Just Like Me: A 2-Minute Practice to Build Common Ground

We work alongside people for years and still mostly see their function: the demanding manager, the quiet analyst, the relentless salesperson. Roles flatten people into what they do, and the more senior or different someone seems, the harder it is to remember they're a person with the same basic worries and joys as you. Empathy grows from realizing how much you share — and "Just Like Me" makes that sharing impossible to miss by surfacing it out loud, fast, and together.

Why roles hide our common ground

The brain economizes by reducing people to categories — and "the boss," "the new hire," "that other team" are categories, not humans. Once someone is a category, you stop expecting them to feel what you feel. That distance is where most workplace friction breeds: we judge the role instead of understanding the person. The antidote isn't a deep heart-to-heart; it's a quick, repeated reminder of overlap. When you hear five colleagues say "me too" to "sometimes I worry I'm not good enough at this," the category dissolves and a person appears.

How do I run "Just Like Me"?

You need a group standing in a circle and about two minutes. No materials.

1. Stand in a circle. Physically forming a circle matters — everyone can see everyone, and the format signals equality rather than a presenter and an audience.
2. One person makes a simple human statement. Something real and relatable, not work-trivia: "Sometimes I feel nervous before presenting," "I've doubted whether I'm in the right job," "I get a little thrill when I check something off my list."
3. Anyone who relates responds together: "me too." Everyone for whom the statement is true says "me too" at the same time. Seeing the chorus — and who's in it — is the entire point. It makes shared experience visible in an instant.
4. Pass the lead around and notice the overlap. Hand the next statement to someone else, and continue around the circle. As statements accumulate, the group sees how much they have in common across roles, levels, and teams.

A worked example

A department with a slightly stiff manager and a few nervous new hires tries it before a workshop. The manager, taking a turn, says: "Honestly, I still get anxious the night before a big review." A beat — then half the room says "me too," including the new hires who assumed she was unshakeable. Someone else offers, "I sometimes feel like everyone else understands the strategy better than I do," and almost everyone responds. The mood in the room shifts visibly; the new hires stop treating the manager as a different species, and she's just admitted she's as human as they are. The rest of the workshop runs warmer and more candid — bought with two minutes of "me too."

When this practice is most useful

It's great as an opener for workshops and offsites, for newly formed or merged teams, and for any group where hierarchy or silos have created distance. It works especially well right before harder collaborative work, because the common ground it surfaces makes people more generous with each other. Keep the statements voluntary and light enough that nobody feels pressured to disclose something private — the goal is everyday, relatable overlap, not confession. Forced vulnerability backfires; gentle, optional vulnerability connects.

The takeaway

Job titles quietly turn colleagues into functions, and functions don't feel like fellow humans. "Just Like Me" reverses that in two minutes: one honest statement, a chorus of "me too," and the role melts back into a person. Run it before your next collaborative session and watch the room get a little kinder.

This is one of Funstorming's 100 quests — bite-sized soft skills methods you actually put into practice, not just read about. Try it, then bring your result (or your sticking point) to the Funstorming community of practice (CoP), FunHub | Your Soft Skills Playground.

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