Enabling Others to Act, Research Paper Example

Team-building exercises require a dedicated leader who is focused on its members and on making the team as productive and communicative as possible. Therefore, an effective exercise would involve the following steps, along with the expected outcomes and examples of how each step would be facilitated:

• List the first name of each team member on a piece of paper and fold each name up into a small square; put each name into a hat
• Have each team member draw a name from the hat and keep the name confidential so that nobody else can see
• Once the names are drawn, have each person describe the person whom they have chosen, using either three individual words, phrases, or short sentences, using descriptive terms and characteristics; this enables each person to be described based upon the perceptions of the person who has chosen the name
• Once all responses have been completed, have each person read his or her characteristics or descriptive words/phrases/sentences without giving away the name of the person
• Allow the group to guess the name of the person based upon the description provided
• Once the name has been correctly revealed, discuss why these characteristics were chosen by the person who drew the name

Once this exercise is completed, the group should collectively discuss the meaning and purpose of the exercise, which is to enhance communication, to see how much the team members know about each other, and to improve the potential level of trust among team members. This exercise is designed to be informal yet informative at the same time in order to promote a more relaxed team environment and to provide the team with feedback regarding what they actually know about each other and how they might make the team environment more successful.