Changes
→Materials
* Construction Paper or cardboard
* and you must have some tape (masking tape works best)
* a bag of candy or another similar prize with enough for everyone (alternatively you can just use "bragging rights " as the prize)
===Set Up===
[The facilitators should not answer any questions so that the groups are forced to figure out how to build their tower on their own. If the groups figure out they need to collaborate, the facilitators should neither encourage or discourage them (this will come up in the debrief).]
Announce that they have ~20 min to build, and let the building begin.
Some groups will spend time strategizingcoming up with a detailed strategy, others will just dive right in. Some may start to notice, that they don't have much tape, or that the other groups have more popsicle sticks.
After a few minutes of building you have a few choices.
* You can ask for representatives to come to the center of the room and report to the other representatives reps one thing they are doing well and one challenge they are having. * You can have everyone form stop building for a circle moment and walk around and see other people's progress so far
Again, the facilitators should not answer any questions, encourage or discourage collaboration!
It is important to try to deflect... so if they ask, "How come they have so much more tape?" you might say "Sorry, I can't really answer any questions at this point, but it looks like you are making good progress."
As they start to see that other groups have different supplies, some will respond by questioning, some will try to beg, barter, or steal supplies, and some will just resign themselves to the fact that its it's not fair, and they will continue to focus on working with what they have. Make notes of it all, and save it for the debrief.
===Debrief===
The facilitators should ask the following questions of the entire group.
* Raise your hand if you helped built a tower!
* What worked well?
* What was challenging?
And then to make this the issues really impactfulhit home, you need to tie it back to collaboration and communication on your specific team or group:
* How does building the tower in this activity compare to your daily work? or the way our group is organized?
* How does this activity relate to being part of the larger company, organization, or group?
* How can we encourage collaboration, communication, and sharing among the whole group?
