Customer Service Week Activities

Activity:

Collaborative Building Challenge

Materials:
Each team will require the following items. Scale the quantities up for your team.

15 Marshmallows

10 straws (non-bending)

5 small paper cups

1 roll transparent tape

Notes:
In this team-building activity, individual teams will be asked to make an exact replica of a tower, which has been created by the leader. Unfortunately, no one team will receive all of the materials that they need. As teams struggle to create the tower they will realize that by sharing materials they can all achieve a better end result than by acting alone. Some groups will come to this realization and decide to trade materials. Others will not.

Directions:
Create your model tower. The more complex, the better. Be sure to use all of the materials noted above.

Divide your group into teams of three to five.

Prepare a packet of materials for each team based on the list above. But, remember, each packet should be missing one item. For example, one team does not receive any cups, while another team has double the number of cups needed.

When your teams are assembled and you have handed out the packets of material, bring in your pre-built tower. Explain that the groups will have 20 minutes to replicate your tower. The team, which comes the closest in the least amount of time is the winner. On your count, teams open their packets and begin work.

It will quickly become clear that items are missing. It is best neither to encourage nor discourage trading of items. Groups will naturally gravitate toward one or the other.

When the time is up, invite the group to view all of the towers and select a winner together.

Discussion:

As you are viewing the towers, ask the following questions to focus attention on the collaborative nature of the activity:
Where you able to build a good replica of the model tower? Why or why not?

What challenges did you encounter and how did you overcome them?

How does building the tower relate to your daily work?

How does this activity relate to being part of the larger organization, or group?

How can we encourage collaboration and healthy competition among team members?
Additional questions (add these if the groups did not collaborate):
Why did you choose not to collaborate?

Was it a conscious choice or did it not occur to you?

What would have been possible if you had decided to share materials?
Additional questions (add these if the groups did collaborate):
How did you come to the decision to collaborate?

What became possible once you made the decision to share materials?

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