here's one for you Tink, because you can have the team create their individual lists on their before the meeting time, so it gives them something to think about.
You can use this type of exercise with various scenarios for teams/groups of between 3 and 15 people: desert island, jungle, etc. It's also great to use in group selections for recruiting staff, when the interviewing panel observe the efforts, abilities and attitudes of the participants.
Here's a mountain survival scenario exercise. It's a very flexible theme provided you avoid the requirement to establish a definitive correct list of items - there's no definitive 'right answer'; there are other reasons for this too. It's best not to have a definitive list of items as recommended by experts - what's important is for the group to see the benefit of group discussion and collective expertise, experience and input, which produces a generally accepted better list of items than anyone's individual list.
The risk in referring to a supposed definitive 'right answer' list is that:
it focuses too much attention on the outcome rather than the process,
it causes participants to guess what they think the facilitator thinks, as if it's a trick question, and
it can undermine the credibility of the exercise and the facilitator when inevitably someone in the group, or worse still, the entire group disagrees with the 'right answer', as is likely with any hypothetical scenario.
Position the exercise like this:
After your small light aircraft crashes, your group, wearing business/leisure clothing, is stranded on a forested mountain in appalling winter weather (snow covered, sub-freezing conditions), anything between 50 and 200 miles from civilisation (you are not sure of your whereabouts, and radio contact was lost one hour before you crashed, so the search operation has no precise idea of your location either). The plane is about to burst into flames and you have a few moments to gather some items. Aside from the clothes you are wearing which does not include coats, you have no other items. It is possible that you may be within mobile phone signal range, but unlikely.
(Other than these facts, he session facilitator may clarify particular questions from the group(s) as to details of the circumstances and the environment, and these details remain constant for the duration of the exercise. Other details may simply not be known - it's at the facilitator's discretion.)
Your (the group's) aim is to survive as a group until rescued. From the following list choose just ten items that you would take from the plane, after which it and everything inside is destroyed by fire. First you have five-ten minutes (flexible, this is up to the facilitator) by yourself to consider and draw up your own individual list of what the team should have, without consulting with other members of the group. Retain this list after presenting it briefly to the group. Then you have 30-45 minutes (up to the facilitator) as a group to discuss and agree a list on behalf of the group. Nominate a spokesperson and present this new list.
With the facilitator's help, the group(s) afterwards then reviews the benefits of discussion, teamwork, collective expertise, group communication skills, etc., in the team approach to compiling the list, compared to each individual working alone to establish a list, and obviously why the team list is likely to be better than each of the individual lists.
Choose ten from the following - splitting or only taking part of items is not permitted (again the list and number of permitted items is flexible to suit the facilitators and situation requirements. This is a long list and will provoke an enormous amount of debate. To run a quicker exercise definitely reduce the list or delegates will feel rushed.)
Pack of 6 boxes x 50 matches.
Roll of polythene sheeting 3m x 2m
1 crate of beer (12 litres in total)
1 bottle of brandy
1 crate of bottled spring water (twelve litres in total)
Small toolbox containing hammer, screwdriver set, adjustable wrench, hacksaw and large pen-knife.
Box of distress signal flares.
Small basic first-aid kit containing plasters, bandages, antiseptic ointment, small pair of scissors and pain-killer tablets.
Tri-band mobile phone with infrared port and battery half-charged.
Clockwork transistor radio.
Gallon container full of fresh water.
Box of 36 x 50gm chocolate bars.
Shovel.
Short hand-held axe.
Hand-gun with magazine of 20 rounds.
20m of 200kg nylon rope.
Box of 24 x 20gm bags of peanuts.
Bag of 10 mixed daily newspapers.
Box of tissues.
Bag of 20 fresh apples.
Electronic calculator.
Laptop computer with infrared port, modem, unknown software and data, and unknown battery life.
Inflatable 4-person life-raft.
Compass.
Large full Aerosol can of insect killer spray.
Small half-full aerosol can of air freshener spray.
Notebook and pencil.
Box of size 8 women's promotional pink 'Barbie' branded fleece-lined track-suits (quantity is half of each team/group size).
Gift hamper containing half-bottle champagne, large tin of luxury biscuits, box of 6 mince pies, 50gm tin of caviar without a ring-pull, a 300gm tin of ham without a ring-pull, and a 500gm christmas pudding.
Travelling games compendium containing chess, backgammon and draughts.
Sewing kit.
Whistle.
Torch with a set of spare batteries.
Box of 50 night-light 6hr candles.
Bag of 6 large blankets.
Credit and copyright for the above text of the Exercise go to :
copyright (alan chapman 2002) and the
www.businessballs.com website.
