Retreat activity

A 60-minute retreat activity for getting to know each other

Need a session for Saturday morning that isn't another icebreaker? Everyone takes two short journeys on their phone, then uses what they find as a way into real conversation in small groups. It suits youth groups, young adult groups and church staff retreats. The whole plan is on this page, and you can run it tomorrow without anyone signing up.

Time

60 minutes, or about 45 if people take the journeys beforehand.

Group size

Enough to form circles of 3 to 5. Without sign-in, SkillTree sets no limit on numbers.

Cost and sign-up

Free. The journeys need no account; only the optional team map needs sign-in.

Age

For ages 14 and up for now. If your youth group has younger students, check first.

What to prepare

• Take both journeys yourself first. It takes about seven minutes.
• Check the signal or Wi-Fi at the venue. Opening a journey needs a connection.
• Post the two journey links in your group chat ahead of time.
• Sort people into circles of 3 to 5 and pick someone to lead each one.
• Bring paper and pens, and print the questions or get them up on a screen.
• Decide now how anyone without a phone joins in. They can simply answer the questions.

Which journeys to use, and why

A journey is one of SkillTree's short self-discovery quizzes. This plan uses the two from the "Who we are" track.

Step by step

1. 0-5 min

   Set the tone

   Try something like: "Nobody's being graded today. Your result isn't the truth about you, just a way to start talking. Share as much or as little as you like."

2. 5-15 min

   Take the journeys

   Core Values, then Social Energy, in quiet. That's about seven minutes, with some slack. Anyone done early can read their results.

3. 15-20 min

   Write it down

   Three lines on paper: the value at the top of your list, one thing that rang true, one thing that didn't.

4. 20-40 min

   Circles: values

   In circles of 3 to 5, each person takes about three minutes on questions 1 to 3. Listeners listen. No fixing, no advice.

5. 40-50 min

   Circles: energy

   Talk through questions 4 and 5. Each person names one way the others can look out for them for the rest of the retreat.

6. 50-60 min

   Come back together

   Each circle shares one sentence with the room. Everyone writes an answer to question 6, then close however your group usually does: prayer, a song, a few quiet minutes.

Discussion questions

1. 1When you saw the value at the top of your list, what moment came to mind?
2. 2What did your result get wrong about you?
3. 3When has this group lived that value well? When have those values pulled against each other here?
4. 4Where do you get energy, and where do you run out fast?
5. 5What's one way people here could look out for you this weekend?
6. 6What's one thing you want to do differently when you get home?

Make it fit your group

• Only 45 minutes: have people take the journeys before the retreat and start at the writing step.
• A big crowd: add more circles and hand the questions to circle leaders in advance. Hear back from only a few circles at the end.
• Want it closer to your group's life: reword a question in your own language, such as "How does what you put first show up in your faith?"
• Someone doesn't want to share a result: tell everyone upfront that answering the questions alone is fine.

Before you run it

• This is a tool for reflection, not diagnosis or counseling. Please don't use results to label people or decide who serves where.
• If someone shares something heavy, don't try to explain it with a result. Make time to listen, and connect them with a professional if they need more support.
• It isn't built on any particular faith or denomination, and a result says nothing about the depth of anyone's faith.
• Answers are scored in the browser and kept there. When a result opens, the answers are also sent once to our server to score and make a share link, and aren't stored. What's stored is the link, holding scores and result titles, with no name or email. The Korean version hasn't been separately validated.
• No group has run this plan yet. The timings are our estimate, built from how long each journey says it takes. If you try it, tell us what happened at hello@playskilltree.com

What's kept and how to delete it: the privacy page.

If you also want the team map

If people agree, you can see everyone's results together on one screen. Results appear next to names, so ask before you put it on a projector.

1. 1The day before, sign in, open My tree → Groups, create a group and post the invite link in your group chat. A group holds up to 30 people, you included, and one person can make up to 10 groups, so a larger gathering can split up.
2. 2Everyone opens the link and signs in with Google or an email link. Opened inside a chat app's own browser, Google sign-in can fail; if it does, open the link in Chrome or Safari, or use the email link.
3. 3Check the name field before joining. It comes filled in with the part of the email before the @, so ask people to change it to a first name or nickname.
4. 4Take the journeys while signed in and each result saves on its own. Anything taken before signing in saves the next time that person opens My tree.
5. 5On the group page, everyone ticks what to share under "What I share with this group" and taps Save. Joining shares nothing until they do.
6. 6The team map appears once two people share the same journey, and it shows each person by name. "Present on a screen" turns it into slides for a projector or TV, ending with three questions to talk over.
7. 7Once three people are sharing, Claude, an AI model, writes a team reading: strengths together, where you might rub, and one thing to try. Those names and results are sent to Anthropic to write it. It's rewritten each time what's shared changes, up to three times a day per group, so it can end up missing the last people to tick. If so, open the group the next day for a fresh one. This plan works without it.

Other session plans

• Team building activity · A 60-minute indoor session for staff, project and mission teams
• Career class activity · A 45-minute Holland code lesson for students 14 and up