Teamwork Activities and Games

This exercise can be used as a warm-up for project and other planning processes. It can also be used in team building.

Purpose: People and Teams need to reflect as part of learning and innovation. Reflection can reveal strengths and areas for improvement. During the transition from one year to the next, we tend to focus on what's coming up in the new year.

Planning ahead and creating goals is important, but let's not forget to reflect on the previous year to learn from our experiences and get focused and deliberate about the future choices we make. After the Reflection, there is a gratitude and intention-setting option.

The river crossing game is one of many simple games that gives your group the chance to sharpen their problem-solving skills while having a bit of fun. Participants need to cross an imaginary river as a team and they need to get all members of the group safely there.

Arguments, presentations, strategies, or other plans are sent to other teams for deconstruction in order to find gaps or problems.

Organizational life is full of paradoxes. It looks as if you always get contradictory advice. For example, one manager suggests that all your training should be on the Web. Another manager extols the virtues of classroom teaching. In a situation like this, it is useless to ask, “Which is better: online learning or instructor-led learning?” The answer is invariably, “It all depends.” In the complex real world, the effectiveness of any strategy depends on the context. For example, training effectiveness depends on the content, objectives, learners, technology, and facilitators. In order for you to come up with the best strategy, you must explore the advantages and disadvantages of conflicting guidelines.

That's what BOTH SIDES helps you to do.

Offers insights into the needs that different team members have for information and detail, how people like to work in either a structured or unstructured approach to problem solving and change, and how quickly and slowly people are willing to move ahead with a plan based on how much they know and understand about the solution.

Name Juggling is another variation of a try-to-learn-everyone's-name but the game guarantees high energy level as well as some strategic thinking.

Met een CLD maken studenten inzichtelijk welke factoren van invloed zijn op een probleem.

Een Causal Loop Diagram is vaak onderdeel van een uitgebreidere toekomstverkenning. Lees de oefening Scenario-analyse voor een overzicht van alle opdrachten die hier onderdeel van uitmaken.

Als voorbereiding op een projectplan of toekomstverkenning kunnen studenten hun probleem eerst doorgronden met een Causal Loop Diagram (CLD). Dit diagram kan worden gebruikt als wetenschappelijke basis voor een verder analyse en uitwerking.

Vaak wordt het maken van een CLD tijdens een werkgeroep gekoppeld aan een schrijfopdracht waarbij studenten de verdere analyse zelfstandig uitwerken. 

This is a group activity that explores group dynamics, team-building and creative problem solving. It is also a lot of fun. A team of any size has the challenge to prepare a dinner for themselves and their peers, with limited resources and limited time. It works well with new teams as an exercise to help them bond, but it can also be effective for the development of experienced teams.

What is going on inside a group? Have we paid attention to all voices, both the quiet and the loud? Is everyone on board or are some lost at sea?

Temperature Check gives an instant visual overview of the thoughts and feelings of every group member around a specific topic, and from here, creates an opening for deeper conversation and understanding. At best, a non-threatening way of addressing the elephant in the room.

A rapid game of name learning with probably a lot of funny moments. Besides it teaches particiapants how to communicate and strategize in an effective way without being  explicit about these goals.

9 Dimensions is a powerful activity designed to build relationships and trust among team members.

There are 2 variations of this icebreaker. The first version is for teams who want to get to know each other better. The second version is for teams who want to explore how they are working together as a team.