| Game |  Opener |
 Team-building |
| Categories: | Energizer |
Review |
| Communication |
Topical |
Purpose: To help participants get to know one another beyond name and job title.
Time Required: 20 to 30 minutes.
Size of Group: 6 to 10.
Materials Required: Paper and writing utensils for all participants.
The Exercise in Action: Michael Mezack, director of continuing education and associate professor of educational psychology and leadership at Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX, asks participants to draw a line on a piece of paper (or several pieces attached end-to-end, if necessary) representing their lives to date. At the far left end, participants fill in their year of birth. The other end is marked with the present date.
Participants then record important life events along that line— personal, professional, or simply interesting—with an eye toward illustrating what brought them to where they are today.
Next they take turns explaining their lifelines to the group. It might be wise to set a time limit per person if time is a factor, Mezack says. Afterward, participants may post their charts on classroom walls for others to review at their leisure.
To get people started, Mezack displays and explains his own lifeline, making it clear that people may be as candid or reserved as is comfortable. This technique, he says, is especially useful in smaller groups, since explaining the lifelines can take several minutes per participant.