Teamwork Exercise

Start by reflecting on these questions to set the stage to launch this project and the exercise on teamwork.

How important is teamwork to you and why?

How important is teamwork to your company?

How do you or your company drive teamwork in normal times?

How have you generated teamwork while working remotely?

This exercise can be done in an onsite workshop or remotely using online meeting tools such as Zoom, Microsoft Team, Google Meet etc. You can even combine the two if you have some people at work while others are working remotely.

This teamwork activity can be used to solve problems that are currently affecting the company, while engaging people to collaborate in a fun and positive manner.

Step 1

Form an ad-hoc team of 4-7 people to discuss and agree on a priority list of problems or concerns that affects everyone. Choose your top 1-3 issues. Start with one

From the ad-hoc team name a project champion. This could be anyone, it does not need to be a manager, but this person should be well respected by their peers and needs to be given a clear mandate and authority to act.

Step 2

Form 5 cross functional teams of 5-7 people to work on the problem. Have them meet in the workplace or virtually and have them brainstorm causes of the problem. Then have them work on solutions and choose the best solutions that can be combined in an action plan. The action plan should be a one-page recommendation on how to implement the solutions. So, you would have the causes, solutions, and action plan from each team.

Step 3

Have the proposed solutions of the other teams distributed to each team. So, team one would have the proposed solutions for teams two to five etc. Then have each team review the work of the other teams and score them on a scale of 1-4 giving 4 points to the first choice, 3 points to the second choice and so on. You can choose the point system you want and have more than five teams. The champion or facilitator would collect the scores from all the teams and tally them up to determine the winning solution and action plan.

At the end you will have a winning solution and action plan that all team members would have participated in.

Step 4

The solution and action plan are then presented to management for approval and implementation. A new action team could be formed with a champion to implement the solution.

It is crucial to keep all the participants informed of the results and decisions to be implemented based on the teamwork activity. It is also important to publicize the activity and results to all employees.

The benefits to the organization from this type of activity are numerous and include engagement of employees, solutions to existing problems, improved teamwork and collaboration, continuous improvement and better working relationships.