The clock
Featured in the The Team Working Activity Pack training manual
By Rod Storey
Category: Team Building
Credit price: 2 download credits (Single user)
It is all too easy when working in teams to find difficulty in solving a problem because of obstacles participants inadvertently put in their own way; for example, ‘it must be this way’ or ‘this is the logical approach’. This ‘mindset’, or thinking in a particular way, prevents team members from allowing themselves to think more widely and dissuades them from suggesting new or innovative ways of doing things for fear of the ideas being rejected or ridiculed. This short exercise encourages participants to use wider or lateral thinking to solve a problem and demonstrates the benefits of avoiding ‘mindset’.
What happens depends on the purpose for which the exercise is being used, and at what stage of a course. At an early stage – the exercise is used as a ‘starter’ in problem solving to see how participants tackle it, working in small teams. The participants discuss their performance in order to progress to more complex problems. At a later stage – the participants discuss the kinds of methods and solutions they have been using to conduct exercises and solve problems. They use this exercise as a means of developing and using a wider range of methods and then discuss the application of this wider range of approaches to solving real problems at work. As an icebreaker – the exercise is introduced to the participants as such. At a later stage in the course they will discuss the exercise as an example of the need for wide thinking to solve exercises and problems.
Who is it for: This training resource is intended for use by trainers to encourage participants to use different approaches to problem solving. It can also be used as an icebreaker and a way of persuading members to change the way they solve problems.
| Resource Type: | Activity |
| Min Group Size: | 4 |
| Max Group Size: | 8 |
| Typical Duration: | 00:55:00 |
| No of Pages: | 9 |
Resources: View standard resources for Fenman training activities
Purpose: This training resource is intended for use by trainers at an early stage of a team development course when the participants are starting problem solving in order to demonstrate the benefits of avoiding mindset, later in a course if the participants appear to use the same or a similar approach to tackling problems or difficulties too frequently and they would benefit from being encouraged to use wide range of methods, or as an icebreaker.
Download the training activity, The clock as featured in the Fenman training manual; The Team Working Activity Pack