Care About

Choose this exercise

Purpose: Share personal context and establish informal familiarity through everyday physical objects.

Use it when: At the start of a virtual or hybrid meeting to establish rapport before starting technical work.

Skip it when: When participants are in public or sensitive areas where personal belongings cannot be shared safely, or during urgent operational crisis meetings.

Group arrangement: Whole room for 4 to 8; breakout groups of 3 or 4 for 9 to 24 (with an occasional group of 5 if dividing odd totals like 13 or 17)

Timing: UWT suggested 15 minutes; aligns with source range of 5 to 15 minutes

Materials and tools

• Timer
• Video meeting platform with chat and breakout rooms

Before participants arrive

1. Ensure all attendees have functioning audio and optional camera access.
2. Prepare breakout rooms in advance if group size exceeds 8 people.

Say this to open

Take a look around your immediate space. Find one object within arm reach that matters to you or that you care about. It can be significant, like a gift or photo, or simple, like a favorite pen or coffee mug. You have thirty seconds to pick it up.

How to run it

1. Prompt and retrieve 2 minutes

   Welcome the group. Speak the opening script. Start a 30-second countdown for participants to choose an object within arm reach.

2. Explain format and group 1 minutes

   If the group is 8 or fewer, stay in the main room. If between 9 and 24, open breakout rooms of 3 to 4 participants. Instruct each group to appoint a volunteer timekeeper. Each speaker gets up to 1 minute to show their object and explain why they care about it. Remind everyone that passing is completely fine.

3. Share stories 8 minutes

   Run the sharing round. In plenary, the facilitator tracks individual 1-minute turns. In breakouts, appointed timekeepers pace their room while the facilitator broadcasts overall time reminders at 4 minutes and 1 minute remaining. Participants show their item and share their story.

4. Whole-group reflection 4 minutes

   Bring all participants back to the main room. Ask 2 or 3 volunteers to share observations using the debrief questions.

Debrief questions

• What patterns or surprises did you notice in the types of objects people chose?
• What did you learn about a teammate that you would not have learned from a standard professional introduction?

Finished output: Each participant shares an item and its context, or chooses to pass.

Remote

Run via main room for 8 or fewer people, calling turns directly. For 9 to 24 people, send attendees into breakout rooms of 3 or 4 people for 8 minutes. Broadcast total time remaining at midpoint and final minute.

Hybrid

In-person attendees select an item they brought with them (such as a key fob, pen, or personal notebook) while remote participants choose from their home or desk space. Form hybrid breakout pairs or have in-person participants show their item directly to the room camera.

Access and participation choices

• Participants can choose an everyday utilitarian object like a pen, mug, or notebook to avoid personal disclosure.
• Camera use is optional; participants can describe their object verbally or type the description and brief story in chat.
• Anyone can pass when their turn comes without giving an explanation.

If the session gets stuck

A participant says there is nothing in their workspace that they care about.

Suggest they pick the most functional tool they rely on daily, such as their phone charger, headphones, or water bottle, and share why it is indispensable.

One person talks for several minutes, eating into others' time.

Ask each breakout group to appoint a timekeeper who uses a phone timer chime at 60 seconds.