Team Building Challenge: Can You Suggest a Game to Highlight Team vs. Group Dynamics?

Dear Friends, I am developing content on the topic of team building. I need to incorporate a game that clearly brings out the difference between a team and a group. A team works towards a common goal, keeping their individual goals aside, whereas members in a group do not give much importance to the unified goal and work towards individual goals. Please, can anyone suggest a game on this?

Regards,
Prerana

Hi Prerana, I think Magic Carpet is one exercise you can use. It's fun, effective, and a really enjoyable game.

Requirements:

- A carpet/blanket
- A watch

You just need a small carpet. If 4 people can stand on the carpet freely, then add another one or two so that they have very little space. Since this is a timed game, it will make the task more difficult.

Now, tell them the carpet "flies" once they turn it upside down. During the process of turning the carpet, no one must step out of the carpet, and they must turn the carpet in 1 minute.

Try this out; it's a timed, teamwork game. I have tried this in my sessions and successfully conveyed my point as soon as I finished the game.

Your task would be to keep an eye on people who step out. If anyone even puts his/her toe out, ask the whole team to stop the game.

Start your session with what they have done and what they could have done.

Let me know what you think of it, and if you use this game in your session, let me know how it worked.

Regards, Bhavana

Effective Debriefing in Training Games

Learning from any training game lies in how you debrief after the activity. If you debrief effectively, it should highlight all aspects of teamwork. Learning should come as a realization, not as an instruction, and therefore will be subtle unless the participants are children.

In this case, some cues may include: How did they feel? What were they worried about? Are worries common? Were they concerned about not being an individual defaulter causing a loss to the team? What was on their mind throughout? Was there cooperation among people? What was the level of cooperation? Did anyone feel uncomfortable in terms of personal space, etc.? Play based on the responses you get from the group.

I also agree that you may find many other games (better) that are not common and convey this message much more effectively.

Why don't you get a "team" to plan a party or another event together and ask them to make a list of what they would like to happen at that party or event and what has to be done to accomplish the task? Once they have their tasks listed, form them into a "group" and allocate a single task to each one separately, with the aim of drilling down into what their individual task would require them to do.

Brief them that they can be outrageous—why not have a party at an exclusive restaurant or launch a hypothetical new website and invite some guests? After all, it's hypothetical, and I think you will find that in the excitement of a party, the "team" can plan anything, but when it comes time to take on a single responsibility, they'll slow down.

Then bunch them together again to help each other with their tasks, and they have become an organized group!