Organizational Development for Knowledge Management at Water ...

Relationship Building 1
Processes for building relationships within Utilities at all levels and areas throughout the
organization.
Supports: individual learning, knowledge sharing, dialogue
LEVEL OF EFFORT
SIZE OF UTILITY
SCOPE OF WORK
LOW
SCALABLE
NARROW
The best organizations—and the teams and communities in those organizations—are built
upon strong relationships. Relationships typically form naturally from working together over a
period of time. However, a relationship-building exercise can speed up the process and
strengthen relationships already developed. Two sample relationship building exercises are
provided below: Connecting with Community Members and What's the Moral of the Story?
Connecting with Community Members
This exercise is designed to help build personal relationships between and among members
and to begin to answer the questions: What do we know? What do we need to know? Who
knows it? It can be effective with groups from 5-40, and takes from 20-60 minutes depending on
the group size. Needed props include: a set of blank, individual, member factoid cards strung
together on a loose ring - perhaps a community key ring! Each member should have a blank set
with a blank card for each member.
Cards have Community Name and Member Name on one side. On the other side they have
the following outline:
Member name:
Organization:
Best way to contact:
Best time to call:
Previous interesting job or organization:
Top knowledge need:
Fun Fact:
Follow the steps described below:
1. Organize participants into groups of four to six. Adjust according to total number of
members.
2. Explain that the goal of this activity is to learn about each other's unique backgrounds
and perspectives as well as getting to know each other better.
3. Give each participant a set of blank factoid cards.
4. Explain the directions:
Subgroups should convene for 10 minutes to complete factoid cards.
Each member completes own factoid cards.
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