You Have More In Common With Your Co-Workers Than You Think

In an exercise here at the radio station, I learned I have more in common with my co-workers than I realized.

During a regular staff meeting of air personalities, sales people and business department people here at the station yesterday afternoon, the twenty or so of us that work here at the station (yeah, we're a pretty lean staff) were broken up into four small groups. I believe the following exercise was designed to get all of us talking to each other because we rarely get to interact between the departments because our jobs are so different.

Being an air talent, I'm always in the studio and usually on the air, while our sales people are out on the streets selling commercial time so it's rare we all interact on a usual basis. We were all broken into four different groups and each group was tasked with coming up with five things we all have in common. A task we thought was a bit challenging at first, but once we got into it it was rather easy.

Once we had our five commonalities, we told the other groups what our five were and we heard their five. What was funny was to hear the commonalities between all the players and how each group approached it. Some were practical while others were funny, whimsical and far reaching.

I won't tell you which group I was in, but the following is a list of commonalities our four independent groups came up with:

Group 1 commonalities

• All like coffee
• All have a dog
• All have a sibling
• All love to eat
• All are U.S. citizens

Group 2 commonalities

• All work in media
• All can drive
• All love to vacation
• All like football
• All love it when 5 p.m. comes around
• All love live concerts

Group 3 commonalities

• All like to fish
• All drive big vehicles
• All love movies
• All have sisters
• All have been on a boat
• All work at Townsquare Media
• All have been on a cruise
• All shower
• No one has been scuba diving
• All own a gun
• All cook at least 3 times a week
• All have had a surgery

Group 4 commonalities

• All have traveled by plane
• All can change a tire
• All have been to the Pacific Ocean
• All have been on stage
• All have been to a therapist

All in all, it was a pretty fun exercise that brought us all together to learn that although we have very different jobs to do for the company we all have commonalities that bond us together.

Try this exercise with your office and let us know what commonalities you come up with.