Team Building Exercises FAQ

What are the Team Building Exercise Modules?
The Team Building Modules are short, one to two hour, interactive learning sessions that teams complete together to improve the way they work and communicate with each other. The Team Building Exercises are designed in an easy-to-follow, step-by-step format that makes it possible for teams to complete them on their own. Since the team building exercises can be used in any sequence, teams can work on issues that need immediate attention first and complete other exercises on an as needed basis.

What are the components of each Team Building Exercise Module?
There are three components to most of the team building exercises. Select one of the 12 exercises, open it and lay out all the pieces. You'll find

• the exercise itself (the 11x17 folder piece)
• a User's Guide
• a Worksheet (most of the modules come with one or two worksheets)

The exercise is the core activity team members complete, the User's Guide provides suggestions for completing and facilitating the exercise, and the worksheets are used for writing lists, collecting ideas, and applying the material on a repeated basis.

What is the "User's Guide?"
It's a single sheet inserted in the exercise. The instructions on the first page of the User's Guide provide general guidelines for working through the team building exercise and descriptions on how to facilitate each step in the exercise. The back page contains specific guidelines, tips, and notes on working through each step. It's helpful for the facilitator to read through these before beginning. However, teams can set the User's Guide aside, begin the exercise and then refer to the User's Guide only if they have difficulty with a particular step or activity.

What is the "Worksheet?"
Most - but not all - of the team building tools come with a Worksheet. The Worksheet is designed to be used when the exercise calls for a list to be created or ideas written out. For example, in the exercise, Setting Our Team Goals, teams learn to write clearer and more specific goals. The Goal Setting Worksheet provides a place for team members to begin writing their list of "new-improved" team goals. Since worksheets are reproducible teams can make additional copies and use as many as needed and also use them in future team meetings.

Why does every exercise come with a User's Guide but there are no Leader's Manual?
This makes it possible for all team members to share in the responsibility of making each session a success. The team building exercises are designed for teams to work through together. The User's Guides give every member the same suggestions, guidelines, and tips that the team leader or facilitator has.

This is one area where the team building exercises are distinctly different from other training materials and makes for a unique team building activity. Traditional training materials are presented with the teacher-student model. When in that role team members can be passive, resist and wait to be fixed and team leaders often have all the responsibility on making the session a success. The team building exercises make it possible for team members to be equally responsible in participation and facilitation of the materials.

Can the team leader or facilitator take the User's Guide out before giving the exercises to the team?
Certainly they can, but in doing so they would lose one of the most powerful characteristics of the exercises. If the team leader is the only person to have a User's Guide, the old traditional command-control model of management would be repeated. The leader would take on the position of being the expert and assume the role of teaching the team what to do. When this happens, team members have a tendency to fall into a passive role. Some may sit back, resist, and judge how well the leader does. Then if the session isn't a success they declare it to be the leader's fault or a problem with the materials.

This isn't teamwork. The INSIGHT Team Building Exercises help teams avoid this by providing every member with a User's Guide for helping the team work through each exercise. Every team member has the tools and the shared responsibility to help make every session a success.

Are consultants or professional facilitators ever needed?
Many teams find they can work through the exercises without the direct involvement of a trainer or outside consultant. Other teams find coaching or facilitation from a specialist, at least on certain exercises, beneficial. They may use the facilitator on several exercises to get off to a good start and then complete the remaining exercises on their own.

A professional facilitator always brings additional knowledge and experience that can be introduced during the exercise to enrich the materials. In that sense, facilitators can be very helpful. Also, teams that are experiencing an excessive amount of turmoil or conflict will benefit from the added mediation skills a professional facilitator lends to the process.