Penny for your thoughts

A simple and effective ‘getting to know you’ exercise, which focuses on what participants have in common rather than their differences.

Group exercise
Time required : 15 minutes
Target audience : Best suited to grassroots-level groups/faith communities, civil society organisations and human rights defenders.

To help participants connect by illustrating the many things they have in common.

A simple and effective ‘getting to know you’ exercise, which focuses on what participants have in common rather than their differences.

Instructions

Divide into groups of 4-6 participants. Give everyone 10 pennies/small stones/scraps of paper, etc. Tell the group that they are going to do a short ‘getting to know you’ exercise.

Explain how the exercise works:

Going around the circle, the first person should state something s/he likes (e.g., reading). Everyone else who likes the same thing puts one ‘penny’ in the middle of the circle. Then the second person states something they like and everyone else who likes this puts another penny in the centre. Continue until one person runs out of pennies.
Ask the participants to come back to the plenary. Invite 2-3 participants to briefly share their reflections on the exercise.
- What did they notice?
- Was anything surprising?
Thank participants for sharing.

Source: Adapted from the ‘Me too’ exercise, in Facilitating group introductions, Lions Club International.