Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with teambuilding

Business meeting location suggestions; Arizona in Jan/Feb

xenoworx — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 17:34:35 -0800

Please help me find a business meeting venue in the Arizona winter sun I've been tasked by my company to organise a business meeting sometime in Jan/Feb for the sales region I manage (14 people). There'll be indoor and outdoor (fun, team-building) activities, so I'm thinking of holding it in Arizona for the (I assume) pleasant weather that time of year.

Does anyone have any suggestions for venues, hotels, resorts and for cities in Arizona where the weather will be as warm and dry as possible? Weblinks are always useful, as I'll have to do my research online to ensure this fits my (TBD) budget.

Thanks All

Game theory games, in theory

TheSecretDecoderRing — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 03:00:42 -0800

I'm currently reading a book on game theory ("Rock Paper Scissors" by Len Fisher), and am considering putting together a series of a few quick games/demonstrations for when it's my turn to do a weekly motivational/informative session at work. Any ideas? Prisoner's Dilemma, Free Rider, Chicken, etc. There's about a 15-minute time limit, and I'd like the games to be easily presented and executed, and have an obvious application to their everyday lives in and out of work.

We have about 20 people, and ideally I'd separate them into small groups for one or two games, and individual for others.

One possibility is the one where separated groups have to independently plan when and where to meet in a city. Another is something along the lines of the doughnuts in the office, which I think was used in Freakonomics.

And we usually dole out small prizes at the end, so if there are any other ways to determine who wins them (whether it's cumulative of all the games, or a separate contest at the end just for the prizes), that'd be helpful too.

And if you've participated in a memorable game theory game that may be too complex or elaborate for this purpose, I'd still like to hear it. Thanks.

Mildly Multiplayer Office Runaround Puzzle Game

TheSecretDecoderRing — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 21:48:34 -0800

I need help coming up with an idea for a short, simple, but immensely entertaining activity at work (banking office). There's about 20 people, and maybe a 15-minute time limit. Half knowledge/trivia test, and half scavenger hunt/capture-the-flag type game. Initially I'm thinking of separating into four or five teams. Maybe each team has a "base," consisting of one member's cubicle. Each team goes from one question/clue to another, so they get to run around the office (there's also a big break room right across the hall).

The questions might be multiple-choice stuff like "Who's the Secretary of the Treasury?" and "Who's on the dime?" Also observational stuff about the building that people may have never noticed, like "What color are the walls on the first floor hallway?"

The "war" aspect I'm having trouble with. It'd be cool to have each team have a "captain" and if they're somehow captured, they're eliminated. And/or each base has a flag, which the other teams try to steal and return to their base.

Another idea I had was that each correct answer corresponds to a letter, and by unscrambling them to form a certain word, it "defuses" a bomb. And/or each answer leads them to another part of the office, and if they're wrong, they realize they have to go back and guess again.

I'm looking to pare down from a collection of ideas from video games, old-fashioned outdoor games, scavenger hunts, and board games, as well as stuff like the competitions on Survivor, the Amazing Race, and the Mole.

Thanks in advance, and I'd be more than happy to provide follow-up details if necessary.

Corporate Fun!!!!!

jschu — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 18:29:10 -0800

Team-building activities for 300 people? Asking on behalf of my sister:

She is organizing a corporate team building event for 300 people. It will be held outdoors. What are some grand ideas for ways to engage all employees in an effort to build group cooperation? Activities requiring athletic ability are a no. The theme of the event pertains to gambling, although the gambling theme is not a must-have with regard to the activities.

Any ideas or tips you might have on organizing such an event would be much appreciated! Thank you!

Scavenger Hunt ideas for 13-14 year olds.

JimmyJames — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 18:54:15 -0800

I'm building a photo scavenger hunt for teens ages 13-14. Creative suggestions needed. We're a co-ed camp of 13-14 year olds at Stanford University. Our previous scavenger hunt consisted of "Go to X and do Y". These were fun but resulted in a bit of a uniform death march with pictures that didn't really challenge the kids.

I'm planning on having each picture be worth between 1-5 points depending on difficulty. A 1 point question could be take a picture of a group member with silly hair and a 5 point question could be "take a picture of your group reencacting the Gettysburg address complete with costumes.

Any and all legal, safe, sane and creative photo suggestions are appreciated. Also, if you have any suggestions on how to score, regulate or otherwise streamline the whole scavenger hunt I'd love you forever.
Thanks in advance,
JJ

Will this group exercise work?

slo — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 13:42:28 -0800

Help me design a creative, mind-opening exercise for my company's team meeting involving getting off a desert island with limited resources (and Superheroes!). We want to begin a 1/2 day company meeting with an exercise that drives our employees to work together in teams and be creative. Here's what we came up with so far.

-4 teams of 5 people

-The goal of each team is to get everyone off the desert island alive

-each team has five different characters that people will pick randomly out of a hat

-each team will have a different set of characters

So far here are the groups of characters we've come up with:

- Superheroes (Batman, Wonder Woman, the Hulk, Spiderman, ???)

- Farm animals (Cow, Horse, Pig, Chicken, ???)

- Trades (Plumber, Carpenter, Electrician, Welder, ???)

Each member of the team will first present to each other what they think they can offer toward the goal of getting everyone off the island (e.g. "I'm Batman and I have a utility belt with a rope we can use to climb palm trees and get fronds for building a sail"). Then the team comes up with a story to present to the other teams about how they are going to use all their abilities to get everyone off the island.

1) Will this work as a creative, mind-opening and sharing exercise?

2) Can you help me fill in the holes?

Thanks!

'Office Outings' and 'Team Building' ideas in the Seattle area.

Anonymous — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 07:25:33 -0800

'Office Outings' and 'Team Building' ideas in the Seattle area. I work with a fun, young company on the Eastside. We are brainstorming for fun, interactive 'team building' events.

THIS DOES NOT entail trust falls, ropes courses, or get-to-know-you games. We're talking about fun, adult, hang-out time.

What we're looking for...
- Something that can be done between the hours of 3PM-10PM (doesn't have to fill up the entire block of time) on Mon-Fri of any week.

Things you should know...
- This is for a group of 10-12 individuals.
- Average age: 28
- All but 3 are either engaged or married.
- My company has a very large (but not unlimited) budget.
- Alcohol is always served at other company events and placed on the company tab.

Group activities that prove how very, very wrong you are about the world

Skwirl — Fri, 02 May 2008 20:57:48 -0800

Is there a team building or group communications activity that highlights the important role of intuitive, macroscopic thinkers? (Team building activity spoiler inside) I've seen several facilitators perform the group activity where everyone is given a card with writing and is asked to keep the card private. Then, the facilitator asks each person to count the number of F's on the card and the participants gather across the room according to the number that they report. Then individuals from different groups (who have counted different numbers) exchange cards. The big reveal is that everyone has the same card. It's pretty darn humbling when, often after arguing your point, you find out you have the wrong count.

I suspect that the room divides pretty cleanly along the lines of detail people (Or MBTI sensing preference) versus macroscopic people (Or MBTI intuitive preference). The moral is always supposed to be that everyone has a different experience of the world, but I can't help but think that people in the correct camp are going to lose some of the humbling benefit of this exercise.

Is there a similar exercise that helps to teach humility in group interactions that might not divide so cleanly? Ideally, there would be an exercise that could be done in conjunction with the "Count The F's" exercise that would turn the tables. Are there any other exercises you've witnessed similar to "Count the F's" or that also help demonstrate different worldviews and ways of thinking?

Help us have teambuilding fun.

Mavri — Wed, 04 Apr 2007 11:26:00 -0800

What are some good group/ teambuilding activities for a bunch of young, cynical co-workers in New York City? We aren't a bunch of bitter hateful people or anything, but I use the word cynical to make clear that some kind of cheesy rah-rah corporate teambuilding exercise won't fly with this group. Unfortunately, official "teambuilding" stuff that I've seen is all cheesy corporate rah-rah. It doesn't have to be specifically teambuilding, but it can't just be a daytrip to Coney Island. Basically, it would probably have to be justifiable as teambuilding to higher-ups, even if it's really just a chance for us to do something together and have fun. So far, a group cooking class is the leading option, but not one that has been enthusiastically endorsed.

The group is about 8-9 people, age 20s to 30s, work with poor people with mental illness, high stress/ low pay, have graduate degrees.

Teambuilding industry statistics?

yoga — Thu, 22 Mar 2007 10:35:07 -0800

Team building industry statistics: how would I go about finding these? I'm looking for typicals like how much is spent, who spends it, what types of activities (lasertag, brainstorming) and how the numbers may have changed since 1990 - in the US, mainly, but elsewhere is also appreciated, as well as any other search terminology. I did find this outdated article from 2001, along with about a brazillion returns on Google for 'teambuilding' and 'team building'. 'Offsites" also yields several returns.

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!

Beware. PHB lurking ahead.

Jonsnews — Thu, 19 Oct 2006 10:45:03 -0800

Help me prevent my Pointy Headed Boss from implementing a daily required karaoke session. Theres definatly Ok.. Well my boss has it set in his head that we need to do some daily activity at some point in the day to boost morale. His current idea consists of MAKING everyone in my office sing a song together.
Words cannot express how horrible this sounds to me.
So what can I counter propose as a fun (to everyone, even introverts) activity we can all do for 5-10 minutes a day.
I have been searching google on team building activities, but I think this is more of a attitude adjuster then team building..
I wish I could convince him how much fun a 10 minuite networked game of GTA would be, but alas, I'm the only gamer..