The MOD Squad has tested and proven ways for any team that wants to coalesce and level-up its collaboration skills through the following 5 team building exercises: Mike B: My activity tested everyone's ability to maintain a good poker face while picking up on non-verbal expressions from other members of the squad in an exercise called Two Truths and a Lie. Each member of the squad was instructed to write down two truths about themselves and one lie on an index card. After everyone completed this step, the team was given 15 minutes of open conversation to quiz each other on their three questions. The purpose of the activity was to convince everyone that your lie is actually a truth, as well as determine each persons truths or lies. After the open discussion, each team member read aloud their three statements while the rest of the group voted on which one they thought was the lie. This exercise encouraged better communication among the team members which helped the team establish rapport. Mike J: The MOD Squad's trip down memory lane... My activity, "The Life Highlights Game" from www.huddle.com. Required each squad member to close their eyes for one minute and think about the best moments of their life. When the minute passed, squad members were asked to narrow that memory down to the best 30 seconds; this 30 snap shot is one they would want to re-live if they only had 30 seconds left in their lives. The squad then went around the table and shared their 30 second snap shot. This exercise proved to be valuable and allowed each member to share a special memory from their past, ultimatley bringing the team closer together. Michael C: My activity was designed to learn more about each group member in addition to the obligatory five questions answered by each group. To do this, I passed around a new roll of toilet paper and asked each member to remove as much as they would need to clean up after their boss on a daily basis. After each member removed a minimal to moderate amount, I instructed them that for each TP square they held, they had to tell us one thing about themselves that they haven't already shared. The results were quite informative and provided greater insight into who my comrades are, the multiple skills they possess, and the many experiences we share in common. Omar A: Synergy is the concept that when parts come together in a system, their working together can exceed the individual summation of their efforts. In this way, I proposed a trial where four members of the MOD squad were given one direction to control, with a fifth member to direct the efforts, in a 1980's style snake game, where a snake grows longer each time it eats a dot and dies if it hits the game boundary. The expectation was that over time, the squad's efforts would produce increasingly positive results given the team having to adapt and communicate more effectively by learning to work together. This was the case, as after a rocky start, the squad began to coalesce and collaborate more effectively and deliver more effective and consistent results. The squad found the approach innovative, exhilarating, and fun. Darrell S: Physics tells us the rate of melting is inversely proportional to size. The one-question icebreaker game is designed to melt the hard exterior and get to the true person encapsulated by a litany barriers designed to obfuscate and protect. It’s quite simple: the leader gets to decide the situation the question will pertain to. Example situations include babysitting, leading the company, or being married. After pairing participants into teams, the leader will pose this question: If you could ask just one question to discover a person’s suitability for (insert topic here), what would your question be? Say the leader chose to go with a marriage situation. That means each person in a two-person team would come up with one question that would help them discover whether their partner was suitable to be married to them.
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