The ability to adapt in a changing environment is a crucial trait for high performance teams and employees.
This activity below is a guessing game in which participants will switch teams frequently.Guess and Switch
Time: 10-20 minutes
Purpose: Participants get comfortable with constantly changing teams and allegiances; also they will see how ineffective yes/no questions are.
Participants: 5-15 people
Materials required: None
- Divide the group in half. The teams gather in opposite corners of the room.
- One participant from each team leaves the room. Together, their task is to quickly pick any object in the world.
- They return to the team opposite the one they left.
- Each team then asks the participant questions to determine what the object is. They may ask only questions that can be answered with “yes” or “no.”
- When a team guesses the object, they clap their hands to win the round.
- Both participants, who originally left the room, now join the winning team.
- Each team selects a new participant to leave the room for another round.
- Play continues until one team captures all members or until a predetermined time limit is reached.
Summary:
- How did you feel when your team started dwindling? (Nervous, threatened, more competitive, frustrated, etc.)
- How did you feel as your team started to grow? (Excited and energized, superior, confident, glad to be part of a winning team, etc.)
- How did you feel when you had to join a different team? (Reluctant, not welcome, excited to be on the winning team, etc.)
- Did you find a pattern of questioning emerge that proved successful for the team?
- What kinds of questions could we have asked to guess the object quicker? (How is this object used? What is the object’s size and shape? And other open-ended questions.)
- What implications does this activity have for us back on the job?
