Working individually, each team member will write down what they see as the purpose of the team. They’ll then pair up with someone else, compare what they’ve written and create a new purpose statement that combines both of their points of view.

Each pair will then join up with another, forming a group of 4 to repeat the exercise again. Each iteration refines the purpose and brings more people together in their thinking.

The final round will be each group of 4 sharing their purpose statement with the whole team and then working as a team to bring all the statements together to form a single team purpose statement.

Your team may have a clear purpose already, in which case this exercise will make sure everyone understands and aligns to it with a statement they can easily communicate to others.

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