"I Have a Dream"
Build deeper team relationships
What is the “I Have a Dream” practice?
The “I Have a Dream” practice can be used as either a Team Icebreaker or as a Team Building activity. It is a practice that allows people to get to know each other’s dreams, it allows people to get to know each other in a deeper way beyond just “My name is… My role is… “.
When should you use it?
This practice should be used when a team already knows each other, they already know each other’s names, this is not the first time they are doing something together.
Use this practice to allow people to get to know each other’s dreams and allow them to get to know each other in a deeper manner beyond “My name is… My role is…”.
Step by step
Explain - Write - Explain
- Explain to the team that this practice was created so that people can get to know each other in a deeper way
- Ask every team member to write 2 things on a post-it
- “I Have a Dream that…” with one of their biggest dreams in life
- “I have done this to achieve this dream…” something they’ve already done in order to achieve the dream
- After everyone finishes, each team member explains their dream.
Some examples of what came out of this practice
- “I have a dream that technologists look at ethics and morals as the basis for everything that is done”
- “I have a dream that all children can participate in sports and arts”
- “I have a dream that my children live in a world that will not be destroyed by climate change”
- “I have a dream that my work/job becomes a permanent machine for improving the world and its people”
Where and why was this practice created?
On January 21, 2019, a team got together in Atlanta-Georgia in the US for a week working together, face to face, attempting to initiate the solution of a very complex problem. Everyone on this team had already met before, they knew each other’s names and roles. Coincidentally this exact day was Martin Luther King Jr. Day and they decided to create a different icebreaker/Team Building practice to achieve both goals: celebrate MLK’s I have a dream famous speech.