Teamwork, Team Games - Initiative Group Games

Teamwork

Great teamwork makes things happen more than anything else in organisations. McGregors X-Y Theory illustrates how and why empowered teams get the best results. Empowering people is more about attitude and behaviour towards staff than processes and tools. Teamwork is fostered by respecting, encouraging enthusing, caring for people, and not exploiting or dictating to them.

At the heart of this approach is love and spirituality, which helps bring mutual respect, compassion, and humanity to work. People working for each other in teams is powerful force , more than skills, processes, policies, annual appraisals, management-by-objectives, more than anything.



Teams usually become great teams when they decide to do it for themselves - not because someone says so !



Something inspires them possibly, but ultimately, the team decides. This is usually after the team goes through the Forming, Storming, Norming and Performing process. Some teams can do it quicker than others....and usually find greater rewards for themselves earlier.

How is this achieved ? Through good communication with each other...that's how... Communication is vital for teamwork to occur and to have everyone thinking and working towards the same goal. Consider a Hockey Team..... they all have the same goal...by scoring the ball into the net to win the game. However, this does not happen unless team members communicate well. This is where the coach comes in....he/she sees it all from the sideline and tells each member what they are doing well, what's not going so good etc.



Some of the games that coaches and instructors from S-Teem Training and Coaching would utilise are shown below :



Blindfold Line Up : This is a great communication tool where the group is blinfolded. The instructor would whispers a different number to each of the participants. The group needs to line themselves up in the correct increasing sequence. Variations can have this game increase in difficulty by -

• the group not being able to talk
• the group needs to make a perfect square with a long piece of rope they are holding
• the group needs to line up in height, shortest to tallest, or youngest to eldest.

It is advantageous for the instructor to run through the game without blindfolds first to highlight the advantage that communication by spoken word has on ourselves. The participants would then find it slightly hardedr to complete the task when blindfolded, and no one is able to speak.



Giants, Wizards, and Elves : Purely a communication Game similar to paper, rock, and scissors. The team as one, has to decide as to whether they are to be Giants, Wizards, or Elves....and must do the accompanying action along with each of the choices. Giants are to raise their arms high and scary over the head whilst roaring in a deep grumbling throaty yell. Wizards are to crouch and place their hands out as if they were projecting a spell and make an electrical buzzing noise with their mouth. Elves are to crouch even lower and wiggle their fingers towards the other group whilst whimpering. The two teams line up facing each other about 10 metres apart when they have decided as to their choice. At the call of 1,2,3, they are to action out their selected choice. Now the fact that remains is that Giants scare Wizards, Wizards scare Elves, and Elves scare Giants (sound familiar ?). The losing team then runs for a safe area about 10 metres behind them while the winning team chases them to tag as many people of the team that they can. This can be done on a timeframe, or when one team runs out of participants. If both teams choose the same choice, then they go back to their safe area to choose again. This then becomes the strange strategy of people thinking about what the other team is thinking.
Sociogram : With communication, comes awareness and familiarity. In this game, the group needs to organise itself with the people who know each other the closest by standing closest to them, and the people that they do not know or are the lease known, are to stand furtherest away. The group will start off confidantly, but it will take extra shuffling around as the exactness of familiarity is questioned, or the people who know someone well, may not necessarily know someone else who is standing close to that person well.

This is a great before and after game as to let each participant realise in graphic form as to how the team has bonded.

Human Knots : This game gets the participant up right and the personal space is definately invaded. The group stands in a tight circle places both hands into the middle of the circle, and grabs the right hand of someone else. They then do the same with theoir left hand grabbing the left hand of someone totally different. The group is then to untangle themselves and make a circle without letting go. The grip however can be adjusted accordingly.

Remember : When considering organising games of a nature where there is body contact or an injury can occur, please ensure that all safety precautions are in place before you start.