The folly
Featured in the The Team Working Activity Pack training manual
By Rod Storey
Category: Team Building
Credit price: 3 download credits (Single user)
It is easy for teams to plan work in a variety of ways, but less easy to make sure that things actually happen as intended. This exercise helps teams to plan effectively within budget and time constraints, and to execute their plans, hopefully to make a profit. The training activity is intended for two or more teams working in competition.
The participants work as a team to plan and build a structure, the folly. There are three stages to the exercise: stage one – each team ‘tenders’ for building a structure, stage two – it then builds a folly to prove the team’s ability and worth by building a test model to its forecast budget and time (it is common for team members to assume that they can build the folly in a particular time without actually checking or practising a timed construction), and stage three – the team then measures its folly and checks against specification and costs. The participants debrief the exercise in their teams. This is followed by a final discussion relating the learning points to the participants’ normal work.
Who is it for: This training resource is intended for use by trainers to give participants the opportunity to carry out a detailed and complex planning and teamwork exercise within budget and time restraints. It also involves planning and actually working to that plan.
| Resource Type: | Activity |
| Min Group Size: | 4 |
| Max Group Size: | 8 |
| Typical Duration: | 01:30:00 |
| No of Pages: | 16 |
Resources: View standard resources for Fenman training activities
Additional resources: Two sets of materials for each team (see activity for full details)
Purpose: This training resource is intended for use by trainers after participants have carried out a number of teamwork exercises, when a team has started to ‘gel’ together and needs to develop further. It is particularly useful for teams that need practical experience of actually working to plan, as opposed to simply making the plan and highlighting ways it can go wrong. Team leaders will find the exercise helpful to practise controlling and monitoring the work of a team. It will help a current team leader as well as developing leadership skills in team members who have potential for the future.
Download the training activity, The folly as featured in the Fenman training manual; The Team Working Activity Pack