Start Empathy

Choose this exercise

Purpose: Compare how different roles and people perceive, feel, and react during the same shared event.

Use it when: Use when a team needs to examine a complex problem from multiple outside viewpoints before deciding on next steps.

Skip it when: Skip when the group needs objective factual data or lacks basic familiarity with the personas being examined.

Group arrangement: Individual reflection followed by matched persona clusters of 2 to 4 people

Timing: Relationship Makers Handbook suggests 30 to 60 minutes. This run sheet sets a 30-minute standard baseline.

Materials and tools

• One pre-printed persona card with prompts per participant
• Blank note paper and pens for each participant
• Timer
• Shared digital document or physical wall board for debrief points

Before participants arrive

1. Select a focal topic or shared situation relevant to the session.
2. Select 2 to 6 distinct persona profiles based on total headcount.
3. Pre-sort cards so every persona has at least 2 and at most 4 recipients. For example, for 7 participants, use 2 personas (one group of 3, one group of 4) or 3 personas (two pairs, one trio). Never create singletons.

Say this to open

Empathy means examining a situation through another person's eyes. Each of you holds a card describing a specific person affected by our topic. For the next six minutes, reflect silently on how this person experiences the event. Answer the three questions printed on your card: What was their perception of the occurrence? What was troubling about it? What emotions did they feel?

How to run it

1. Introduce scenario and distribute cards 5 minutes

   State the shared scenario clearly. Hand one pre-sorted persona card to each participant. Read the opening script to set expectations.

2. Silent individual reflection 6 minutes

   Participants read their card and write silent notes answering the three questions: perception, troubling aspects, and emotions. Stop when the timer sounds.

3. Matched persona group discussion 11 minutes

   Participants holding identical personas gather into their pre-assigned clusters of 2 to 4. Each person shares their answers. The group records shared points and differences in interpretation.

4. Whole-room debrief and application 8 minutes

   Reconvene the full room. Ask one spokesperson per persona cluster to summarize their main viewpoint and identify one clear implication for future action.

Debrief questions

• Which aspect of your assigned persona was hardest to imagine or understand?
• Where did people holding the same persona disagree on their reactions?
• How does viewing the situation through these personas change what we should do next?

Finished output: Written individual reflection notes and a captured list of persona viewpoints and action implications on the main board.

Remote

Distribute persona profiles via direct message or shared slides before the timer starts. After silent reflection, move participants with matching personas into video breakout rooms of 2 to 4. Have each breakout write their summary points into a shared online document, then call everyone back to the main room for debrief.

Hybrid

Keep remote attendees in online breakout rooms and in-person attendees in physical table clusters, grouping by persona within each setting. Provide in-person clusters with a designated laptop or tablet to log findings into the same shared online document used by remote groups. Project the shared document in the room and screen-share it online while alternating spoken comments between remote and room groups.

Access and participation choices

• Provide large-print and digital screen-reader versions of all persona cards.
• Participants may sketch, type, write bullet points, or simply reflect silently without submitting private notes.
• Participants may decline to share personal stories and focus entirely on the fictional persona text.

If the session gets stuck

Participants create caricatures or dismiss their assigned persona.

Remind the room to focus on reasonable human motives and the specific pressures defined on the card.

An unexpected arrival or departure disrupts persona counts.

Absorb an extra person into an existing pair to make a trio, or merge a lone participant into another group with the same or related persona.

Terms used here

• Persona: A short written profile describing a fictional person representing a key role or community member.