by Sam Brock

This team-building exercise is not for the faint of heart or sane of mind. It is designed to show your team how the same words mean different things to different people based on their expectations.

Have your group close their eyes and begin to imagine they are taking a trip to Anyplace, USA. It is an ordinary town, nothing spectacular, but not run down either. It would best be described as average. Everything just seems normal. Encourage the group to let a few pictures come into mind and to envision some of the places in this town. Can they see the welcome sign as they enter town? The group stops at the welcome sign to get a picture. Do they notice the details of the welcome sign? How tall is it? Is it painted? What else is around the sign? Next the group travels into town and asks a citizen about a good place to eat, and he gave the group directions to Anyplace Café. Walking into the café, everyone in the group notices the décor. After sitting down, a server takes each person’s order. The group finishes eating. What was the food like? Was anyone tempted to get dessert? Would anyone come back? What was the server’s name?

With our staff, we did a few areas in town and then went to Anyplace Camp and let them imagine what the camp was like. When asking your team to imagine, make sure you do not put images in their heads but make sure you ask enough questions that they look around in their imagination. Even the use of town or city may have an impact on their expectations. Your goal is to get each person to come up with his own expectations of what is normal or regular. Next, take some time to allow your team to compare notes of what Anyplace looks like. Hearing the details of what goes on in some of your staff member’s minds can be hilarious. Once it is obvious that everyone had a different idea of what Anyplace looked like, take time to discuss a few lessons to be learned.

▪ Some people have very low expectations, and others have very high expectations. To insure that our ministry meets everyone’s expectations we must side on the higher expectation.

▪ People’s expectations are based on many of their childhood experiences. What they expect is often what they learned to expect.

▪ For some people, cleanliness is the most important thing. Does our ministry meet or exceed people’s expectation?

▪ What areas of our ministry provide beyond people’s expectation, and what areas are below? (We spent time talking about the fact that at Any Camp, USA, when you got up in the morning and looked out the window you noticed big pine trees. We don’t have many of those at our location; and, therefore, it is not what people expect.)

This is a great exercise to allow you to talk about some of the pros and cons of your ministry in such a way that it doesn’t get too personal. This may be a great way to open up a conversation about a specific area in your ministry that really seems to be lacking. Remember this exercise is only for the brave of heart and certifiable of mind. Use at your own risk.