The School of Life Collaboration Cards is a tool for helping people work together better: 52 exercises designed to build empathy, insight and trust between colleagues.
Intended to transform the atmosphere in teams, it prompts people to participate in a range of tasks and thinking exercises that strengthen their ability to cooperate and lend them insight into how others’ minds work.

In a playful and often entertaining way, this toolkit aims to achieve something critical: the creation of a team that can work seamlessly and imaginatively together.

How to Use the Cards

1. Gather together a group of colleagues or teammates.

2. Select a number of exercises at random from the box and complete as instructed.

3. At the end, discuss ways you might change how you work together in the light of what you’ve been doing.

Example Cards

Strength Appraisal

Everyone should write down what they see as the key strength of every other member of the team (for example, that they’re empathetic, organised or tenacious). Then, going around the room, every team member should have their perceived strengths read out to them. Look out for any common themes that emerge and think about how the wider team’s perceptions might differ from your own.

Unscrewing Screw-Ups

Take it in turns to share the biggest mistake you’ve made at work – for example, deleting the file for an important presentation, placing an expensive order for the wrong type of printer ink, or forgetting the name of a major client during a meeting. Let the team suggest what lessons might be learned from the screw-up, and how the experience might have been beneficial in the long run.

Details

The School of Life at Misc-store Amsterdam

At Misc-store we carry three Writing as Therapy Journals: Journeys, Night Thoughts and Projects. We also carry their prompt cards for confidence, self knowledge and even career crisis, and we love their books on Small Pleasures.

The School of Life is devoted to developing emotional intelligence through the help of culture. We address such issues as how to find fulfilling work, how to master the art of relationships, how to understand one’s past, how to achieve calm and how better to understand, and where necessary change, the world.

We love The School of Life because their items make a great gift for ourselves and others. Back in 2013 we started with a range of The School of Life items in store, and we are so happy that we can extend our range with all their new items, focusing on the job we have, appreciating small pleasures and the things that might go unnoticed.