Works with Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, or your own local model: paste this prompt and your AI will co-facilitate this exercise with you.

Help me prepare and run the exercise below. First ask for my participant count, time, setting, access needs and intended result. Check these against the stated limits. Use the supplied rules and materials. Explain any proposed changes before using them, and label them as adaptations. Do not invent source claims or require personal disclosure. Give me one step at a time when I say start. I manage the people, physical activity and clock; do not claim to observe the room. Ask me what happened before choosing a next step.

Reference revision: 5d2b376478a29b222406f77ba68cd19674e8f8fc04c1f6cfb921bc6117b013c1

# No Look Portrait

Pairs conduct a quick introductory interview, turn their backs to each other, and draw memory portraits highlighting what they just learned. The drawings are labeled with names, roles, and details, then posted on a gallery wall.

**Time:** 15 minutes. Source states 5 to 15 minutes. 15 minutes allows full paired interviews, memory drawing, mutual reveal, and gallery posting.
**People:** 4 to 24. Pairs. If an odd number attends, form one trio where participants interview and draw in a circle (A draws B, B draws C, C draws A).

## Choose this exercise

**Purpose:** Exchange introductory professional details and personal interests through a quick paired sketch from memory.
**Use it when:** Use at the start of a multi-team gathering or cohort kickoff when people need to meet new peers without high-stakes presentation pressure.
**Skip it when:** Skip when participants cannot comfortably turn away or draw, or when a group needs a quiet analytical start rather than an informal icebreaker.

## Materials and tools

- One sheet of blank paper (8.5 x 11 inch) per person
- One felt-tip marker per person
- One roll of wall-safe masking tape or painter tape

## Before participants arrive

1. Place one sheet of paper and one marker at each participant seat.
2. Clear a section of wall or whiteboard for posting completed portraits.
3. Tear or prepare tape strips near the gallery wall.

## Say this to open

Find a partner you do not know well. You will have three minutes to interview each other about your name, role, and one personal hobby. Then you will turn your back to your partner and draw them from memory, including details from your conversation.

## How to run it

### 1. Pair and interview (4 minutes)

Participants pair with someone unfamiliar. Each person takes 90 seconds to share their name, job role, geographic region, and one hobby or skill. Signal when to switch speakers at 90 seconds. End interviews at 3 minutes and direct everyone to take paper and marker.

### 2. Turn and draw from memory (5 minutes)

Instruct partners to turn their chairs or bodies directly away from each other so they cannot see their partner. Each person draws their partner from memory. Tell them to incorporate at least one visual element representing their partner's hobby or skill. For example, if a partner mentioned gardening, draw them wearing gardening gloves or holding a trowel. Drawings must remain unseen by partners until time is called.

### 3. Label and reveal (3 minutes)

Before turning back around, participants label the drawing with the subject's name, role, and region, and sign their own name as the artist at the bottom. Once labeled, pairs turn around and show each other their portraits. Partners discuss what details were captured.

### 4. Post gallery and debrief (3 minutes)

Participants use wall tape to hang portraits on the display wall. Gather the room to view the wall. Call on two or three volunteers to share what surprising detail their partner captured about them.


## Debrief questions

- What specific detail did your partner capture from your conversation?
- How did drawing from memory shift your attention compared to an ordinary business card introduction?

**Finished output:** A wall gallery of signed, annotated partner portraits showing names, roles, regions, and interests.

## Remote

Run in digital breakout pairs. Partners interview each other for 3 minutes. For the drawing phase, partners turn off video cameras for 4 minutes. Each participant opens a basic digital whiteboard or draws on paper and holds it up to the camera when video is turned back on. Images or snapshots are pasted into a shared digital whiteboard gallery labeled with name, role, and region.

## Hybrid

In-person pairs work on physical paper. Remote participants work in paired virtual breakouts and draw digitally or on paper. Remote participants upload photos or screenshots of their drawings to a shared digital board. An in-person facilitator projects the digital board onto the room screen so both cohorts see the entire gallery.

## Access and participation choices

- Participants who prefer not to draw can record bullet points, keywords, or a descriptive profile map on their paper instead of a visual figure.
- Anyone may opt out of posting their portrait to the public gallery and simply hand it to their partner as a private keepsake.

## If the session gets stuck

**A participant worries that their drawing skills are poor or looks embarrassed.**

Remind the room aloud that this is memory sketching, not portrait art. Stick figures and symbolic doodles are fully acceptable.

**An odd number of participants prevents even pairing.**

Create one group of three. Person A interviews and draws Person B, Person B interviews and draws Person C, and Person C interviews and draws Person A.


## Terms used here

- Memory portrait: A quick drawing made while facing away from the subject, relying on recall and conversational details rather than direct sight.

## Sources and adaptation

Observed in Relationship Makers Handbook, page 272.

The core mechanic of pairing, turning away, drawing from memory, labeling with name, role, and region, and posting in a shared area is retained directly from Relationship Makers Handbook. UWT added explicit interview prompts, equal turn timing, neutral drawing examples, odd-number handling, and remote adaptation steps.

Current run sheet: https://unitedwetransform.com/exercises/no-look-portrait/