Every year I host an annual offsite meeting for my team. We’re a distributed organization, so we pick someplace nice and all get there for a few days. I have several goals for this get together but they all benefit from stepping outside of our day-to-day working context. It provides an opportunity to reflect on how we’re doing as a team and to spend time getting to know each other better. Of course, we also get some work done—this year we focused on how we might expand our team and charter if we were given the opportunity to do so.

This was also the first year that we brought in a facilitator—Mark Sato of Kaz Consulting. We wanted someone who would really understand our working context and Mark was the perfect fit because he is a former Oracle employee and is married to a close colleague at Oracle. To get the ball rolling at our offsite Mark introduced us to a team building exercise that I had never heard of before but that really impressed me—I’m going to share the details of that exercise below so that you can share it with your team.

Before I do that, however, I want to preface the instructions by saying that I’m generally quite skeptical about team building exercises. Before agreeing on this one I threw out several suggestions to do exercises based on the Myers-Briggs and other personality tests (thanks to my wife who is a psychologist I discovered they don’t have validity).  What I wanted was something that would help us understand and build around our social norms. If you haven’t already read this research on teams at Google you should read it before proceeding.

Finally, I also want to give special thanks to Kerry Gibbons of LIW—a global leadership consulting company. This exercise was developed by LIW and Kerry gave me permission to share it with you here.

What makes this exercise brilliant

The brilliance stems from what the teams do not know when they start the exercise. There are several aha! moments that I saw each team experience during the process. Perhaps the most pronounced was when people realized that the teams were not competing with each other but that they must collaborate to complete the process. It’s quite fascinating that people’s default mode is to assume that it’s a competition!

There were other insights that had to do with how work was divided among teams. While each team was unique there were common roles that emerged (e.g. the keeper of the clues, the negotiator, the strategist, the communicator, etc). Because of the constraints of the exercise I felt that it was easier to spot social norms …. which leads to a great conversation after the exercise is complete. You should plan to make at least 30 minutes to discuss the experience when done.

 

What you’ll need

This exercise requires a group of at least 8 people and I suspect that it would work well with up to 20 people.

You’re going to need some lego. I recommend getting oversized lego blocks as they are easier to manipulate (e.g. LEGO Education DUPLO Brick Set 4496357 (144 Pieces). Specifically you need 66 pieces in the following configuration:

  • Large Rectangular Blocks (these have 8connector bumps in a 2×4 orientation)
    • 6 Red Pieces
    • 6 Green Pieces
    • 6 Blue Pieces
    • 6 Yellow Pieces
  • Small Square Blocks (these have 4 connector bumps in a 2×2 orientation)
    • 12 Red Pieces
    • 10 Green Pieces
    • 10 Blue Pieces
    • 10 Yellow Pieces

You’ll also need a room that has four separate working areas or tables.

 

Preparing the team

  1. Get group to form 1 large circle,
  2. Go around the circle with each person numbering off into 4 groups (i.e. 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, etc),
  3. Each of the four groups should get together in a different part of the room,
  4. Read out instructions to all participants:
    1. Each team will receive a set of clues that will enable them, as a team, to build a structure to a detailed specification—each participant should keep his/her cards to him/herself.
    2. There is no talking during the exercise
    3. You are allowed to communicate in any other form except showing each other your clues, using a pen and paper etc. to write or draw
    4. Hand signals, facial expressions, grunts, groans and squeals of frustration are all expectable
    5. The rules may be changed as we go along, by the facilitator
  5. Handout the clues (below) to each team and distribute them as evenly as possible amongst the team members—there are 10 clues so it may not be possible to ensure the each team member gets the same number of clues
  6. Explain terminology used in the clues:
    1. Color – refers to the color of the blocks
    2. Square vs. rectangle – refers to the shape of the block
    3. Bumps – refers to the connectors that allow the blocks to connect together
    4. Width – refers to the number of blocks wide when assembled
    5. Area – refers to the area of the blocks when assembled
  7. Place all the blocks in the middle of the room (away from each team’s working area),
  8. Let the participants know:
    1. there will be a time limit 30 minutes
    2. there are exactly enough blocks for each team
    3. all blocks must be used
  9. The objective for each group is to complete their structure. The exercise is not completed until all groups have met their objective ….. GO!

The Clues

Click here to download a .pdf file that has printable versions of the following clues in card format.

  1. Team #1 (blue cards)
    1. There should be 3 colours in your structure.
    2. Your structure is 9 layers high.
    3. All except 2 layers are the same size and shape.
    4. The 3rd and 4th layers from the top are 8 bumps wide.
    5. Most layers consist of single square bricks.
    6. You are the brick collector.
    7. The 3rd layer from the top must be of only one colour.
    8. Your completed structure should contain only 11 bricks.
    9. The bottom 5 layers are the same size and shape.
    10. The top 2 layers must be the same size and shape.
  2. Team #2 (green cards)
    1. You can only use 2 colours.
    2. Your structure must have 10 layers that are square in shape.
    3. 5 layers have an area of 16 bumps.
    4. 5 layers have an area of 4 bumps
    5. The top 5 layers have a smaller area than the other layers
    6. You are the brick collector.
    7. The colour of the layers must alternate.
    8. Each layer can be of one colour only.
    9. Only 4 rectangular blocks can be used.
    10. Your structure should consist of 21 blocks when completed.
  3. Team #3 (red cards)
    1. Your structure is 7 layers high.
    2. Your structure is a square donut, i.e there must be a hole in it.
    3. Your structure must include red bricks.
    4. Your structure is 8 bumps wide.
    5. There must be just 6 rectangular blocks in your structure.
    6. You are the brick collector.
    7. There are 16 bricks in your structure.
    8. The top 2 and the bottom 2 layers must be mirror images of each other.
    9. Your structure can be of ONE colour only.
    10. 2 stacks of at least 3 square bricks will be needed to complete your structure.
  4. Team #4 (yellow cards)
    1. Your structure must contain bricks of all 4 colours.
    2. Your structure’s height is 7 layers.
    3. Your structure should be 8 bumps wide.
    4. All joins should interlock. Your structure should look like a brick wall.
    5. Each colour must be represented by at least 2 bricks.
    6. You are the brick collector.
    7. There are only 2 red bricks in your structure.
    8. There should be no more than 2 colours in any layer.
    9. At least 3 layers should be one colour only.
    10. 3 of the layers consist of only 2 bricks.

The Structures

When you’re done, the resulting structures should look like the images below. Note, that it is possible for some variation such that two colors are switched.

Team #1 Structure

team-1

 

Team #2 Structure

Team-2

 

Team #3 Structure

Team-3

 

Team #4 Structure

Team-4

 

Facilitation notes

As this exercise proceeds—depending on how the group in question is doing— the facilitator may adjust the rules. As an initial adjustment, you can allow the participants to share their clue cards with each other. At about 10 minutes into the exercise, this helps each team bring their respective specifications into full-focus. As a secondary rule change, you can let the participants communicate verbally. This is a dramatic change but may be necessary to complete the exercise within the 30 minute limit—this change can be made in the last 10 minutes.

I some ways I think it’s actually preferable to make these rule changes because it tends to shed more light on the group dynamics and lead to interesting conversations after the exercise is over.

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