This inter-team activity takes the concept of 'prisoners dilemma  (if I help you escape first, can I trust you to help me escape afterwards?) to a new level: no matter how hard teams try, one must win unless both settle for a very poor performance.

The activity demands effective analysis, clear and effective communication, leadership between teams, planning, building and retaining trust, negotiating and.....

The Discussion Topics are:

• Openness, honesty and trust
• Negotiating
• Communicating within and between teams
• Defining and realising success: beating others vs. doing as well as you can
• Inter-team rivalry

Although this powerful team working activity is done is silence it explores attitudes and approaches that influence effective communication.

Everyone has a task, so looking after yourself first is tempting, and personal achievement satisfying, but what if your short-term success prevents others (and therefore the team) from completing the overall task? Working with others is one thing, but undoing your own work to help someone else may be a different matter.

Team success demands that, despite the frustrations that may build as the problems unfold, individuals are; sensitive to what others are trying to achieve, aware of what everyone is actually doing, seeking ways to ensure that their personal actions enable the whole team to succeed.

The Discussion Topics are:

• Individual vs. team success
• Awareness of others' needs
• There are more ways to contribute to a team than providing ideas, answers and solutions
• Taking responsibility for the team
• Communicating the right thing in the right way when others are ready to receive the information.

Two halves of one team with different parts of the same task are separated by; a door, the knowledge that one team cannot divulge all its information, different work loads. Pressure and frustration build as effective communications diminish.

If only people could step back and think...... the task becomes so easy if the sub-teams work together solve the problem of developing effective communications rather than focusing on the detail of the task.

The Discussion Topics are:

• Company vs. department objectives
• The impact of splitting a team across two locations: 'out of sight, out of mind'
• Involving people in decisions that affect what they have to do
• Thinking 'outside the box'
• Effective communications

Initially designers and builders work in separate locations but they can communicate by 'fax'. The management team has the overview and the workers have all the materials and information to complete the task, they just need to be 'pointed in the right direction' and encouraged to get on with the job in hand........

Why do the managers interfere and the workers acquiesce? ......... Perhaps old attitudes like "managers use their heads, workers use their hands" die hard.

The Discussion Topics are:

• Leadership
• Empowerment and 'letting go'
• Exploring and understanding the role and responsibilities of a team member
• Accepting and valuing others' ideas.

Working as one team the group has to place all team members on a continuum that is based on information that is personal but not private, e.g. length of service, time taken to travel to work etc. of the members. No individual may give any information about themselves, it all has to be worked out by the group using information that is already known or assumed. Once the order has been agreed group members place each other where they should be, which is not straight forwards either! Only then can individuals reveal the true information.

The Discussion Topics are:

• Using both information and opinions to make decisions
• Knowing what are assumptions and expectations vs. facts
• The value of team members relating on a personal basis
• Establishing personal links / topics of conversation.

Over the Bridge is an innovative way to introduce and develop team skills. It is a two part activity: part one introduces the concepts, part two provides an opportunity for performance improvement.

Making a bridge and a vehicle is easy, but because the brief is deliberately ambiguous establishing and meeting the customers specification is a different matter. This emphasises the need for participants to clarify their objectives and develop plans before getting stuck into the task, but for some reason this is easier said than done..... just like being at work?

The Discussion Topics are:

• Core Team Skills
• Customer Focus
• Identifying Objectives
• Quality Standards

The task is straightforward (although people may see it differently). The problem is that to succeed everyone who is involved must work together, keep up to date with progress, offer ideas clearly and concisely, listen and respond positively to others'.

As all team members wear eye-shades throughout the task increasing their sensitivity and awareness of others. This heightened awareness emphasises the impact of differing personal styles, e.g. compliant, assertive, aggressive.

The Discussion Topics are:

• Planning before acting
• Revising plans as information is received
• Listening
• The impact of individuals' differing styles of verbal communication on others.

Teams have to devise and build obstacle courses using the MTa Team Kit. They are given guidelines (which the facilitator can vary) that allow them the freedom to make the course easy or as challenging as they wish. Teams then complete the courses designed for them by each other.

The Discussion Topics are:

• Identifying and understanding criteria for success
• Making decisions together but executing plans separately
• Working with, vs. competing against, other teams
• Trust
• Basics of team leadership.

This is a competitive task in which teams are able to monitor each other's progress. Although the task is simple as teams improve their performance the chances of a calamity increase. Should teams keep stretching themselves and risk total failure or be more cautious and risk defeat?

The Discussion Topics are:

• The impact of competitive team working
• Setting achievable targets
• Group decision making
• Revising decisions as information more is gained
• Risk taking

It's a straight forwards race between the teams. The wining team will be the one that: thinks logically, plans, learns from mistakes, communicates effectively perhaps and doesn't give up!

The Discussion Topics are:

• Team problem solving using logic
• Planning and implementing plans
• Generating commitment to, and implementing, decisions as a team
• Giving and implementing precise instructions
• Working together as one.

The winning team is the first one to build a structure that is 'fit for purpose'. The problem is that the 'bigger and better' the structure (and therefore the more time spent building) the less challenging the purpose. Teams have to think through the options before deciding what to do, but perhaps they should just dive in? What ever they decide to do they need to work efficiently and effectively.

The Discussion Topics are:

• Understanding how success will be measured
• Challenging preconceived ideas
• Working to requirements rather than personal preferences
• Team problem solving

Teams have to create high value structures. As the structures' complexity grows their value increases. Although the criteria for valuation are simple participants can interpret and 'stretch' the criteria. What is acceptable and what is cheating?

The Discussion Topics are:

• Quality standards
• Customer requirements vs. personal standards
• Self imposed constraints
• Preparedness to challenge personal opinions and attitudes

In the task callers (leaders) have very different roles from other team members. However the whole team has to plan how they can are to complete the task solve problems together along the way. Everyone has to work carefully and accurately to help each other: mistakes are costly and difficult to rectify.

The Discussion Topics are:

• Giving and receiving instructions
• The roles of leaders and followers
• The impact of the task on leader followers roles
• Accurate and efficient verbal communication.