Decision Making Second" in moderation.

Without trust, without a community working toward a common goal, there can be no result. Trust is a catalyst that accelerates collaboration so much that we are regularly asked how we can achieve such results in such a short time.

The answer is simple: co-creation!

People who trust each other build on each other. They say, as in an improv theater: "Yes, AND..." instead of "No" or "Yes, but...". The flow of collaboration is not hindered by resistance but becomes a shared game. Trustful integration happens when you accept what is and go with the flow instead of resisting it.

But because integration sounds far too conventional in today's working world, it's called co-creation in New Work jargon. We create something new by building on what our team members contribute. This way, we jump back and forth between different associations and better see the big picture. This is how effective, integrating concepts emerge that we can't (and don't want to) anticipate.

Let's go Pecha Kucha!

It all starts with the simple format of a Pecha Kucha. Expressing yourself in 20 slides and the idea of each slide in 20 seconds makes it easy to create. When everyone gets involved with these simple formats, productive teams are formed.

And these are our magic questions:

1. You, as a baby
2. You, as a teenager
3. The heroine of your youth
4. Your family (including pets!)
5. Your friends
6. You just now
7. Your favorite animal
8. What is your current challenge?
9. What is the vision for your life?
10. Why is this your vision?
11. What helps you achieve your vision?
12. What problems would you like to solve on this planet?
13. What are your values?
14. How do you live and show your values?
15. Your hero today
16. Your unique competencies
17. Your passion
18. What do you not need in your life?
19. What would you like to change?
20. What should people remember about you?

Check it out: Pecha Kucha example

Just try it out - you, too, can strengthen the cohesion in your team enormously with these few questions! We will share more team-building methods with you in the coming weeks. Subscribe to the QLab Think Tank publication to avoid missing the best team-building methods!+

Boris Gloger, co-founder and managing director of QLab Think Tank GmbH