SuperChicken – Margaret Heffermen

Super Chicken exercise

Purpose: Increase awareness on the need for employees of diverse backgrounds, including intellect to be successful and not to suppress productivity of others

Context: Useful for teams that need more social connectiveness.

Bottomline: Value diversity of employees – diversity of intellect, economic background, race, etc. Most successful teams respect this diversity and are connected and ask for help from one another.

Ideal number of people: 8

Watch TedTalk (16 minutes long): https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=tedtalk+superchicken&view=detail&mid=A10AD8BDA812D16C0548A10AD8BDA812D16C0548&FORM=VIRE

Debrief Questions:

After watching the TedTalk, break into small groups of two.

Discuss what each other has experienced when a team has super chickens on it. (Identify a possible problem) After 5 minutes share with the group.

Margaret Heffermen says, “What matters is the morter, not just the bricks.” Break into groups of 4. Discuss for five minutes realistic ways to strengthen your teams morter. Share back with the group. (Example: high degree of sensitivity to others, equal time to all voices, become outstanding collaborators, etc.)

In the full group, brainstorm answers to the question, “How could the workforce drive “collective restoration” of the team? (Redefine leadership)

Agree to 1-3 action items based on the answers to both questions.

Practice putting those actions into place over the next three months. Agree how you will celebrate adopting them in three months, i.e. everyone gets a lollipop, joint coffee break outside the office, have a picnic together, etc.

Assign a different person each month for three months to check in with everyone on the team each month on how the team is doing on the action items.

At the end of three months celebrate adopting the actions.