Team spirit: a fun and interactive simulation of teamwork and effective leadership

Team Spirit is a fun-to-play, interactive learning simulation involving collaboration, communications, and group dynamics, as teams work to solve an ill-structured problem. The simulation has been developed and proven effective with a wide range of teams from many different organizations. Insights and learnings emerge over the course of the simulation as individuals contribute their skills to arrive at a correct distribution of roles and responsibilities for a fictional organization, derived from data collected during successive rounds of trivia questions. This experiential exercise emphasizes that it takes many different talents to achieve a team goal. Concurrently, Team Spirit shows how formal and informal leadership styles can influence a team's performance. As with any group-based learning activity, Team Spirit serves as a vehicle to generate candid dialogue and offers groups the chance to build on best practices in team effectiveness. The simulation takes between 1- and 1-1/2 hours to facilitate and debrief.

I. Introduction.

II. Preparing to Conduct Team Spirit.

III. Conducting Team Spirit.

Welcome.

Team Formation/Planning.

Playing the Game.

IV. Debriefing.

Oral Debriefing.

Written Debriefing.

Summary of Lessons Learned.

Organizational Follow Up.

Appendixes.

A. Leadership and Team Theory.

B. Matrix Puzzles.

C. Solutions to Puzzles.

D. Trivia Questions and Answers.

E. Team Building and Leadership Questionnaire.

F. Leadership Book List.

G. Puzzle Tiles, Question Sheet, Leadership Assignment Cards, and Clues.

References.

About the Authors.

How to Use the CD ROM.