App-based Activities 

Bringing the cows home was excellent for these managers whom need to be goal directed, attend to detail and accuracy, and individuals who need to apply their logical reasoning ability. It also immediately brings out the team work and co-operation between participants. Bringing the cows home was very challenging and they had to communicate constantly in order to get to their answers. These participants were very specific in their work and were very sure that the routes they identified were precise and accurate. They were wrong and double checked! (Checking up on why they had less routes than the answer sheet indicated took a bit long, but they even got a method in order to check why their answers differed from the training program's).

Loved 'Bringing the Cows Home'. It was a delight for staff who had no idea what was coming and a great opportunity to get them working in their new teams. The game was involved without being too daunting and the range of problem solving techniques all came to the fore. Great fun, educational and terrific for team building and attention to detail. Interestingly nearly every group didn't read the brief properly!

I use this exercise regularly to start off a module on Problem Solving for first-line managers. It has proven to be a very effective lead into further discussions on the problem solving process. Most delegates find themselves jumping straight into the exercise without first analysing the problem or discussing alternative strategies for solving it. I have to say that very few are successful in getting close to the right answer in the time allowed, but they usually have fun trying and always draw out some excellent learning points that we refer back to as we progress on through the module.

I joined a little over one month ago and recently used the team building exercise Island of Opportunity at a senior managers three day transformative conflict/mediation workshop. I chose this activity as an evening event on Day 2 because the exercise allowed for team building, some fun and laughter after two days of role-playing conflict scenarios, and it also contained key learnings for trainee mediators. Specifically the exercise-

- was aligned with the general workshop content (negotiation, understanding of needs and collaboration to reach a solution Vs aggression and conflict provoking tactics).

- allowed for team building as some participants did not know one another but worked in the same unit.

- provided light relief after 2 full days of discussing conflict which produces low energy in the group.

- can be used to discuss cultural aspects of teams/organisations and how they might deal with differences/disputes.

I provided a bag of wigs and party hairpieces, beads and other materials for those who wanted to create their own ‘tribal’ attire. Each of the teams in the exercise (4) used the gear or made their own tribal dress. No coercion on my part to dress-up. The exercise worked very well and completed the day with a huge amount of fun. I left the debrief until the following morning (Day 3) when everyone was a little more focussed!

Very versatile exercise with good learning points for teams and you can use it with or without the hairpieces.

I used Island of Opportunity for team negotiating on a Negotiating skills course recently. I had teams of two representing each of the tribes who arrive on the island and need to decide how to divide it according to their needs. I found it worked really well and better than a previous team negotiation I had used on this course. Island of Opportunity really helps the negotiators to think about what everyone’s needs are and to negotiate according to need in a problem-solving way, instead of taking up positions. Occasionally, they were in danger of taking positions but the brief provides enough information to enable them to think of ways to barter and that reinforces the idea that you may have something you can offer easily which will be valuable to the other side. It provided some good learning points for team coaching, as the new information being offered by other tribes in the negotiation prompted discussion between team members, and helped them to realise the need to present a united front. Everyone enjoyed it and I was able to give lots of good feedback about the constructive negotiating behaviours they had displayed.

I have recently used the Island of Opportunity Excercise as part of a training session incorporating Influencing and Persuasive Techniques. I used this excercise at the end of a day long session and it certainly help embedd their knowledge and it was an excellent way for them to hone the negotiation and persuasive techniques that were learned during the earlier training session. I am planning to incorporate into our Communications Course as our staff got a huge benefit. I look forward to running more sessions with this really fun and easy to adapt excercise.

Island of Opportunity has provided a really useful exercise within an assertiveness course. It allowed delegates to practice being more assertive through negotiations and pulled out some very interesting and useful learning points.

I was in the middle of designing a 3-day sales training course when I ran out of inspiration for exercises on negotiation skills. I decided to check Trainers' Library and I came across "Island of Opportunity". I have now been using this exercise for about 10 months as part of the sales training induction for new outbound and inbound starters.

Island of Opportunity opens up my 3-day sales course as it is a great icebreaker and it really gets people talking to each other. On the other hand, it also allows me to get to know all my delegates quite in depth; it is really easy to spot the quiet ones, bossy ones, argumentative ones, logical ones, etc.

I really like the fact that delegates have a lot of fun with this exercise while learning the skills that they will need in order to sell and negotiate with both internal and external customers. The debriefing questions suggested at the end of the exercise are extremely effective at highlighting the key learning points of the activity. All in all this is one of the best exercises I have ever used and as a result I have also used it as part of Negotiation Skills training and Coaching Training for Team Leaders, as the Island is fantastic at ensuring that participants realise the importance of communication skills and understanding other people's point of view.

Many thanks for a great activity!

The delegates found being part of a tribe was fun. The brief does state to start the activity with as little explanation as possible, I did explain the basics of the activity and found that some were confused by this; in future I will give them the information and leave them to work it out. This activity works better for people who do not know each other; there is more scope for aggressive negotiation, rather than group discussion.

I wanted an exercise to embed the importance of effective meetings that took delegates outside of their normal working processes and helped them to identify the importance of understanding others, questioning skills to identify facts and listening skills in order to interact within a successful meeting environment. To meet my needs I chose Murder at Glasstap Grange.

As this was the first time I had used such a significant piece of work in a course I was nervous at whether the key messages would be landed. What I found was a robust piece of training that was simple to facilitate and backed up with quality guidance in implementing, as well as support in unpacking the exercise. I would not hesitate to use it again or recommend this material. Excellent.

Murder at Glasstap Grange can be used as both team building exercise and a way to identify leadership skills with individuals. I used it as part of a leadership workshop. Once the delegates had worked out [the twist] a clear leader came out and took direction of the group deciding what should be done. If you split the delegates into two groups it can become quite competitive. It is also useful to see how a team works together. Some people just guess at the answer and others spend time trying to work out logically who is the murderer.

The exercise was well explained and extremely adaptable to any situation. I work in a Mental Health Care setting, and in addition to the team/management issues already covered by your material, my staff came up with new and very pertinent ideas, such as the role of Stigma in society. In this exercise, many were convinced that the secretary was the killer, and most cited her criminal record as being crucial in convincing them that she was the killer. This taught us a very relevant point, that even in settings where people believe themselves to be aware and immune to the danger of stigmatising people because of their past, we are also in danger of falling into that trap. It also gave us some insight into the thinking of people outside our organisation and how they may tend to judge our patients because of their history.

We have used Murder at Glasstap Grange a number of times in college and our staff love it! They turn into detectives and get very involved in the task. The feedback we get is that they enjoy the task and also realise the rationale behind it and the fact that they have got to communicate to work together to be effective.

We have used Murder at Glasstap on several ocasions for events such as away days, team building and communication events. It is an effective tool which enables the group to learn key points on communication and team working in order to solve the mystery. This exercise is one that we will continue to use due to the positive feedback and comments we have received. The exercise can be used for various group sizes.

The plenary sessions after the exercise have been extremely effective. We have focussed on areas such as communicating with peers and the the differing roles that people play within groups. It has also been effective in looking into people's styles such as reflector, activist etc.

I would recommend this to any organisation.

I recently used this resource with a large team on their first team development away day. It was hugely successful and great fun to do. The team was a large one, newly created and not very familiar with each other and each other’s style and preferences for working. The exercise provided ample opportunity to get into all of these issues.

I split the group into four smaller teams of 6 to run the exercise.

The timing suggested was perfect and kept the teams interested and working well. The hand-outs were clear and easy to read. All four teams got into the spirit of it right away.

One team solved the murder - just in time. One nearly got there and the other two were way off. None of that really mattered though, it was the discussions we had afterwards that really emphasised the value of the exercise.

We covered:

1) Communications and communication style.
2) Influencing others and allowing oneself to be influenced despite one’s better judgement (going with the flow, going with the majority).
3) Sharing of information and making assumptions about everyone’s level of knowledge and understanding.
4) Problem solving approaches.
5) Time and process management.

That’s pretty good value from one exercise. In addition though, I had done a Belbin team role exercise earlier in the day and it gave everyone the opportunity to spot the different team roles in action and provided food for thought about how the team could use its Belbin profile to best advantage.

At the end of the event, the team all went to the pub and took me along with them. It was interesting how much the conversations related to the exercise and the fun they had whilst working on it.

A by-product of all this is that I’ve been asked to run it again for a number of other teams in the organisation because they’ve heard the team members talking about it in the workplace since they got back from the event.

So, thank you for an excellent product which helped me to deliver a first class event. I wholeheartedly recommend it to anyone thinking of using it.

Recently we were asked to facilitate a session for a large team and were given very little detail as to what was required apart from that it should take around 1.5 hours and it should be interactive and fun. I stumbled accross the Trainers Library and was instantly attracted to alot of the icebreaker/team building activities. We were able to narrow down the many choices we had available, and our "client" loved the idea of the Murder at Glasstap Grange. The session was a huge success and the feedback we got was that the activity "met the brief of been fun and had some great team working lessons. It was also an excellent choice for groups that don't always work together as it got them working together quickly." This was something that we had never tried as a Learning and Development Team, but we are very pleased we gave it a go. Word has spread because we only just recently were asked to faciliate the session again to another team in our Organisation! Thanks for a great site and great ideas..it makes the process of finding something unique and fun much easier for us.