Over time, I have many frustrations with team building as I overview the global marketplace and look for ways to REALLY impact people and performance.

Why? Because my 40 years of working in the marketplace finds so many organizations do really lightweight things that are more team bonding than team building and they are expecting heavyweight results. Sad. Sad that expectations will not match actual results.

So many think that doing some simple exercise will generate improvements and behavior change and improve organizational performance. And then, they get frustrated with no results for the expenditure of time and money and they then conclude that team building doesn’t work.

And they are RIGHT, sort of. The things they do are not DESIGNED to work to generate organizational improvement. They are packaged as a solo event and there is no structured followup or any intrinsic design to change any behavior. Worse, in my opinion are that so many “games” are designed to try to have a WINNER, not understanding the reality that with one winner, there are MANY LOSERS.

How things often work with team building games and different teams in the workplace

When one searches AI for example, one does not find really good team building games but a lot of junk stuff more along the lines of team bonding activities and things that work only for small groups or things that are not easily debriefed. Popular, sure, but effective? There was Big Hubbub 30 years ago around “Fish,” if you remember back then. Yeah, the concept and visuals were FUN, but then what? Implementing with Fish was impossible.

Note: I see a good team building game as something that generates behaviors that can be debriefed and discussed effectively, and where discussions will generate a likelihood of organizational change or team development. The best games, in my opinion, do NOT have winners, because having winners means that you are generating losers. The best games can involve large groups and generate serious discussion of issues and opportunities.

My flagship teambuilding exercise, The Search for The Lost Dutchman’s Gold Mine, was released 30 years ago and it continues to be the world’s best package focused on collaboration, based on hundreds of testimonials. (read more here)

I searched Perplexity for any information on our Japanese translation of my exercise. We know from 30 years of global use that Dutchman is the best game in the world focused on collaboration among teams and is designed for corporate use. Zipangu is the game set in Japan, and has been successfully used there since 2005 by my colleagues at Work Happiness, Inc.

More on Frustrations with team building

So many designs have no measurable results against which to evaluate performance or see what needs improvement. In Dutchman, we measure many things just like you would do in your organization. We can spot gaps and see what is lost when teams don’t collaborate, for example. You can see how we approach measuring performance in a different blog.

Here is what Perplexity said when I asked it about the best teambuilding game designs: It starts: “I can provide information about some team building activities:”

Helium Stick is a popular team building game that combines creative problem-solving and communication. Here’s how it works:

• Organize teams of 8-10 people (minimum 6 per team)
• Use a thin dowel rod held horizontally at chest height
• Participants must lower the stick to the ground as a team without losing contact
• The challenge arises because the stick tends to rise due to the collective upward force of everyone’s fingers

This activity reveals interesting team dynamics and encourages problem-solving skills.

(Scott’s thoughts:  Really? This game is going to change organizational culture and be something to generate good debriefings over the coming weeks to focus on implementing improvements?)

and

Marshmallow Challenge is a more effective team building exercise:

• Teams must build the tallest free-standing structure using spaghetti, tape, string, and a marshmallow
• The marshmallow must be placed on top of the structure
• Teams have 18 minutes to complete the challenge
• It encourages creativity, problem-solving, and teamwork under time pressure

(Scott’s comments:  Really? This is the first thing I will think about doing at our next senior manager retreat when we talk about improving engagement and fixing the issues around competition and interdepartmental problems? This is going to address our problems with silos and make our managers focus better on improving communications and motivation?)

Is this game really going to change organizational culture and be something to generate good debriefings over the coming weeks to focus on implementing improvements?

Other Team Building Activities that Perplexity highlighted:

• Snowball: An energizing ice-breaker activity4
• Celebrity Party: A 30-60 minute low-difficulty game4
• Non-Verbal Improv: A quick 10-20 minute exercise4
• Rock, Paper, Scissors Tournament: A simple 5-10 minute activity4

…and it did it with the comment that, “these activities can help teams bond, improve communication, and develop problem-solving skills in a fun and engaging way.” But aren’t these more like icebreakers than actual organizational development tools?

SO many team building games do NOTHING to address the actual problems around performance and motivation.

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Marshmallow Challenge suggests asking these kinds of questions for a debriefing (from Perplexity):

• What did you enjoy about the challenge?
• What was the hardest part of this challenge? The easiest?
• How did you feel as the time limit approached?
• Was there a designated leader? How was leadership determined?
• How did your team organize its approach?
• Did all team members actively participate? If not, why?
• How were decisions made within the group?
• What was your team’s strategy?
• Did you plan before building, or did you start constructing immediately?
• How did you divide tasks among team members?
• Did your strategy change during the challenge? Why?
• Were all ideas well-received during the activity?
• How did you handle disagreements or conflicts?
• What worked well in terms of collaboration?

These are a LOT better than 95% of the other stuff I have seen online, but is it solid enough for people to stand on as they push their organizations and teams forward? Is it going to generate better decision-making or improvement in the understanding of our shared goals and missions and visions?

Do you want to run a Marshmallow Challenge or a Helium Stick with your top management team to demonstrate the value of the services you provide through your HR Department? 

Let’s create more intrinsic motivation to use going forward: If It Is To Be, It Is Up To Me!

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Debriefing any exercise is crucial to maximize its learning potential and the possibilities of change. And the Search for The Lost Dutchman’s Gold Mine is designed as, “an excuse to do a debriefing” and it comes with 300 debriefing slides, quotes and ideas to help participants choose to change organizational behavior.

FUN is Fine. But should it be the main focus when you are addressing organizational development needs?

Personally, I think there is way too much thinking that we need winners for a game be motivational. Cooperating and collaborating are much more aligned with what we want in our workplaces. 

And, having solid business metaphors is the best way to help anchor the learning and retention of key desired outcomes and learning principles.

Lastly, managers need to have exercises and training designed to be discussable in the context of implementing improvements

 

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For the FUN of It!

Dr. Scott Simmerman is a designer of team building games and organization improvement tools.
Managing Partner of Performance Management Company since 1984, he is an experienced presenter and consultant who is trying to retire!! He now lives in Cuenca, Ecuador.

You can reach Scott at scott@squarewheels.com
Learn more about Scott at his LinkedIn site.

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Here is a link to a press release about The Search for The Lost Dutchman’s Gold Mine teambuilding exercise and its 30 years of positively impacting people and performance.

The Search for The Lost Dutchman’s Gold Mine is a trademark of Performance Management Company
Lost Dutchman images © Performance Management Company, 1993 – 2024. All rights reserved.