Acid Test

Communication; Decision Making; Problem Solving

You have limited information, a single clue. Each action you take will reveal further information, but at a cost. How effective is your group at working together to create a common understanding, developing a plan and most critically making time to review progress and evaluate performance?

• A unique puzzle for groups of 3-6 members.
• Two sets of materials.
• Needs between 30-60 minutes for decision making and communication. For examining performance and developing a review process it will need up to 2 hours.

Fig Tree

Problem solving; Decision making; Team maintenance; Leadership

Teamwork can be frustrating, especially if you think you can solve the problem quicker yourself! Every team member has to balance the desire to do things their own way with the need to access a wider range of skills and knowledge. Every team leader needs to understand team member behaviour. Are ideas being built up or knocked down? Is the team accessing all the skills available to it by engaging everyone in the process?

• A card based logic puzzle for groups of 8-12 members.
• It comes with cards for two groups.
• Needs between 45 and 90 minutes depending on the group dynamics and the outcome required.

Jonathon Strangeways

Communication; Inter-personal skills; Problem solving; Teambuilding

Jonathon Strangeways is dead! The information required to solve the mystery is dispersed amongst the project team. Will they work together to discover the facts? Do they take the time to evaluate each other's ideas? How well do they communicate?

• A card based problem solving exercise for groups of between 6-12 members.
• It comes with cards for two groups.
• Needs between 45 and 90 minutes including discussion time.

Lawn Trimmers

Decision-making; Business finance; Business strategy

Preliminary market research will help you decide which is the most profitable market segment to enter, the size of factory required and the type of product to offer. You must then determine your sales and advertising policies and match these with your production decisions. Each round you will need to re-assess your strategy to take account of competitor decisions.

• A computer simulation for groups of 3-6 members.
• One tutor can manage up to 6 teams.
• Needs between 3 and 5 hours.

Mega Neg

Negotiation; Problem solving; Creativity

Two parties are pitched against each other in a situation where only one can apparently win. Can the parties break out of the traditional adversarial approach to problem solving and find a mutually beneficial solution.

• A card based exercise for a single group of 5-12 members.
• It comes with materials for three groups.
• Needs one hour.

Superteam Challenge

Team building; Team management; Leadership; Decision-making

Are you looking for a substantial team building exercise that will get the participants out of work mode while reinforcing some of the basic skills invloved in good team work - planning, organisation, communication? This exercise is excellent, as part of a course or conference.

• A collection of varied tasks for teams of up to 10 members each.
• Where materials are needed there is sufficient for three teams.
• The activity is flexible in duration and can last anything from 2-8 hours depending on the tasks selected.

Symbol Game

Communication; Leadership; Problem solving; Team management; Decision-making

A chain is only as strong as its weakest link; so too is a team. To succeed in this task every member of the team must undestand what is being done and why. If the team is unable to achieve this then their differences will be exposed and they will fail. If the exercise is used with an appointed leader then failure will result in simulated dismissal.

• A card based exercise for groups of 5-9 members.
• It comes with cards for two groups
• Needs about 75 minutes including discussion time.

Value of T

Leadership; Problem solving; Team management; Decision-making

Information is scattered amongst the group so that everybody knows something but nobody knows the whole picture. What is the objective? How can each team member contribute to achieving success? Has the team leader got the skill to open a fruitful discussion? Will the team be encouraged to present their ideas effectively?

• A card based exercise for groups of 6-12 members.
• It comes with cards for two groups.
• Needs between 45 and 90 minutes including discussion time.