How to do effective introductions

Have you ever sat through a round of introductions where forty people each say their name and job title, one after another, and by the end you can barely remember your own name, let alone anyone else’s! Or maybe you’ve been in a small group workshop where the facilitator skipped introductions altogether, leaving everyone wondering who else was in the room! It’s happened to us too many times, so in this episode we thought it was time to explore effective introductions.

The opening of any group session sets the tone for everything that follows. What we do signals what kind of space this is going to be, whether people feel safe to participate, and whether the facilitator actually knows what they’re doing. We’re often working with farmers, growers, and advisers who might have driven hours to be in the room or who have given up time on-farm to join. So we can’t afford to waste time, but we also know that introductions are important. 

Introductions help people feel psychologically safe before even thinking of content and discussions. And we know connection is important. The idea of connection comes from organisational consultant Peter Block, who argues that relationship and connectedness are important for learning and change, and that every meeting or training program has to help get people connected first, because otherwise the content falls on deaf ears. This means before we get to the content we need to help connect people to each other and to why they are there.

So it’s not the right approach to run a fun activity that has nothing to do with why people are in the room. The best introductions help people connect and they help us focus on why we’re there. Mark Collard from Playmeo talks about the importance of introductions that serve the program’s goals, not just its social temperature. Chad Littlefield notes there’s a lot of educational psychology research that suggests when people feel connected and related to each other, it creates communication shortcuts and builds trust.

Introductions are not all the same! The size of the group will shape what’s possible. With smaller groups, we can go deeper and possibly get more personal. In larger groups, we need to think about the time we have and how to get everyone participating. But for both of these, the idea of setting up the meeting or activity well, and connecting, before launching into content is key.

Let’s start with small groups. In groups of up to around 12 people, it’s a bit more straightforward. We can use introductions that are slightly more reflective or story-based. One idea is to go around the group and invite each person to answer a question along with their name, role, and location. We could ask ‘What’s one challenge you’re currently facing related to this topic?’ or ‘What are you hoping to take away from today?’ That’s pretty standard and people can answer a question like that easily. Chad Littlefield has some great question cards, called We Connect cards, that we’ve talked about in a previous episode. We often use these to find a good question!

We can also use picture cards which means people get the chance to tell more of a story. We’ve also shared these in a previous episode! Usually we ask participants to choose a card that represents something about the topic we’re focused on. And then as part of their introduction, they share the card and what it means to them. It’s pretty amazing what people share as part of this and helps everyone get to know each other.

Another option is getting people into pairs. Even with a small group this can be useful as it helps quieter more introverted people to feel comfortable and ready to share in a bigger group.  One thing to watch though is this can still take a lot of time, even with a small group! 

Now, let’s talk about larger groups. Once we get more than about 15 people, a let’s-go-around-the-room exercise takes much more time. We know it’s still possible to do it quickly but you need to prep and give people time to think. One way is to get people into pairs to start with, allowing them to introduce themselves and answer the question, and then do a quick round the room.  

Another option is split into small groups. For example at a large conference, if people are seated at tables, we can ask each table to introduce themselves to each other and then agree on one or two key points to share with the wider group. This helps people connect with those around them and reduces time for reporting back. Remember that introductions don’t have to be long. Think about asking ‘What is one thing you are hoping to take away today?’ or ‘In one word, sum up what you do’ or ‘in one word, how’s the season going for you’ or ‘in one word, what do you think about the topic?’

For really large groups, we think any activity that gets people moving is a great idea. We’ve used this a lot with large groups we’ve worked with, such as the APEN conference in Tasmania a few years ago. To do this, we invite everyone to stand on a continuum (like a human number line) based on how far they’ve come to get to the activity. Or we can ask them to create a human map of where they’re from. We might also ask them to stand on a continuum based on how confident they feel about the topic we’ll be discussing. We might have a list of categories and we call these out and ask people to find others who are in the same category (like farmers, advisors, or growers of different crops). If we do this a few times, we help people see who’s in the room and who’s like them! At the end of each of these activities, we can ask people to introduce themselves to those around them, so it builds connection.

And what about online? Well, the same rules apply. Use breakout rooms and get people into pairs or small groups. Ask questions and get people to respond in the chat. 

Some other tips we think are useful are:

• Match the process to the size of the group and the time we have. Don’t just default to what we’ve always done, design something that works for that activity.
• Make sure we get everyone talking. Jeanette Long once told us that everyone needs to have spoken in the first 10 to 30 minutes, out loud. If they don’t, they’ll be more likely not to actively engage in the activity. 
• Keep introductions relevant and tie questions to the purpose of the session so it’s not just a random activity! We may have mentioned this already, but it’s important.
• Model the tone we want. Our own introduction sets the standard. If we’re open and human, others are more likely to be as well.
• Acknowledge contributions. A simple thank you is good!
• Think about the questions we use. The best ones let people share something at the surface or they can go deeper, but the choice should be theirs. That’s why we like the We Connect cards because they allow either. 

Before we finish, we want to be clear that skipping introductions altogether is not an option! It might be tempting because we don’t have a lot of time, or because there’s a lot of people in the room. But we think that while skipping introductions seems efficient, it means that people are less engaged, and less inclined to participate. Remember, it doesn’t have to be long, but it does need to happen!

We’ve shared our thoughts, now it’s your turn! Drop a comment below with your tips and ideas on effective introductions for different activities and groups. We’d love this to be a conversation as your experience is useful. 

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