Tall Ships: A Game for Building Effective Teams

Objective: To improve teamwork skills
Audience: Groups and teams at all organizational levels
Time required: 2-2½ hours
Each game trains: 4-21 participants


The Scenario:
Congratulations! The Seven Seas Company has selected your company to collaborate with them in an attempt to win a lucrative contract for designing and building a tall ship. But your company must first demonstrate that it can successfully perform the “Seven C’s” upon which The Seven Seas Company is founded. Can your team rise to the challenge to win the deal?

Tall Ships, our exciting new experiential game has teams racing against the clock –and other teams – to assemble the tallest ship mast. This fast-paced simulation provides teams with the opportunity to learn about and practice the seven skills critical to team success:

Clarity, Capability, Collaboration, Commitment, Communication, Continuous Improvement, Creativity

How the game works:
Three game rounds reveal the team dynamics that impact team effectiveness. In Round 1, teams are asked to assemble the tallest ship mast possible in the least amount of time. Lessons learned from this round are discussed and applied to the Seven C’s model. Round 2 challenges teams to rethink their strategy and build yet a taller mast in the same amount of time, but at the lowest cost. Following a team performance assessment and debrief, teams make one last attempt at the task, assembling the mast according to new specifications and requirements. Finally, an action-planning phase provides teams and team members with an opportunity to improve their performance.

Tall Ships Learning Outcomes:
Learn seven factors that are important to effective teamwork
Explore strategies that contribute to improved team effectiveness
Identify and apply actions real-life team situations
Perfect for both newly formed and intact teams, Tall Ships can be used as a stand-alone learning event, integrated into a larger training initiative, or adapted to address such topics as leadership, change management, quality awareness, process improvement, and safety awareness.

The Participant Guide includes the “Seven C’s” model and dimensions, team assessment, planning worksheet, action planning, and questions to consider.

Included in the Facilitator Guide is an introduction, theoretical background, workshop training outline and facilitator instructions, alternative training designs, customization suggestions, blank training outline, copy of the Participant Guide, and a CD-ROM containing reproducible participant materials and a Microsoft® PowerPoint® presentation.