Manage This
Category: Breakout Session
Prerequisites: None
Activity Level: Medium
Time: 45 minutes to 2 hours
Location: Indoor / Outdoor
A Glimpse into Manage This!:
The purpose of this exercise is to practice clear communication and develop keys to trust during challenging and confusing times. The exercise creates a great deal of confusion and sometimes frustration as communication becomes difficult.
Feedback, both giving and receiving is the essence of communication and MUST be practiced here in order for the participants to accomplish their tasks. Due to the inherent communication difficulty the exercise creates, a high level of commitment is required by all participants. How many members of the team are not committed to the goals at work?
In addition, all of the participants experience the different roles of leading and following. This allows them to recognize their strengths and weaknesses individually and as a team. This event lets the participants experience the need to be leader and follower.
Because of this role-switching, this event will remind people in each position what the other role feels like and lend insights to improving relations between the two.
This sessiont is FUN and participants learn through experience.
Some Details:
After pairing up, one blindfolded person goes into a large circle to retrieve certain items, with only their partner’s instructions as guidance. The catch here is the partner must stay on the outside of the circle. Still seems fairly simple until all the pairs are in the middle at the same time.
This activity helps participants experience the need for trust, the need for planning and the difficulties of communicating while being both ‘manager’ and ‘employee’.
Who should go for Manage This?
- Groups who need to begin trusting each other beyond simple ‘trust’ activities through clear communication.
- Groups looking to improve coaching (communication) skills
What will the group learn from Manage This?
- Planning and strategy is important, even for seemingly simple tasks and goals.
- The need to communicate with someone the way THEY will hear it best, not how WE communicate best.
Trusting is a very important part of a supportive work environment. Learn to trust other managers by beginning with yourself.
