The Relationship Triangle is a team building activity that helps teams understand interpersonal dynamics and improve collaboration. It focuses on three key elements of relationships: thoughts, feelings, and actions.
What is The Relationship Triangle?
The Relationship Triangle is a model visually representing the connections between our thoughts, feelings, self awareness, and actions.
It suggests that these three elements influence each other in a continuous loop.
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Background
The Relationship Triangle activity is commonly used in team building workshops to help team members:
- Recognize how their thoughts, feelings, and actions impact relationships.
- Improve self-awareness around triggers and reactions.
- Develop empathy by understanding different perspectives.
- Enhance communication, trust, and psychological safety.
Benefits of Using The Relationship Triangle
There are several benefits to using the Relationship Triangle in team building:
- Illustrates connections: Shows how thoughts, feelings, and actions interconnect and influence each other.
- Builds self-awareness: Helps people identify personal triggers, biases, and habitual reactions.
- Develops empathy: Allows people to see things from others’ perspectives.
- Enhances communication: Provides a framework to express thoughts and feelings productively.
- Identifies patterns: Helps teams notice unproductive cycles of thinking, feeling, and reacting.
- Promotes reflection: Encourages thoughtful responses instead of knee-jerk reactions.
- Strengthens relationships: Fosters trust, vulnerability, understanding and strengths and weaknesses between team members.
- Improves collaboration: Helps align thoughts and actions to shared goals and values.
Workshop Objectives
The objectives of using the Relationship Triangle in a team building workshop are:
- Increase self-awareness and emotional intelligence.
- Foster understanding of different perspectives.
- Improve communication and conflict resolution skills.
- Develop empathy and strengthen relationships.
- Promote a culture of psychological safety and trust.
Resources Required
To facilitate the Relationship Triangle activity, you will need:
- Printed Relationship Triangle templates for each participant.
- Pens and markers.
- Flipchart or whiteboard.
Facilitation Strategies
Strategies to effectively facilitate this activity include:
- Explaining the purpose and ground rules.
- Using examples to explain the model.
- Encouraging storytelling and vulnerability.
- Asking thoughtful follow-up questions.
- Summarizing key insights and learnings.
- Leaving time for reflection and discussion.
Instructions
Follow these steps to facilitate the Relationship Triangle activity:
- Introduce the purpose and Relationship Triangle model.
- Distribute templates and pens to each participant.
- Share a situation or conflict and identify thoughts, feelings, and actions associated with it.
- Ask participants to map out their own scenario following the model.
- Discuss in pairs or small groups. What insights emerged?
- Debrief as a large group. What was learned about self and others? How can this be applied?
Limitations
Potential limitations of the Relationship Triangle activity include:
- Participants may resist vulnerability or sharing personal issues. We hear this from customers that regularly use of our training courses.
- Activity requires time for in-depth discussion and reflection.
- Does not address broader organizational culture issues.
- Success depends on skilled facilitation and group norms.
Conclusion
When facilitated effectively, the Relationship Triangle provides a structured way to improve self-awareness, empathy, communication, collaboration, and leadership qualities within a team.
By examining the intersections of thoughts, emotions, and actions, team members can gain valuable insights into their relationships and how to strengthen them.
This activity lays the foundation for building greater trust, psychological safety, and alignment within teams.
Be sure to also check out the iron triangle of project management and the rhetorical triangle.
With 30+ years of experience, Catherine Fitzgerald, B.A., M.A., PGDip, founded Oak Innovation in 1995. Catherine received her Bachelor’s degree and Master’s from University College Cork. She holds qualifications in Professional Development And Training from University College Galway. She is completing a second Master’s from University College Cork. Since 1995, clients include Apple, Time Warner, and Harvard University.