Energetic and motivating team workshops
There are phases in teamwork when a boost of motivation is needed. Usually, when the initial euphoria has faded and the first obstacles or conflicts arise. What do you see in the faces of your colleagues then? Blank looks. Silence. Confusion. Overstrain. We are bothered by the feeling that we are unproductive and wasting our time. The energy just fizzles out.
How does it feel instead, when you look into attentive, motivated faces? When suddenly people you would never expect to speak in front of the group dare to do so? When the ideas just bubble up and one task after the other gets done? Then, even after a long day, you feel that you have more energy than before. In this article we would like to share a few ideas and experiences on how you can achieve this.
What is energy?
When we feel energised and motivated, certain bio-chemical brain activties can be observed. Areas that are responsible for social behaviour, processing of facts, motor function and sensory function are activated. Neurotransmitters such as dopamine (emotion and memory), cortisol (attention and memory) and oxytocin (empathy, trust) are released. When we hear stories that fascinate us or when we lose track of time while playing, exactly the same thing happens. This is why storytelling and gamification are on everyone’s lips right now, and we simply cannot escape their effect. However, when it comes to sustainable cooperation between people, authenticity counts. Of course, you follow a certain purpose by performing a motivational workshop. But it is best to be transparent about your goals. Then your participants will consciously decide to work together and show real commitment.
Playing vs. working
In our team development programme ‘Collaboration Sprint’, we schedule a workshop around the halfway point of the sprint, where the preliminary results are demonstrated and a joint reflection on the collaboration takes place. The aim is for the team to give themselves a motivational boost for the second half and to clear any obstacles on the way to the sprint goal. We call this event “Energizer”. For the team to reach the highest possible energy level, we have transferred some aspects from game-based learning into our workshop design. For one we actually use games as a method and for another our methods follow game-based principles. In this case, games are not used to pass the time or to relax, but enable goal-oriented work and learning in a flow state.
Our top 5 principles of play
We regularly incorporate the following principles (source: TU Braunschweig) into our workshops. Since we always adapt our workshops to the respective team constellation and objective, none of them are alike. Below you will find real-life examples for each principle. We keep them short here. But if you would like to know more or need support in executing a team workshop, please contact us.
Play principle 1 — Order
Play worlds are structured and can be adapted to the needs of the players.
Example of use— Clearly structured goal and team-refined success criteria: “Our goal is: We know where we are on our product roadmap. We know any obstacles we need to remove before launch.” From this we derive the first step: “Please think about what we need to have achieved at the end of the day for you to say we were successful. Write each point on a card.”. The cards are then collected on the flipchart and clustered. During the workshop, the completed agenda items are ticked off for all to see, and the achieved target criteria are moved under “completed”.
Play principle 2 — Identity
Assuming and understanding the role in the game world.
Example of use — Escape Game to find roles in a team: “Do you know the movie ‘Cast away’? You are all stranded on a desert island and now you have to try to get away. There are various objects that you can use to draw attention to yourselves. You have 30 minutes…” The participants must first find their way around the game world. Because of the time pressure, different sub-groups form to work on the tasks. Again and again, other participants take the initiative, changing roles depending on their knowledge and creativity. After the game, the group reflects on the experiences and takes away insights for real-life cooperation.
Play principle 3 — Interaction
Games require active participation in the process, an alternation of action and reaction.
Example of use — group supervision for cooperative problem solving: One team member describes a problem. The rest of the team can ask questions of understanding. Afterwards, everyone gives their assumptions (hypotheses) about the problem situation, these are collected in writing. Then the problem giver evaluates the assumptions as helpful or not helpful for him. In the next step, the team thinks about possible solutions based on the helpful assumptions. These are then evaluated again by the problem giver. Finally, a summary is drawn in the group.
Play principle 4 — Risk taking
Play environment provides safety so players are more willing to take risks.
Example of use — Doing things for the first time: In a so-called ‘City Bound’, participants embark on an adventure in the city to reach their limits and gain new perspectives and impressions. Tasks have to be done, such as finding places without a city map or getting food without money, which one would never do in everyday life. They are a challenge, but there are no bad consequences if they are not completed. Regardless of the outcome, by exposing themselves to the situation, participants can gain valuable insights about themselves and how to work with others.
Play principle 5 — On demand
Information is given to players when it is directly needed or on demand.
Example of use — Purposeful info blocks: When additional knowledge or facts are needed for the team workshop, we use guiding questions to check all input blocks if they are fit for purpose: What am I giving the information for? What do I want to achieve with it? At what point in time is the information needed? What prerequisites and prior knowledge do my participants have? Is this information appropriate for the subsequent interaction exercise? What can I leave out?
Sustainable motivation during a Collaboration Sprint
If you have managed to get your team members into a flow state with the help of play principles, your workshop will certainly be effective and motivating. If you want the motivation to last and your team to focus on a goal over a longer period of time, it should not remain a one-time event. Our ‘Collaboration Sprint’ concept offers you a plannable structure with fixed time frames and targeted events for sustainable successful team collaboration. You can find more information about this in our previous article. If you found this article interesting, please share it. Or let us know if you have any questions or suggestions from your own experience. We are happy to receive any feedback.
