Cheesy Check-in

Some icebreakers are cheesy, but this one is so bad it’s good! Try this Cheesy Check-in activity to boost your team’s camaraderie and have a laugh along the way.

Team check-ins are really important, but they can get boring after a while, especially if the group follows the same format time after time. This check-in activity features really cliché stock photography images (freely available from several stock photography sites), as a fresh cheeky take on a familiar team activity.

When to use this canvas

• At the start of a new project, to galvanize a whole team

• Part-way through a project, to improve team camaraderie, communication, trust and support

• At the end of a project, as a retrospective or as a way of reflecting on how the project went and how you and/or your team would like to improve

• To gauge how a group feels about any major change going on in the organization.

How to use this Miro template

1. Ask - Let everyone know the specific context (what is the group sharing their mood about?), and then ask everyone: Where are you at?

2. Think - Give everyone a moment or two to think in silence, and then when they are ready...

3. Add - Ask everyone to place a dot (from the set of dots conveniently provided in the template) on one of the (terrible 90's sock photo photography) images that best represents how they feel.

4. Discuss - Ask each person to mention something briefly about why they chose the photo they chose, and then encourage everyone to make any comments about insights or themes that emerge.

5. Act - Help set a healthy tone of intention. Are there any actions that should be taken as a result of this check-in?

This activity takes anywhere from 5 minutes to half an hour, depending on the number of people, and how long you want to have a discussion.