Comments on: Some kind of (nonprofit) monster

Question: Some kind of (nonprofit) monster

SassHat — Mon, 12 Feb 2007 07:27:49 -0800

Where can I find communication/team building resources online (preferably for free)?

A small nonprofit organization I assist on occasion is in the midst of a communication crisis among the members of its very small (<10) staff - infighting and communication breakdowns are happening with increasing frequency. I suggested they try some team building/communication exercises to get the (highly stressed) staff members to open up and understand each other a bit better.

They asked me to try to find some resources for them online, as they don't have a budget to bring in an outside consultant or anything fancy like that. I've googled around and found a lot of garbage - do you have any tried and true resources you could share with me? Bonus points for direct links to materials like worksheets and activities. TIA!

By: bibbit

bibbit — Mon, 12 Feb 2007 07:53:40 -0800

I just had to find an "experiential learning" exercise for school - I went to Amazon, and there are some books starting with the titles "Games Trainers Play" that are full of such activities. You can search inside those books and get the exercises that way or just buy the books. They explain the "games" and what you're supposed to get out of them pretty well.

By: rongorongo

rongorongo — Mon, 12 Feb 2007 08:22:20 -0800

I recommend you join the Global Facilitator's Network (for free) and then take your pick from their range of team building suggestions/templates listed in their Resources section. YMMV but this list is put together by people who know what it takes to try to get a team to start talking. Here is a list of the templates they provide:

Common Introductions, Dividing into Pairs, Count the F's, Fairness in Negotiations Game, Feedback Faces,Finding the Similarities,Follow Me Exercises, Fox, Lion and St Bernard
Jars for emphasising Ground Rules,Jigsaw,Know Your Potato, Land the Plane, Listening to Body Language, Monochronic People,Paper Clip Creativity,Penny Icebreaker,Pictionary Introduction,Pig Drawing Exercise, Red Blue Exercise, Riddles & Icebreakers, Shake, Rattle and Roll, Simple Arithmetic Game, Snowball Fight, Stand Up Exercise, Walk the L Beam, Zin Obelisk Game