Facilitation Techniques and Workshop Activities | Library

The win-win game

You will choose, as a team, which letter you will select from either X or Y. On a signal from the banker, you will show your chosen letter. The banker and the teams keep a tally of debits and credits.

Each must select 'X’ or ‘Y' in each round. Money is awarded or taken by the banker according to the scoring key below. Play as many rounds as is necessary to find a winner.

Tower of Power

team teamwork communication leadership teambuilding skills

This teamwork activity requires participants to work closely together to build a tower from a set of building blocks.

The players need to coordinate their actions in order to be able to move the wooden blocks with the crane they have, and this can only be solved by precise planning, good communication and well-organised teamwork.

You may use this exercise to emphasise the following themes and outcomes:

In Leadership training: identifying interdependencies in systems, leadership communication, dealing with risk, giving feedback
In Team building: communicating effectively, cooperating, being an active listener, maintaining the balance, working with values
In Project management: simulating strategic planning, working under time pressure
In Communication training: meta communication, facilitating, dealing with different perspectives

Virtual High Five

icebreaker energiser fun bodymovement

Virtual High Five - energetic icebreaker for online groups

Lightning Decision Jam (LDJ)

action decision making problem solving issue analysis innovation design remote-friendly

It doesn’t matter where you work and what your job role is, if you work with other people together as a team, you will always encounter the same challenges:

Unclear goals and miscommunication that cause busy work and overtime
Unstructured meetings that leave attendants tired, confused and without clear outcomes.
Frustration builds up because internal challenges to productivity are not addressed
Sudden changes in priorities lead to a loss of focus and momentum
Muddled compromise takes the place of clear decision- making, leaving everybody to come up with their own interpretation.
In short, a lack of structure leads to a waste of time and effort, projects that drag on for too long and frustrated, burnt out teams.

AJ&Smart has worked with some of the most innovative, productive companies in the world. What sets their teams apart from others is not better tools, bigger talent or more beautiful offices. The secret sauce to becoming a more productive, more creative and happier team is simple:
Replace all open discussion or brainstorming with a structured process that leads to more ideas, clearer decisions and better outcomes.

When a good process provides guardrails and a clear path to follow, it becomes easier to come up with ideas, make decisions and solve problems.

This is why AJ&Smart created Lightning Decision Jam (LDJ). It’s a simple and short, but powerful group exercise that can be run either in-person, in the same room, or remotely with distributed teams.