Two teams that work in different locations have the opportunity to meet in a third location. The teams have to work together to build an articulated truck and two skips that can be transported by the truck. One team has to build the tractor unit and a skip that can hold all of the unused materials, the other the trailer and a skip for any scrap that is produced.

To be successful teams need to be aware that their actions will have an immediate effect on each other, so they must communicate and work accordingly.

The Discussion Topics are:

• Understanding the overall objective and constraints
• Planning
• Teams working on related tasks in different locations
• Communicating effectively between inter-dependent teams

Handcuffed is a flexible 2-part activity which energizes whilst introducing and developing the core elements of team working. In Part 1 teams compete against each other, whereas in Part 2 the teams have to cooperate and communicate effectively to achieve their goals.

Part 1 can be used in isolation to 'break the ice' whilst introducing the importance of basic team skills (planning, co-operation etc.).

The Discussion Topics are:

• Planning and working together under pressure
• Awareness of others needs
• Helping each other to complete their tasks
• Achieving success through teamwork
• Inter-team working
• Careful and detailed planning.

A competitive activity to help participants understand the importance of customer orientation, establishing and working to priorities, planning (and revising plans), estimating costs and working within a set time frame.

The Discussion Topics are:

• Customer focus: identifying, understanding and meeting customer priorities
• Planning
• Working together
• Reviewing progress against objectives
• Changing plans (with agreement) as necessary.

This activity is for people who need to set targets and plan in a competitive environment. The task is simple, but as new information is received groups need to reconsider earlier decisions: progress needs to be monitored, targets revised and plans changed with everyone's agreement as the task unfolds.

The Discussion Topics are:

• Reviewing progress
• Planning in a competitive environment
• Setting and achieving realistic (stretching?) targets
• Valuing new information and revising targets and plans appropriately
• Understanding and focusing on priorities
• Group decision making.

Helipads involve 2 or 3 competing teams. It is designed to demonstrate how effective team working within and between teams influences business success and highlight the key qualities that influence the process.

Team success is dependent of the value of the final product, but it addition to organising themselves, competing teams need to work together to ensure that they do not reduce the value of their products: the value of any helipad is reduced if two or more are produced to the same specification, but some specifications are more profitable than others.

The Discussion Topics are:

• Understanding and achieving business success
• Planning within and between teams
• Making the most of market opportunities
• Introduction to negotiating
• Developing team skills
• Taking personal responsibility and trusting others to do their job.

Using similar components, 2 or 3 teams work independently to assemble a model of their own design.Then, using only face to face, verbal and telephone communications (nothing written or drawn) each team has to build an exact replica of another team's model. The task becomes more complicated because each group only has enough components to create one model at a time.

The Discussion Topics are:

• Understanding the overall objective
• Planning and revising plans
• Inter-team communications
• Co-operating, not competing teams
• Instructing

The aim is to make money by producing a model oil rig. The value of the oil rig depends on set criteria and everything has a cost. The group has freedom to organise itself in anyway it wishes, but there are 3 set locations (tabletops) where sub-assemblies must be made before they are moved to the final assembly area.

It is all too easy for the task to take over and for the overall aim (making money) to be forgotten.

The Discussion Topics are:

• Project management
• Understanding the big picture and constraints
• Planning
• One team working on a task but in different locations
• Communicating within a team
• Basic finance

The leader has promised that two teams will each deliver a price and a product within a set time. Each team has different constraints, but the tasks seem achievable. Very quickly the stores become a major bottle neck and the promises become daunting. As pressure mounts the need for the manager to focus on the key issues (meeting customer needs and managing human resources) is critical.

The Discussion Topics are:

• Leading different teams at the same time
• Understanding and working with priorities
• Managing changing situations
• Satisfying customers needs
• The cost of rash promises

Initially three teams work independently to produce a product. It's easy. Later they come together as one big team, the brief combining their earlier briefs but additional constraints become the big issue. Teams fail to capitalise on the resources offered by the new 'big team' so the merging of the 'companies' delivers almost no benefit. Why? The answer almost always revolves around attitudes to change and the failure to change approaches to capitalise on the new situation.

The Discussion Topics are:

• Personal attitudes to change
• The benefits of diversity
• Merging teams (and organisations)
• Recognising and benefiting from others' potential