The carpet is set up so there is one safe pathway which the first team's leader negotiates, and then takes his team across. The configuration is changed (allegedly) - then the second team leader negotiates the pathway and then attempts to lead his team across - except the pathway is discretely changed, causing confusion, and lots of learning - about taking risks, the "unfairness" of change etc.
Keith Paine
4 Responses
maybe this’ll help
Keith
I’ve never heard of the exercise or come across the carpet but Maplin sell the pressure sensitive pads for under £6 a pop!
Rus
http://www.coach-and-courses.com
Is this the one?
Hi Keith,
This exercise is new to me too, however this is what I found when I searched on the internet.
http://www.buildingteams.com/teambuilding_activity/teambuilding_games/magic_carpet.htm
Hope it helps,
Sarah
An expensive resource
Hi Keith
This I believe is an American product and costs several thousand pounds – I experienced this at a training conference some years ago – Nationwide building society use it as part of their customer service training (or at least they did).
I will try to contact a colleague who used to use this and get some product details.
When I first saw this ‘kit’ I was so taken with the exercise and activity – but my budget at the time would not allow me to buy/ hire one for my company so I made one from rolls of felt and used soft toy squeakers to go in each pad – some had the noise element removed.. providing a safe path – others did not, each was in a pocket and was easy to change.. very ‘blue peter’ but it got the message across to our people.
Future Factory ?
This used to be sold by a company called Future Factory, and I’ve used it and several other of their products many times. They are very good. However, when I went to their website it doesn’t seem to be there. Maybe drop them a line ? I’ve got no connection with them these days, but still use their kit sometimes for team development. If you find it, could you let us know as it’s excellent for exploring comms issues.
Peter Dunn
http://www.authentic-dev.co.uk