How to Improve Team Health with the One Thing Exercise

The “One Thing” exercise is a team health exercise we and lots of our clients undertake during our annual planning sessions. By gathering our teams together and allowing them to have open conversations and acknowledge strengths and weaknesses, we create a better foundation of trust and an environment with reduced stress. 

If you haven’t done so already, the “One Thing” exercise is a great way to encourage productive communication among team members in an organization. We’ll explore this exercise, the benefits, and how you can implement it in your organization today.

What Is the One Thing Exercise?

The “One Thing” exercise is a technique used for teams to identify the most important things they can do to improve team and/or company performance. This exercise gives team members the opportunity to have an open, honest, and constructive discussion about the work they perform and see what they’re doing well and what areas can be improved upon.

Some of the benefits of the “One Thing” exercise include:

• Improved focus and clarity
• Increased productivity
• Better team alignment
• Reduced stress

Conducting this periodically can be beneficial for team leaders and members. It’s particularly useful when you’re gearing up for other impactful events that determine the trajectory of your organization’s future, such as annual planning.

When to Run the One Thing Exercise

The One Thing Exercise is one of the more impactful team health exercises that you and your team can conduct. We recommend running this exercise after completing starter exercises like The Five Dysfunctions of a Team and Personal Histories. These exercises help us dip our toes in the water before engaging in deeper work.

Because your Senior Leadership Team is already together in one place, your Annual Planning Meeting is an opportune time to run the One Thing exercise. The One Thing exercise opens up communication so your team can explore each other’s — and therefore, the entire team’s — strengths and weaknesses. By discussing these things openly, you can pave the way to creating a high-trust company. 

How to Conduct the One Thing Exercise

Conducting the “One Thing” exercise is quite simple. Here are the steps to run the One Thing exercise:

Step 1. Answer the Following

If you have a coach, let them facilitate. Otherwise, recruit someone on your team ahead of time to run the session. The facilitator asks the team to take five minutes of quiet time to answer, in writing, the following two questions about each of the other team members:

1. What is their most admirable trait?
2. What is the One Thing you want them to either start or stop doing for the greater good of the team?

Step 2. Start With a Leader

To help set the tone, we recommend starting the exercise with a well-known leader within your organization. This is an intentional move, as their willingness to participate helps others feel comfortable with their own vulnerability.

Step 3. Ask for Complete Honesty

The facilitator asks the team member: “Team member name, are you ready to receive truthful, specific, and constructive feedback from your team?” The team member can verbally confirm that they give the rest of the team permission. The facilitator asks them to hold questions until all have shared, and can also remind the group that the exercise is helping create a healthier team.

Step 4. Share Admirable Traits

The facilitator asks each person to share what, in their opinion, is the team member’s most admirable trait. Comments should be directed at the team member.

Step 5. Share the “One Thing”

Once the “admirables” have been shared, the facilitator asks each colleague to then share the One Thing they would like to see that team member start or stop doing in the coming year for the good of the team. 

Step 6. Take Notes

The facilitator reminds the team member that it's okay to take detailed notes.

Step 7. Ask Clarifying Questions

Once everyone has shared, the team member now has the opportunity to ask any clarifying question. Even if they don’t agree with some of the comments they heard, the team member should not argue or debate. The purpose of clarifying questions is to clearly understand what was shared. 

Step 8. Repeat for Every Member of the Team

Go around the room until everyone has received feedback. 

Step 9. Review

Once everybody’s answered the two questions about everybody else, the facilitator gives the team 3–5 minutes of quiet time to review the answers they heard and pick one of the “start or stop doing” options they’re willing to commit to. You can also give your teams time to reflect on their answers by having them share their one thing either during day 2 of your Annual Planning Meeting or at the next weekly meeting. Sometimes your colleagues will merge one or two of your recommendations into their one thing. That's okay as well!

Step 10. Sharing

When ready to share, the facilitator asks everybody to verbally state their commitments using the formula: “During the next year, I commit to stop or start…”

Step 11. Commitments

The scribe captures these commitments and puts them in a place where they can be tracked. To help keep track of these commitments, we recommend adding a short-term issue called “One Thing” and having regular check-ins on team members’ progress. Then, during our quarterly meetings, we move them to the long-term issues list to discuss our progress. 

Why Is the One Thing Exercise Important?

The One Thing exercise is a great framework for elevating human relationships. It allows everyone on your team to recognize the hard work and trustworthiness of their fellow team members. By reflecting on our colleagues’ most admirable traits (and also taking a moment to hear about our own), we can recognize all the talent and hard work at play. 

This self-discovery exercise not only helps us better understand each other but deepens our level of self awareness and awareness of those around us. Even more importantly, the exercise allows us to reflect on things about ourselves we don’t often notice via open, honest, and constructive feedback from our peers.