Guess the Sentiment

Another game with words perfect for holiday settings. This time – Guess the Sentiment!

Okay, technically, not necessarily a sentiment, but also a feeling, quality, or even a skill – no need to nitpick!

I love playing this game in all team settings, whenever we’re working on team spirit, communication, and cohesion through assertiveness, awareness, and emotional intelligence.

Though primarily intended for teams, this can be easily adapted to different groups that share a certain level of familiarity, such as classes, friends or family settings.

Participants draw one of the “sentiment” cards above and need to describe it through a specific real-life situation they associate with it. The others then try to guess the “sentiment” they had in mind.

Participants are not allowed to use the exact words written on the cards or their synonyms. If someone can’t give a specific example, they put the card aside, face down, and discuss it later as a team. Alternatively, these cards can be reshuffled, and the participants can have another take on them.

Since this is a long-form activity, not all the cards need to be discussed, as usually one round will suffice to achieve meaningful insights in a team of five or six members.

It’s important to note that there are no right or wrong answers here. The idea behind this game isn’t really to guess the sentiment, but rather to discuss and raise awareness of how we perceive certain situations that happen to all of us.

For example,

• Do we all share the same point of view of this situation?
• Would anyone have felt this differently?
• If yes, how/why?
• How else could this situation have been perceived?
• Is there something we can apply to similar situations in the future?

Remember, the point is not to force discussion but rather to let insights surface naturally.

Download the cards here and have fun sharing!