Title: On-Line Birthday Exercise.

Exercise Type: Team-Building

Time Required: 60-240 minutes
Suggested Group Size: Small to Medium
Suggested Age Group: Teenagers, Adults
Activity Level: Light

Materials Needed: Individual personal computers.

Venue: Online

Purpose/Outcome: To develop effective Teamwork skills in an "online" environment.

Activity Description: The following directions are e-mailed to each participant.

1. Use ONLY email
2. Determine each of your birth dates, excluding the YEAR.
3. Beginning in January, in order of birth date, send me an e-mail so that I receive them in the correct order from each person individually.
4. ALL emails must be received NO LATER THAN (deadline time).
5. Please INCLUDE ME in ALL e-mail distribution concerning this exercise.

Debrief/Facilitator Notes: Once the exercise is complete you might ask each of the participants to share their experience concerning teamwork (or whichever competency you as a facilitator may have observed and choose to address). Sample questions might be:

• Did you see similarities in your behavior concerning TEAMWORK in this exercise as compared to how you see yourself as a TEAM player?

• What TEAMWORK techniques worked and which ones didn't?

• If you could repeat the exercise, how would you do it differently?

• Did definite leaders emerge in this exercise? Were you a leader? Why or why not?

• Did this exercise turn out as you expected? Why or why not?

• What are some ways you could improve as a team member?

Be prepared for more emotion than you might expect. Try to be available for additional discussion because when emotions erupt, there needs to be a calm facilitator to debrief the feelings. This exercise appears so simple yet all the elements that keep teams from functioning at a high level are present. Participants can become frustrated at their own performance as well as the performance of others. If a chat format is available, perhaps a time can be set aside for the class to resolve confusion with the facilitator available. We've learned that rerunning an exercise offers participants the opportunity to practice new skills and to experience a successful outcome.

Learning Points:

• Deciding on a "process" to accomplish even the simplest of group problems can save everyone a lot of time and anquish.

• If you don't like how a group project is going, you can decide to assume responsibility for changing it.

• A highly functional team is everyone's responsibility. If one person gives up, it impacts the entire team.

Questions to Draw Out Learning Points:

• What's the first thing you do as a team member when your team has taken on a task?

• What's your typical response when things start going downhill in your team?

• How much resposibility do you feel you have in creating a highly functional team?

Application: Journal answers to the above questions individually. Then, as a group, discuss new actions you'd like to see to create a more effective team. Encourage students to provide feedback and make requests of one another as necessary to overcome barriers.

Resources:

• There's More Than One Kind of Team, by Peter F. Drucker, Wall St. Journal

• The Basics of Team Building, from TeamTechnology.co.uk
  
  

About the Author: Steve Davis, M.A., M.S., is an Facilitator's Coach, Infoprenuer, and free-lance human, helping facilitators, organizational leaders, educators, trainers, coaches and consultants present themselves confidently, access their creativity, empower their under-performing groups, enhance their facilitation skills, and build their business online and offline. Subscribe to his free weekly ezine at www.MasterFacilitatorJournal.com or visit www.livingmastery.com to learn more about him and his offerings.