Stinky Fish – An exercise to create openness and bulid trust

[Anonymous]

Stinky Fish

A short activity to run early in a team coaching process, focused on sharing fears, anxieties and uncertainties related to the program theme. The purpose is to create openness and to build trust within the group. The stinky fish is a metaphor for “that thing that you carry around but don’t like to talk about; but the longer you hide it, the stinkier it gets.” By putting stinky fish (fears and anxieties) on the table, participants begin relate to each other, become more comfortable sharing, and identify a clear area for development and learning.

Learn how to apply this tool:
• Time frame 60-120min
• Group size 2-40+
• Comfort zone medium
• Materials Printed A4 papers with a large outline of a fish

Step 1:
Introduce the purpose of the exercise in your own words. Explain that the purpose is to explore and share our individual worries/concerns about the future as a way to start a conversation and begin to confront or overcome them. Hand out one Stinky Fish template to each participant. Explain the metaphor of the Stinky Fish: “The Stinky Fish that thing that you carry around but don’t like to talk about; but the longer you hide it, the stinkier it gets. It’s a metaphor for a fear or anxiety; something that will only get worse if you don’t acknowledge and deal with it.”

Step 2:
Give participants around 5 minutes to write down their personal stinky fish for the context of the day depending on what the issue of the team coaching is for this specific team. For example, if the context is to go from group to team, the stinky fish could be about fears and anxieties related to this change for them. If the context is an organisational change, the stinky fish would be about fears and anxieties related to change in our organisation. They should write only a few words or a phrase inside the body of the fish.

Step 3:
Once all participants have written their stinky fish, invite the group back, sit in a circle, and have each participant share their fish to the rest of the group.
Ask participants to share one at a time, for 30 to 60 seconds each. Continue until all participants have shared.

Facilitator notes
Optionally, put all the stinky fish up on the wall as a kind of gallery. It can be useful to come back to them later in a program to refer back to some of the fears and anxieties that were brought up at the beginning.

Step 4:
Wrap-up the exercise by thanking participants and reminding them that in the rapidly-changing world, uncertainty and worry about the future are totally normal. Explain that “putting fish on the table” is an important first step to confronting and dealing with worries and fears. If relevant, explain that elements of the program to follow will offer the chance to further explore some of these stinky fish.

[Anonymous]

Thank you for sharing this. I appreciate the detailed instructions.

[Author]

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