What is the purpose activity?

Maintaining a cohesive team is especially difficult in the era of modern work: Your team might be entirely remote, distributed, or hybrid, and it’s rare to have everyone in the same room at the same time. This makes collaboration difficult—and connection even more challenging.

The purpose activity is the perfect anecdote for disconnection. You can easily insert this template at the beginning of any meeting as an icebreaker or use it on its own as a team building exercise.

Benefits of using the purpose activity template

• Build team empathy. Learn more about your teammates by discovering where everyone came from and what keeps them going. Your team will build empathy, appreciate each other’s differences, or find common ground as they learn more about each individual.
• Motivate your team. Taking time to reflect on purpose can reinvigorate your team and help remind them of the big picture: what they’re working towards.

How to use the purpose activity template in Lucidspark

Step 1: Kick off the purpose activity by instructing each member of the team to duplicate the template and fill out their individual sections.

Step 2: You can facilitate the activity by asking prompting questions for each section. For example, to help team members describe where they come from, you could ask: What kind of house did they grow up in? What was their neighborhood like? You can use the timer to stay on track.

Step 3: Continue filling out the rest of the template as a team, answering the following questions:

• What drives you?
• Why are you excited to work at this company?
• When you look back, what is the impact you want to have made in your life?
• What might be your personal purpose statement?
• How does your personal purpose connect to what you do at work?

Step 4: Then, encourage individuals to share and discuss. Team members can react to sticky notes with emojis or comments as they learn more about each other.