Five Dysfunctions Seminar Team Building

Based on “The Five Dysfunctions of a Team”, a perennial Wall Street Journal bestseller this team building work shop explores the fundamental causes of organizational politics and team failure.

From the executive suite to the factory floor, the Dysfunctions model has become the standard for eliminating the natural human tendencies which derail teamwork and create costly, organizational politics.

The ideal length for this organizational change seminar is one to three days. The five dysfunctions seminar is best conducted in one of our recommended retreats in a remote and or secluded location away from the work environment.

The work shop consists of a pre-training questionnaire, analysis, theory, power point presentations, discussions and debate, practical team building activities and team exercises.

Each dysfunction is introduced by a graph measuring team functionality, followed by a short introduction of the topic, team exercises and discussions.

Trust Fall (30 min)

Trust fall is a powerful exercise to depict human vulnerability. In this catch and fall activity, a chemical (oxytocin) in your blood is re-leased that creates a natural bonding effect.

Personal Histories Exercise (45 to 90 minutes)

This exercise is designed to become more comfortable with vulnerability within the team. Delegates reveal a short personal story about a difficult aspect of their lives to their colleagues. Trust is built by revealing vulnerability and humility.

Guess Your Colleagues Quiz (30 to 60 minutes)

Guess your colleagues is a fun, yet mind-boggling quiz to generate deeper under-standing about the nature of your col-leagues. Delegates are often amazed how little they know about their colleagues personal lives. This exercise creates the basic understanding and foundation of team work.

Conflict Case Study (3 hours)

Delegates are presented with a meeting scenario from their business Teams identify personal conflicts, analyze team behavior and come up with a solutions to improve the meeting. Further, delegates write a meeting scenario in which team members challenge each other, engage in stimulating enthusiastic debate about ideas, push each other to the limits and make the best decisions for the good of the team. Finally, delegates act out their meeting scenario on stage. With costumes and wigs, individuals may show off their acting skills in a fun, engaging and inspiring way.

Thematic Goals Exercise (3 hours)

The thematic goal exercise consist of a quiz around the company’s goals and objectives, a VDO as well as team discussion. The objective is to align the team around a common goal.

Team Effectiveness Exercise (2 hours)

Team effectiveness exercise is a feed-back session similar to the 360 degree feed-back. Team members reflect upon themselves and come up with a unique behavioral characteristic that contributes to the success of the team (positive) and one personality trait that could potentially derail the team (critical). Starting from the most senior member of the team to stand in the center, delegates present feed-back to each member of their team. Each person must reflects upon the feed-back given and commit openly and honestly to work on improving one trait for the good of the team.

Moon Ball (30 minutes)

Using a large inflatable ball teams compete to keep the ball in the air the longest. The team scores one point when everyone on the team has touched the ball before it hits the ground. In this simple yet powerful exercise team must set benchmarks that only through teamwork may be achieved. The trainer illustrates in a remarkable and mind opening exercise that teams which set high objectives are more likely to achieve high results.

Balloon Balance (1 hour)

This game is designed to show that something that seems impossible or very hard can be done, and to introduce the concept of supporting people in the team. The task is to sup-port of their team mates using only balloons. This person must only rest on balloons and not the floor or another per-son. The challenge is to use the fewest number of balloons possible.

Giant Pyramid (1 hour)

This puzzle solving exercise epitomizes the five dysfunctions in theory and practice. Combining giant square shaped blocks, the team must complete the giant pyramid in the fastest time possible. Team behavior is analyzed and feed-back is given in the de-briefing.