Morten’s better ice-breaker: “The Museum Question”

Morten Rand-Hendriksen, whom I met during my time as a Microsoftie, has a brilliant “ice-breaker” question that’s perfect for those group intro sessions, where everyone’s trying to get a feel for all the other people in the room.

The question:

A museum calls you and says they want to feature you in their permanent exhibit. But there’s a small catch: They only have room for one artifact, and you only get to choose once. What do you send them?

The answer for me would seem obvious — an accordion — but the question then becomes: Which one? The answer to that question is “The first one”, pictured at the top of this post. It’s the one I took out onto the streets of Toronto on May 1, 1999 and started this whole thing rolling.

What would your artifact be?

(Be sure to read Morten’s article on the topic!)