Management Games Handouts for MHRDM Students of JBIMS

Management Games

Management games are widely used in training programs and team building for a variety of reasons. Team-building activities are usually fun; however, fun is not the primary focus of any team-building activity. Each activity is designed to help your group together as a team in one way or another. Moreover, each activity has one or more specific focus objective through which it learns behavioral traits of the participants. Team-building activities are encapsulates remedies for fortifying team spirit within a group.

Competition can energize, excite and challenge people to do better. In competition you should consider:

· Current level of competition in the team

· Emotional health of participants in dealing with defeat.

· Your ability to diffuse conflict amongst the team.

Teambuilding exercises can be really fun, rewarding and productive. Seeing those creative sparks of learning something important can be every exciting. Stick with it, be patient and you will see great results after a few such activities.

Before we get to the activities let us understand the three phases of how to run an effective team-building activity.

Before the activity, learn how to decide which activity is best for you and your team.

During the activity, learn how to set up the activity for success giving clear instructions, getting your participants to want to take part in it and making sure they know what to do and how to do it.

After the activity learn how to make the things learned during the activity come alive in the work place.

Games can be of great use in team-building.

· Build new teams and help teams assimilate new members

· Deal with change

· Recognize individual efforts and team accomplishments

· Find creative ways to work together and problem solving techniques.

· Leverage diversity and individual differences to meet team goals

· Keep communication healthy and productive.

· Improve communication systems

Getting Ready

· Select a relevant activity

· Prepare for the activity

· Explain the Activity to the Team

· Check for understanding before beginning

· Run the activity.

· Debrief the activity.

· Reinforce the learning back on the job

Step 1 - Select an activity that is good for your team.

The best team-building activity can become the worst team-building experience when there is no clear objective. Why spend the time, effort and money on an activity if you cannot identify the business reason or team benefit you expect as results.

Start with a clear objective in mind, your goal should be:
Attainable by your team
Relevant and applicable to where they are as a team right now
Something that will be reinforce long after this activity.

Step 2 – Prepare for your team-building activity

Make sure you are clear on what is to happen and when , why and how? Visualise the activity happening successfully.

Obtain all necessary material and check to make sure they will work well for the activity.

Setup the room, if the activities rules and step are lengthy have them written down or posted in the form of standing instructions so that everyone can see them through out the activity.

Step 3 – Explain the activity to the team

An introduction to the game is required. People engage better when they know why they are doing something. The also participate better when they understand all the rules upfront and when they are clear on exactly what is expected out of them.

Explain why you are doing this particular activity. Share with the team what you hope to accomplish within the stipulated time. Distribute the materials after you have explained the activity.

Step 4 – Check for Understanding before beginning

You should clarify misunderstanding with patience and some simple review questions. You can keep competition from getting out of hand by lying down a few ground rules, but they must be agreed upon upfront.

Make sure your team understands your activity by asking “what questions do you have”. When the activity will result in one or more winners make sure everyone is clear on what criteria will be used to determine who wins. When you are confident, everyone understands the activity and is ready to go, ask one last time, “what remaining questions you have before we start?”

Step5 – Run the activity

Letting the team go through the activity and possibly even fail, may be difficult for you to let happen. Remember the activity is a low risk alternative to letting the participants learn from failures on the job! People learn and retain better when they experience better rather than when they just hear them.

Once they begin the activity, see that they are following the steps or rule. Make yourself steps or redirect the team. Walk around and watch for opportunities tohelp the team succeed.

Through out the activity, watch for things that you will ant to bring up later during the debrief.

Don’t stop the activity, unless it really runs a muck.

Step 6 – Debriefing the activity

The debrief is the most of the critical part of the team-building activity. It is the time when effective questions will guide the participant to link what they experience in the activity with their behaviour on the job. If this step is skipped or gloss over, most of the impact of the activity will be lost in a matter of days. If you do debrief well, the lessons learnt during the activity will stay with the team indefinitely.

The questions for each activity, should lead the team to the conclusion you want them to reach without you having to spell it out for them. Not everyone would respond to question. If you see the action that suggest this agreement, ask, “does anyone disagree”. Repeat or quickly summarise each response offered. If anyone gives an off the wall response or one that is just claimed wrong, ask the group how they feel about it rather than correcting someone. This technique will keep it safe for all participants to continue answering questions without a fear of a reprimand from you.

Step 7 – Reinforce the learning back on the job

With your help, the activity can continue teaching the participants long after it is over. Reminding participants of the activity and keeping the lessons learned alive will extend its impact. Keep your team focused on behaviours that support the kind of team you are trying to build.

Display anything that the team created for the activity back in the work place. Each time they see the sculpture, flip chart or cardboard structure they will be reminded of what they did, how it made them feel and what it thought them. If any new term or special words came up during the activity use them frequently.

Refer to the activity and lessons learned often when you are coaching giving feedback or conducting staff meetings. Plan follow-up activities that will reinforce, emphasize and build upon what was learnt this time. Watch for examples of how the participants use what was learnt in the activity and got better results. If you can quantify how their actions are benefiting the organization, call it out for them and others as evidence of success.

In the following team-building exercises, participants will learn to demonstrate different spokes of team spirit from listening and influencing, working together as a team, developing problem solving techniques together, to appreciating and supporting each other. They will also learn the values of change and coping with change with their support team.

Games Used

Ø PUZZELED THUMBS: Dealing with change

Ø JUNK TO JEWELS: Appreciating and Supporting each other

All the above are small simple games that will build groups that can work together as a team, deal with change, solve problems together, support and appreciate each other and thrive as winners in varied environment.

PUZZLE THUMBS

A puzzle activity in which the rules for puzzle assembly change half way through the exercise

Participants will experience the value the information has when dealing with change.

They will also see their own reaction to change are normal and manageable.

Use this when…

· The group is experiencing lots of change at work.

· Individuals need to be creative about finding efficiencies despite constant change.

· Individual needs to understand that most reaction to change are normal and often take time to work through

Rules of the Game

Ø Divide the group into 3 teams

Ø Give each team a puzzle, have them separate all the pieces and place them face up on the table. No puzzle piece may be touching any other puzzle piece to begin.

Ø Time the team assembling the puzzles

Ø Now inform the team that thumbs may no longer be use in assembling the puzzle. Each time a thumb is used, one minute is added to that teams final time.

Ø Time the team assembling your puzzles

Ø Repeat this 2 more times; the team should try to improve their assembly time.

Ø After 3 rounds, compare time and discuss.

Discuss

Ø Feelings and expressions during the first round

Ø Feelings and expressions during the last 3 rounds
Ø Reaction towards change

Ø What could have been done to make the last 3 rounds more productive for the team (a watch for whether the group focuses on what they could do or control)

Ø Implications back on the job: how does having information about changes help you cope at work.

Processes developed to cope with change

Variations to the game

Tell half the group the reasons for the thumb rule and not the other half. Compare the differences in attitudes and times between the groups.

The task can be something other than puzzle – towers of plastic building blocks, house of cards, etc.

Make it more team focused by recording only the time of the slowest team. The teams will learn to share best practices with each other to better everyones time.

Blindfold only one person on each team but allow only that person to still use his or her thump then understand how did the team work around with blindness and leverage the available thumb.

JUNK TO JEWELS

An activity in which participants take work related items and demonstrate how they reflect what each participant contribute to the strength of the team.

Participants appreciate their own and each others contribution to the teams success.

Use this when…

Ø A significant project of work effort is beginning
Ø Individuals are not feeling confident about their abilities to get the job done
Ø Individuals need to bond together

Rules of the Game

Ø Have each participant select an item that best represents what he or she feels or he or she feels has to contribute to the teams success.
Ø Have each participant share with the group why he or she choose the object they so did.
Ø Now give the team 5 minutes to make a new sculpture using the contributions of each of its members
Ø The final sculpture should show how the individual path would come together to strengthen the team and ensure success.
Ø An array of items commonly found in your work environment i.e. paper clips, pens, erasers, calculators, coffee mugs, rubber bands would be required
Ø Have more than each items on the table so that several participants can choose the same object for different reasons.
Ø Team sizes should represent intact work group

For Example

“I choose the calculate because I tend to be very analytical. I like to find solutions. I get more from the search for the answer than I do from the glory of having found it.”

“I also choose the calculator, but for me, it is because I am very detailed focus. Approximation and guesses are not good enough for me. So I will attend to the details for this group.”

Discuss

Ø Why is it that the same item meant different things to different people.
Ø Thoughts while incorporating of all the objects into the sculpture (I wasn’t sure how the stapler could be included; I wanted the pen to be more central; I was more concerned with the finished product)
Ø Implications back on the job: every individual of a team is a bundle of strengths and weaknesses. We need to strengthen weaknesses and capitalize the strength.

Variations to the game

You can make this activity more personal by having the participants select the items that best reflect their personality and then explain why.

Make this a development activity. Have the participants select the items that best represent what they want to develop in themselves.

Management Games the Opener and its Role in Training
Management games are widely used in training programs and team building for a variety of reasons.
What are Openers?
When people, particularly strangers, enter a training room, they may feel tense and uncomfortable with each other. It is vital, however, to the success of a training program that participants feel comfortable in the group and receptive to the learning environment. Openers are excellent vehicles for helping learners evolve from isolated individuals into an effective team.
Why use Openers?
The purpose of openers is to provide a game environment that develops interpersonal and knowledge-based skills within a framework of teamwork. When participants cooperate on a task, they reveal to each other, and often to themselves, a bit more about their attitudes, skills and abilities. Utilizing these skills is essential if a team is to maximize its effectiveness and those of the individual team members.
Four Functions of Openers
Openers contribute four basic functions to a group:
1. Individual development - by encouraging alternatives, coping mechanisms and thinking.
2. Team building - bonding through the completion of a task.
3. Networking while becoming acquainted.
4. Icebreaking - reducing tension and breaking the link with the workplace by focusing the learners' attention in the classroom
Basic Types of Openers
Openers provide participants with an excellent opportunity to communicate.
1. Openers that get people talking to each other. These openers don't have to be course related and should be very short. It often helps to have learners gather in different parts of the room because people prefer physical movement to being "chained" to a chair or table.
2. Openers that generate familiarity and cooperation through successful task completion. Tasks should require that all team members work together on a solvable problem. Successfully solving a problem together makes participants feel good about themselves and about the group as a whole. Successfully completing a task also prepares them to take a constructive attitude to whatever they are subsequently asked to do.
3. Openers that introduce concepts upon which the course will dwell in greater depth. These openers introduce behavioral examples that can be used to help achieve course objectives. Here, the facilitator must accept that he or she has relinquished control of the situation to some extent and cannot predict exactly what will happen.

Time Allocations for Openers
A class as short as one hour will benefit from a five minute icebreaker. A three-hour class calls for a ten-minute opener. A full-day class, a twenty-minute opener with another ten-minute opener after the lunch break. Multiple-day sessions work best with a twenty-minute opener on the first day and a ten-minute opener on each succeeding day.
Example: "Worst Day Ever"
"Worst Day Ever" is a simple icebreaking opener that can help participants network while building teams, and it only requires a blank sheet of paper and a pen for each group. The facilitator asks teams to collaborate in building "worst day ever" scenarios. The first person starts with, for example, "I didn't sleep very well last night …" the next person adds a phrase, for example, "My alarm didn't go off this morning …" and each participant adds a phrase until the day is complete. Each group then shares their day with the others in the room and the facilitator leads a discussion about all of the stresses that can build up when learning new information or performing in new ways after a training session.
Other Management games
This range of management games can be used to achieve specific purposes or to fill a slot in a conference or workshop.
Prisoners' Dilemma
The Prisoners' Dilemma is a well known trust game which helps teams to understand about working together for a win-win outcome. It isolates the components of trust and demonstrates the concept of win-win to bring greater understanding of the processes involved in building, maintaining, losing and regaining trust. It also provides an insight into positional and principled negotiation.
Space Ship Shortlist
This game can be used to teach decision making or negotiation skills, or to investigate attitudes to diversity and challenge stereotypes. It has been designed to alert participants to the danger of allowing prejudice and emotion to get into the way of negotiating a logical decision. It can be played at several levels of emotional involvement.
Hollow Square
This game can be used to help teams understand the impact of communication between those who develop plans and those who have to implement them. It also highlights helpful and not so helpful behaviours when planning, assigning or completing tasks. Teams that regularly work on problem solving will find the game useful for alerting them to factors that encourage or restrict effectiveness. It can be played at several levels of complexity.

WHAT COULD GO WRONG IN A TEAM-BUILDING ACTIVITY

It is natural to be concerned about what could go wrong in a team-building activity. Below are the most common fears and problems, facilitators face running such activities.

PROBLEM: Resistance to participate

OBSERVATION: Lack of eye contact or rather negative body language.

Negative comments about the activity or team building in general.

Direct comments that they do not want to participate or direct refusal to participate.

Suggestions for an alternative activity.

CAUSES
Past team building exercises that were unpleasant or unproductive

Not understanding the purpose or the value of the activity.

Shyness of fear of being embarrassed. The activity does not sound worthwhile.

PREVENTION:

Be clear about the purpose in activity when you introduce it to the group.

Be sure the purpose of the activity is one that is needed or valued by the group. Reassure the group that everyone will be a part of the activity and no one will be single.

If you expect resistance from a particular individual, privately approach him or her before hand to gain his or her commitment to participate.

PROBLEM: Understanding directions

OBSERVATION: Confused looks

Participants asking each other what to do.

Participants not doing what is expected.

Nothing happens when the activity begins.

CAUSES:

Direction were given out of order.

Side bar conversation distracted attention.

Directions were too length and not posted.

Directions were given too fast and poorly explained.

PREVENTION:

Pause after each direction to let it sink in.

Repeat what seems like the obvious when u give direction.

Speak slowly as you explain the activity.

PROBLEMS: Participant gets overly competitive.

OBSERVATION: Activity being taken to seriously

Bending the rules or even cheating

Extreme efforts to win or do better than others. Overly discussing the activity afterwards with the focus on missed opportunities.

CAUSES: A naturally competitive environment in the work place.

Naturally competitive people.

Too much focus on the activity rather than on learning.

PREVENTION

Focus the groups activity’s purpose and learning goals when introducing it.

For a naturally competitive group select activities that encourage team work or that have less of an element of competition built into them.