Name of the Exercise
Red and Black
Description
This exercise is to see how participants inter-relate to each other in a Win-Win situation, Win-Lose, Lose-Win or Lose-Lose. Also we see how they communicate with each other, how they conduct their meetings and how they draw their conclusions from a concensus point of view.
Duration
40-60
minutes.
Identified Need
Lack of inter-departmental cooperation. High incidences of “finger pointing”. Departmetalization and sub-optimization. Working to serve the needs of a particular department or area as opposed to working to support the needs of the needs of the entire organization. Win-Lose mentality. Poor cooperation in inter-department meetings. Adversarial or competitive relationships between departments or teams. Bottlenecks or lack of flexibility/cross training across departments.
Performance Objective
Concrete actions taken in the workplace to demonstrate cooperation and Win-Win work strategies. As you define the specific need for this activity, you will be able to define more concrete performance objectives. These merely serve as generic examples.
Technical Consideration
You must have a flip chart, dry erase board or projection screen to display the grid. This exercise needs to be conducted with a group of at least 8 participants.
The grid should be displayed as follows:
The grid should be displayed as follows:
There are four (4) options for scoring, as each group makes their selections of red or black. Scoring options are as follows:
Technical Procedure
1. Divide the participants into two groups: Team A and Team B. Each group is sent to a different corner of the room to begin the exercise.
2. Each Team selects a Team Leader. The Leader’s role is to announce the choices of the group, and to lead the group toward winning.
3. Give the instructions of the exercise as follows:
This activity has an objective. That is to win. Winning is the purpose of this activity. How do we win the exercise? We will see that later. We do this exercise with one-way communication. You can not ask any questions, so listen very carefully to the explanation.
There are six rounds to be held. In each round, each group is responsible to select one color: Red or Black. The time frame in which you will make your decision is 3 minutee per round. For 3 minutes you can talk within your group to determine your selection. You are to choose only one color, and you are to arrive at concensus among your group. There should be no communication between the groups.
After three minutes, the trainer will visit each group and ask which color you have chosen for that round. You write your choice on a piece of paper. You don’t want the other team to hear what you have selected. After the trainer knows the outcome for both teams, the trainer writes the results on the flip chart, and both teams discover what the other has chosen. The same procedure will be followed for all six rounds.
There are four possibility of choice. [Explain the scoring options using the prepared chart, as above]. Since you can not ask any questions, let’s try some examples. [Trainer puts in any color at random in each frame and shows how the calculations are done. In frame three, the points entered are doubled. In frame six the points are tripled].
Now, I haven’t told you something very important. How do we win this exercise? It is to install the maximum number of positive points in here. [Repeat this phrase three times slowly, and point to both sixth frames at the same time].
4. Begin the exercise as described, and continue through all of the frames without stopping to process each frame. Before the 3rd round, remind the group that the score will be doubled. Before the 6th round, remind the group that the score will be tripled.
2. Each Team selects a Team Leader. The Leader’s role is to announce the choices of the group, and to lead the group toward winning.
3. Give the instructions of the exercise as follows:
This activity has an objective. That is to win. Winning is the purpose of this activity. How do we win the exercise? We will see that later. We do this exercise with one-way communication. You can not ask any questions, so listen very carefully to the explanation.
There are six rounds to be held. In each round, each group is responsible to select one color: Red or Black. The time frame in which you will make your decision is 3 minutee per round. For 3 minutes you can talk within your group to determine your selection. You are to choose only one color, and you are to arrive at concensus among your group. There should be no communication between the groups.
After three minutes, the trainer will visit each group and ask which color you have chosen for that round. You write your choice on a piece of paper. You don’t want the other team to hear what you have selected. After the trainer knows the outcome for both teams, the trainer writes the results on the flip chart, and both teams discover what the other has chosen. The same procedure will be followed for all six rounds.
There are four possibility of choice. [Explain the scoring options using the prepared chart, as above]. Since you can not ask any questions, let’s try some examples. [Trainer puts in any color at random in each frame and shows how the calculations are done. In frame three, the points entered are doubled. In frame six the points are tripled].
Now, I haven’t told you something very important. How do we win this exercise? It is to install the maximum number of positive points in here. [Repeat this phrase three times slowly, and point to both sixth frames at the same time].
4. Begin the exercise as described, and continue through all of the frames without stopping to process each frame. Before the 3rd round, remind the group that the score will be doubled. Before the 6th round, remind the group that the score will be tripled.
Co-trainer Responsibility
The co-trainer can be very valuable to participants during this activity, in assisting them to see the link between the exercise and controls being installed in their areas of operation.
Tactical Procedure
1. When the activity has been completed, you will see that each group has attempted to “win”. Initially, it is very common to see each team attempting to select the color which will yield the most points for their own team, and the least points for the “other” team. It is uncommon, but not unheard of, for the teams to figure out early on that when they both select black, they create the opportunity for the most points to be earned. Generally they will figure this out before the sixth round, but it will take a round or two for them to begin to consistently select the Win-Win option. Typically, the ending scores will be low, as a result of each team trying to “win”, and give the other team negative scores. The observations of the co-trainer, as to how participants respond, what they say, how they react, will be key in allowing you to fully process the exercise. There will be moments when a group “schemes” to “get” the other group. There will be moments when they attempt to make good faith efforts for both groups to gain points. There will be moments when “faith” between the groups is “betrayed” in a continued effort to earn more points for a single group. The instructions are given clearly, but perception of “winning” typically means that one team beats another. Regardless of the clear instructions – that they win by getting the most points in BOTH frames – they will tend to understand and interpret the instructions in a competitive manner, and will want only their team to win.
2. After all six frames are completed, debrief the exercise with the group as follows:
You have to remember that the process and results of this exercise reflect your daily behavior, your way of thinking, your pattern of belief system, just like a mirror.
What was the objective of this exercise? To win. That’s right. Then, which team wins? Does anybody remember what I said about how to win this exercise? I repeated three times slowly. (Usually several different answer are expected.) it is a big surprise that most of you don’t remember what I said exactly. I said, “it is to install the maximum amount of positive points in HERE” and pointed to both frames. You see, listening is very difficult. We tend to listen and interpret the way we want to, or the way we are conditioned to.
Processing point to highlight: Filtering/Perceptions. We understand “winning” to mean that somebody wins and somebody looses. We are conditioned to think this way, and that can keep us from listening effectively to each other.
3. The moment you heard the word WIN, most of you automatically imagined that this is a Win-Lose game, which means to beat the other group. I didn’t say it that way, but our past perceptions told us that we were to compete. Even the way I set up the room set us up to compete.
Key Questions: What are the ways in which we are “set up” to compete in our work environment? Do we have the same goals? Goals which are coordinated for the good of the entire organization? Do we have physical barriers (walls, corridors, buildings) that allow us to see each other as competing groups?
4. Again, which group wins? That’s right, no one wins. What is the result you wanted? To install the maximum amount of the points here. In order to win, which color do you have to choose? Black. If both groups chose black every time, each group would be assigned 3 points per frame, 6 points for double and 9 points for the triple. The total result would be 27 points in each frame, or a total of 54 points. That is the result you wanted.
5. If you agreed to choose black, how would you know that the other group would also choose black. There is no guarantee! It involves trust.
6. When there is a possibility with no guarantee, we tend to choose the easy way. That is to choose the same way and both groups choose red. And the result could turn out to be a negative 27! The opposite of what we wanted!
7. It is not to say that a Win-Win game is always the best. Sometimes a Win-Lose situation is necessary. For example in sports, you have to beat the other team in order to win.
8. Win-Lose situations often turn into Lose-Lose situations, just as we experienced today. Reflect this on your daily life. What games are you playing with your supervisors, your friends, parents, wife or husband? Often we enter human relationships wanting them to be Win-Win situations. But often we end up playing a Lose-Lose game even with the most important people in our lives.
9. How do you define a Win-Win situation in your area? Or with another department? How do we know when we have a Win-Win situation: This is a great time to review an installed control which can show the difference between coordinated efforts (Win-Win) and competitive efforts (Win-Lose).
2. After all six frames are completed, debrief the exercise with the group as follows:
You have to remember that the process and results of this exercise reflect your daily behavior, your way of thinking, your pattern of belief system, just like a mirror.
What was the objective of this exercise? To win. That’s right. Then, which team wins? Does anybody remember what I said about how to win this exercise? I repeated three times slowly. (Usually several different answer are expected.) it is a big surprise that most of you don’t remember what I said exactly. I said, “it is to install the maximum amount of positive points in HERE” and pointed to both frames. You see, listening is very difficult. We tend to listen and interpret the way we want to, or the way we are conditioned to.
Processing point to highlight: Filtering/Perceptions. We understand “winning” to mean that somebody wins and somebody looses. We are conditioned to think this way, and that can keep us from listening effectively to each other.
3. The moment you heard the word WIN, most of you automatically imagined that this is a Win-Lose game, which means to beat the other group. I didn’t say it that way, but our past perceptions told us that we were to compete. Even the way I set up the room set us up to compete.
Key Questions: What are the ways in which we are “set up” to compete in our work environment? Do we have the same goals? Goals which are coordinated for the good of the entire organization? Do we have physical barriers (walls, corridors, buildings) that allow us to see each other as competing groups?
4. Again, which group wins? That’s right, no one wins. What is the result you wanted? To install the maximum amount of the points here. In order to win, which color do you have to choose? Black. If both groups chose black every time, each group would be assigned 3 points per frame, 6 points for double and 9 points for the triple. The total result would be 27 points in each frame, or a total of 54 points. That is the result you wanted.
5. If you agreed to choose black, how would you know that the other group would also choose black. There is no guarantee! It involves trust.
6. When there is a possibility with no guarantee, we tend to choose the easy way. That is to choose the same way and both groups choose red. And the result could turn out to be a negative 27! The opposite of what we wanted!
7. It is not to say that a Win-Win game is always the best. Sometimes a Win-Lose situation is necessary. For example in sports, you have to beat the other team in order to win.
8. Win-Lose situations often turn into Lose-Lose situations, just as we experienced today. Reflect this on your daily life. What games are you playing with your supervisors, your friends, parents, wife or husband? Often we enter human relationships wanting them to be Win-Win situations. But often we end up playing a Lose-Lose game even with the most important people in our lives.
9. How do you define a Win-Win situation in your area? Or with another department? How do we know when we have a Win-Win situation: This is a great time to review an installed control which can show the difference between coordinated efforts (Win-Win) and competitive efforts (Win-Lose).
Possible Option
Show the effects of bottlenecks on production. What is the cause of the bottleneck? Is one area over producing “their product” in an effort to look good, rather than cross-training to balance the line in an area which is not able to process all the product of the “golden” area?