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.