Teamwork Makes the Dream Work

Teamwork, communication and creative thinking are keys to success in every industry. We decided to put these very skills to the test in a fun Friday @ 4 exercise.

In this exercise, we compiled a stack of sticky notes, each one with a different word written on it - either a person, place or thing. One person at a time would sit in the middle of the room with a sticky note placed on his or her forehead. That person was then only allowed to ask a series of yes or no questions to solve the mystery of what was on the sticky note.

Easy enough right?

Well, kind of… This seemingly simple game provided quite a bit of insight into the challenges of working as an individual versus as a team with a variety of people towards one single goal. The exercise reaffirmed a topic we recently discussed on how important it is to ask good questions.

That is the question...

It was imperative that the questions asked were creative. Since each person was limited to yes or no questions, we were required to get outside of our heads and be strategic in what we asked to help solve the clue. Challenges arose when you couldn't think of any more questions or didn't know which direction to go. There was no one to help you generate more questions or give any guidance. You can see how this could result in frustration, right?

Multiple trains of thought in one station

Something else we quickly realized is that no two people think the same way. Seems obvious, eh? But we didn't consider this initially. Because we are each unique, so are our trains of thought and our connotations of words. This reality forced us to think about how certain words and phrases can have multiple meanings.

For example, one of the words was “salsa.” One of the first questions the individual asked was, “Can I eat this?” Automatically the majority of us said, “Absolutely, yes!” while others said, “Not so fast…” While some of us were thinking of the delicious snack consumed with tortilla chips at a Mexican restaurant, others had the passionate dance in mind. Without a team, we tend to think our own way. We need others to challenge our way of thinking and help us see from different perspectives.

It's not a profound statement to say that we need others. But we often forget, and sometimes the smallest of exercises or circumstances remind us of this reality. If you need assistance in making your dream work, let’s partner together to complete the teamwork.