Team Exercise
SURVIVAL!
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Survival Goals
• Demonstrate Teams are able to produce decisions superior
to individual decisions
“Two heads are better than one.”
• Teach interpersonal & rational skills involved in
synergistic decision making
• Facilitate examination of group behavior
• Provide constructive feedback on team performance
• Start process of team formation & jelling
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Individual Ranking Exercise
• Review challenge, survival strategy, overall strategy & salvaged items
• Pick appropriate survival strategies (please do not discuss with others)
• Rank salvaged items
– Individual rank column, 1 = most important, 15 least important
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Base your ranking on the situation presented
Use scratch paper for notes (do not use booklet)
Press hard when entering answers
If you need to change an answer, cross out, do not erase
20 minutes to complete
If you finish early, take a short break
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Team Ranking Exercise
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Do not role play
Team must reach consensus
Do not change individual ranks
60 minutes to complete,
followed by 20 minute break
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Experts Ranking & Rationale
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Scoring Grid
Team
Steve
Greg
Ron
Average Individual Score
(Add scores from A4 & B4)
Divide by # on team
70
56
54
Team Score
(Add scores from A5 & B5)
48
42
40
Gain (Loss) Score
(Avg indiv – Team)
22
14
14
63
36
32
0
1
1
Percent Change
(Gain_Loss / Avg Indiv)
Best Individual Score
# of Members better than
team score
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Discussion
Outline Process
– Issues & Questions Considered
– Extent of and order of consideration
Steps taken to prioritize and rank
Discussion dynamics
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Synergistic Decision Making
“Effective” Decisions
Quality of Decision x Degree of Decision Acceptance
Synergistic Decision Making
Premise: when people are supportive of one another & follow a rational
sequence of activities in dealing with a problem, they can perform beyond
the sum of their individual resources (2+2 = 5)
Interpersonal Process
Listening
Supporting
Differing – constructive, not defensive, conflict
Participating equally
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Listening
Characteristics of lack of listening
Interrupting each other
Jumping from subject to subject
Carrying on more than one conversation at a time
Preparing a response while someone else speaking
Active Listening
Anticipate where the conversation is going
Objectively weigh what has been said
Try to understand contributions from speaker’s point of view
Periodically review & summarize what has been said
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Supporting
Tendency to focus on what’s wrong rather than what’s right
Result:
Good ideas go unrecognized
Frustration
Defensiveness
How to be supportive:
Assume that others have useful ideas & viewpoints
Point out useful aspects of ideas
Build on these aspects
Avoid unnecessary criticism
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Differing
Some people tend to avoid differing for fear of conflict
Some people live for conflict (possibly unconsciously)
Constructive differing:
State differences as their own concerns (do not judge)
Clearly specify differences
Focus on reasons for the differences
Treat differences as a source of ideas
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Participating
Beware group discussions dominated by the few
All members need to be comfortable enough to express ideas
Equal participation requires:
Recognize group is facing the problem
Determine whether everyone agrees with statements regarding
group’s position
Ask less talkative members for their ideas & opinions
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Rational Process
Analyzing the situation
Sort out facts from assumptions
Avoid leaping to conclusions & making hasty decisions (slow down)
Setting objectives
Identify objectives (e.g. survival) and distinguish them from activities
Discuss constraints & forces working against achievement
View actions as possible strategies
Considering alternative strategies
Advocacy method is typical
Alternately, brainstorming (generate ideas, no judgment)
After generating & understanding all alternatives, then discuss & evaluate
Discussing adverse consequences
Identify possible adverse consequences
Estimate likelihood of consequences
Estimate severity
Compare consequences of alternative strategies
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Reaching Consensus
Effective Decision = Quality x Acceptance
Lack of agreement on / acceptance of a decision places its execution in jeopardy.
Recognize there is typically no single “right” answer
Consensus more likely when members understand that their way is not the only
way to see the problem.
Consensus most likely when:
Voting & majority rule are not used to defeat dissenting members
Priority is placed on sequences activities in a way that all members can live with
Alternatives & rankings are modified to satisfy members with serious reservations
Members build on what they agree on (rather than focusing on what they disagree on)
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