This is an excellent exercise, that brings out the need for different parts of the business to work together collaboratively. Co-operating isn’t enough to be completely successful in this exercise – they need to fully collaborate and problem solve as well.
I use it as a first exercise on any kind of collaboration course, stakeholder management training or team building event. When I use the activity, I change the name to the Department Parts Exercise. I’m also very careful to never call the exercise a game. Instead, I set up the exercise by explaining that I am a senior director that manages 6 small departments. They will be representing one of those departments. I have a goal for each department and I hope that as many as possible of my team complete their goal.
I think it is important to stress the above, and I have changed the Team Brief to reflect this, as the original talks about games and playing. The exercise leads to individual competitive behaviour, as if they were playing a board game. The more it is set up as a game, the delegates can resist the learning, saying that they behaved like they did, as it was a game and they wouldn’t act like that at work.
By stressing that they all work for their real organisation, representing different departments and that you want as many of them as possible to achieve their goal – reduces any resistance.
After each round, I pause the exercise and ask them to analyse their behaviour and what they are doing. Even with stressing in the setup, that this is a real work exercise – many go into I want to win and make you lose mode.
Through the reviews, at the end of each round, the group go from competing with little communication, to co-operating with lots. Once they are here, you can take them up a level to collaborative problem solving, to ensure every department achieves their goal.
With the tweak, of moving from a game to an exercise, this is a 5 star exercise and I highly recommend it.
|
Andrew Kitton
rated this item with 5 stars.
|
|
A brilliantly simple yet impactful activity.
I used this recently with a group of contractors who needed to work more collaboratively on a project. As a facilitator it was quick to prep and set up and the results were intriguing. Despite the fact we'd been talking about collaboration, once the activity started, everyone reverted to a competitive approach, assuming that the only way to "win" was to trick or outdo the rest of the group. Info was hidden, incorrect messages were shared as the group all got very excited about out doing each other. Only after the debrief, and a discussion about "how well did you work together", followed by a response of "what... we could work together?" did the penny drop and a brilliant conversation followed.
Would highly recommend.
|
Caroline Sargent
rated this item with 5 stars.
|
|
This is a great ice-breaker to use at the beginning of a day of team building or where you are trying to break down silos. It doesn't matter whether you are starting from a position where fellow team members distrust one another, or where there are already collaborative. Either way the exercise shows quickly the limitations in having only your own interests at heart and of failing to understand the other person's position or perspective.
|
Paula Cook
rated this item with 4 stars.
|
|
What a fantastic exercise. I couldn't believe how well it worked and the fact it created a lasting legacy with the group. I used this on day one of a two day course. Everything seemed to be working smoothly until one participant decided to "stitch-up" one of their colleagues. From this point, everyone became suspicious and the exercise became more like "cheat" than anything else. The review of the exercise generated deep thought in the group and most agreed this provided an excellent life-like comparison to some areas in their work place. What was really interesting was the impact the suspicion generated in "The Department Game" had on another exercise completed on day two of the course. Two teams working in separate rooms were working to a achieve a common goal. However, due to the "cheats" in "The Department Game" there was no trust between certain members of the teams and consequently, both groups failed to achieve their task. I will definitely use this game again and would recommend others to do the same. Many thanks for finding / developing this Rod and the Team in Glasstap. Andrew Pickin, Director, Motiv8 Development Ltd
|
Andy Pickin
rated this item with 5 stars.
|
|
I used this on Tuesday with a group of team leaders and it was interesting how they focused on the detail of their own needs rather than the bigger goals of the collective. They put rules where there weren't any and general trading one part for another. It was only after going round a couple of times that they 'got' it and starting dealing to help others as well as trading 2 for 1. Really interesting and great discussions afterwards that enabled them to see how easy it is to focus just on their issues and not what is going on with other teams they interact with. Great exercise.
I will be using this again. Thanks
|
Previous Member
rated this item with 5 stars.
|
|
The Negotiation Game is brilliant it gives a great opportunity to improve team relationships and understand how to break down barriers from other teams instead of actively working against them to achieve their own objectives.
My team were shocked at the end of the session to see how far they went in being obstructive and how frustrating it was for everyone. It generated massive emotion and debate.
The outcome is they have set up a weekly team meeting to catch up with each other to discuss workload, issues, problems and plan who is able to support. They are also visiting other dept meetings to discuss how to achieve success for all.
Excellent session.
|
Karon Campbell
rated this item with 5 stars.
|
|