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Mars Surface Rover

The Mars Surface Rover team building activity is fun as well as educational. The activities provide a convincing demonstration of how different leadership styles affect both the leaders and the teams they lead. It does this by having teams, under the guidance of different leadership styles, build a motorized model of a vehicle designed to travel on Mars. Facilitative leadership, which entails teaching others to lead themselves, has become an important force in moving to team-based organizations. The Mars Surface Rover allows participants to experience first hand the difference between facilitative and traditional or passive leadership. Everyone is involved in the process, which elicits great energy, fun and learning.

Black Bear

Illustrate the concept of team synergy with Black Bear, a challenging adventure simulation that addresses formulating a strategy under pressure and consensus decision making. Participants experience first-hand the advantages of teamwork when they are asked to rank 10 backpack items and choose one of five strategy alternatives, first as individuals and then as a team. The concept of synergy is conveyed when the team results are shown to better those of an individual working alone.

The Scenario

On an early-morning hike in North Carolina’s Great Smoky Mountains, your group stops to enjoy some blueberries growing along the trail. Just when someone spots a small black bear cub, the mother bear lunges from the bushes and attacks — with near-fatal results.

Can you work as a team to save an injured person’s life — addressing five strategy options and ranking 10 backpack items?

Black Bear is the ideal training tool for any group that works in a high-pressure environment. Inspired by HRDQ CEO Brad Glaser’s six-month hike of the Appalachian Trail, this survival adventure also incorporates expert information from many books on the Smokies, wilderness survival, and backcountry rescue, in addition to the input of Buck Tilton, director of the Wilderness Medicine Institute, Inc.

Learning Outcomes

· Learn how to manage and resolve group conflict

· Hone group problem-solving skills

· Improve communication

· Discover the advantages of consensus decision making

Theory

Appalachian Trail, Black Bear demonstrates the concept of team synergy — the belief that decisions made by groups are better than decisions made by individuals acting alone (Michaelson, Watson, & Black, 1989). Groups bring a greater sum total of knowledge and information to the discussion of a problem, as well as a greater number of approaches and perspectives. Black Bear can also demonstrate “process loss.” This phenomenon occurs when a knowledgeable group member outperforms the group, indicating that the member’s knowledge was lost sometime during the group discussion. In order for group decision making to work, unique information must be shared and absorbed by the group (Stasser, 1992).

How It Works

This realistic roundtable simulation challenges groups to rank five strategy alternatives and 10 backpack items — first as individuals, and then as a team. First, as the facilitator, you’ll introduce the adventure scenario. Participants will then rank the alternatives and items on their own, using pressure-sensitive scoring forms. Next, each team conducts the same ranking process as a unit. Finally, you’ll lead the participants into a group action planning discussion, providing the team with the opportunity to apply the learning to the workplace.

Synergy Quest

Synergy Quest creates an atmosphere in which team members feel comfortable to explore their own beliefs and are encouraged to step out of their comfort zone. By utilizing activities that raise awareness and build trust, the participants walk away with a clear understanding of the strength of a team, and the increased productivity that can be achieved by using the human resources available to them. Four key areas are explored, trust, motivation, communication, and collaboration. These areas are reinforced through a series of experiential activities.

Understanding Work Styles (MBTI)

Understanding Work Styles utilizes the highly reliable Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) instrument, which gives an individual some clear clues regarding their preferences and tendencies on four bipolar personality dimensions. The results of this well-developed test provide insights on how we take in data and give it meaning; how we make decisions, judgments, and take action; where our source of personal energy comes from; how we prefer to interact with the external world. The results indicate each individual’s strengths and unique gifts, while also pointing out vulnerabilities and areas for personal development. Within groups, the MBTI is useful to help recognize and value differences among individuals, so that the strengths can be combined and some interpersonal difficulties may be more easily overcome. The workshop will provide opportunities to examine and practice a variety of applications of Type awareness.

Parker Team Player

The Parker Team Player Program is ideal for departmental or cross-functional teams. The goal is to help ordinary people achieve extraordinary results through teams. Versatile and easy-to-use, the Parker self-assessment helps individuals identify their preferred team player style—contributor, collaborator, communicator, or challenger—and discover the role they can play to maximize their contribution to overall team performance. Combined with a 360-degree feedback survey, a companion video, and dozens of teambuilding tools, this is an excellent workshop for use in any setting.

Jungle Escape

The adventure begins when teams learn that their airplane has crash-landed in a remote jungle. To survive, each group must build an escape helicopter using spare parts, a diagram, and limited access to a completed model.

Learning Outcomes

Discover how teams function: Fragmented, Divergent, or Cohesive

Learn the group-process skills vital to effective teamwork, including communication, decision-making, problem solving, conflict-resolution.

Experience first-hand the impact of planning on group results

Understand the effect of individual behavior on group productivity

The New York City Hunt

A half or full day mission to visit all the appropriate locations around New York City to collect all the items needed to achieve success.

Take advantage of taxis, subways, horse and buggy and whatever transportation is required to travel around the city and complete your mission.

Answer trivia questions based on movies, music and pop culture with a New York City theme.

Collect required items.

Capture pictures of your team completing various assignments in a variety of locations.

Available Assessments

Myers Briggs Personality Assessment
Thomas Kilman Conflict Resolution
Parker Team Player
Emotional Intelligence Appraisal for Individuals
Emotional Intelligence Appraisal for Teams