19 senior individuals who work across several global locations are gathering over 2 days to discuss their global strategy.
I've been asked to provide some 'Team Building' elements to their event, including some activities they can do over dinner.
I'm doing the 'World Bank Game' with them during the day (a strategic, competitive, team building game that focuses on understanding aims, co-operating vs competing, trust and communication). This will flush out many of the areas they wish to discuss.
In the evening, I'm looking for something that will continue on this theme but is appropriate to use in the environment of a private room in a restaurant, and simple enough that they can run it without me present.
The aim is to get them co-operating and communicating with each other more. Operating as a single team as opposed to in silo's.
Any ideas my fellow trainers???!
All welcome (and also willing to share the World Bank Game in return!).
Laura
Laura Wright
10 Responses
Keep in Simple
Hi Lisa
My first inclination having read your agenda for their day is to keep any activities over dinner really simple. If your activity works then they will be relaxed enough to share ideas anyway and will probably enjoy some social chat.
What you could do is to organise moves between courses so that they get to talk to different people and with these moves you could give out a couple of questions which they need to ask each other. These could be along the lines of “what is the biggest challenge you have overcome” or “if you could go for dinner with someone famous who would you choose and why”
This way they can have some structure to get them started but can also get on with the important business of eating and networking without having to focus on heavy issues!
Christine
Dinner activity
Kite flying
Ask each of the managers to prepare a “kite”, an idea which they like and is on the edge of, or beyond normality for this company, something extraordinary that they would like to do in the company.
The only proviso is that the kite has to be designed to do good and benefit the company.
Their discussions over dinner are all about their kites and if they can fly them.
They may find a few kites they want to try out, more likely they will discover a few things about each other and the business which will be very useful in the future.
Good luck.
Nick
chinese whispers
Dare I suggest that, as part of the aim is communication, you play the good old game of “chinese whispers”;
Ask one person to tell the person next to him/her a message and say “pass it on”, they can see
a) how long it takes for the message to get back to the person who initiated it and b) what state is it in when it gets back!
Rus
Arian Associates Ltd
Email us for a copy of ‘Who goes to the Bull?’ exercise.
It is one you don’t need to be present at once you get them started and always generates a bit of fun and some talking points.
info[at]arian-associates.co.uk
Eating and Working Together
Laura, I have a handout that explains how to run a session called “Nail It” – it challenges people to see how many nails they can balance on top of just one Nail Head. Its a table top exercise
Email me for details
Jon at RedVanilla.co.uk
Teamwork and wine tasting?
Hi Laura – as I am sat here with a glass of wine I am reminded of an idea I came across and wanted to use but haven’t yet found the right opportunity – perhaps yours is it – although there will be a cost to it. It is a company which offers wine tasting ‘tuition’ and which can also tie it in with teamworking – communication, trust etc. I had a chat with them some time ago and was impressed by their approach. It seems like a good thing to be doing in an evening. If you are interested let me know and I shall see if I can dig out the details. [email protected]
Murder Mystery
Why not put on a murder mystery? Perfect for a private room in a restaurant and the murder can’t be solved without the individuals co-operating and communicating together.
It might involve some work for you beforehand and cost, but ultimately it will end their day with a fun activity whilst still focusing on your main aims.
Rebecca
Couraud http://www.couraud.com
Eating and working together
Hi Laura,
You seem to have some good suggestions already! However, here is another which may be useful. In advance ask each person to bring along a small object which they feel represents some of their personal qualities, and collect these at the beginning of the 2 days without the individuals talking about them or knowing who has brought what. Then at different times during their meal, maybe between courses and at the end, some of the objects are put on the table for the diners to look at, think about. Then, taking one at a time, people say who they think it represents and why. When the guessing is finished, the owner declares him/her self and gives their own reasons why they chose the object. Pity you wont be there to enjoy the evening.
Good wishes,
John
[email protected]
Reference, The Oxford Muse
Laura, On the same theme of interesting conversations, you may wish to check out The Oxford Muse. Theodore Zeldin has a wonderful ‘menu’ of conversation questions which have the dual outcome of enabling pairs of people to learn more about each other and themselves. You would need to do no more than provide the questions, then ask the diners to pick topics and partners at differetn stages of the meal.
a suggestion
Hi – I have a quick exercise – about 15 minutes – which uses food that might work as an activity you can use.
[email protected]