Teambuilding Exercise – “The Lifeboat”

Time: An hour

Purpose: Discover how emotions affect the success of our negotiations

Participants: One or several small groups

Materials needed: List of 15 people in a yacht

Instructions:

Give the team or teams a list of 15 people who are on a yacht. Tell them that the yacht developed a leak and is sinking fast.  There is only one lifeboat and it will accommodate only nine people – not one more can fit and there are no more lifeboats or life jackets.  The group must then come to an agreement as to which of the 15 people gets to go in the lifeboat and be saved.  However, they must also list those they save in order of importanc – because if they run out of food and water, the “less important people” will be to be dumped overboard.  Of course this is often the more difficult job.

The key for this game is to make the 15 people on the list as controversial as possible.  For example, include a priest, minister, rabbi or all three! A pregnant woman, powerful leaders from both major political parties, an ex-convict, a male physician and a female one, a political lobbyist, people of different ethnicities, etc…— the more emotionally charged the better.

Give them a period of time to work out the problem. make it long enough to get into a heated discussion but short enough to be pressed for time.  I usually allow six to ten minutes.

The discussion afterward should be in depth and include everyone on the team.  You can facilitate with questions such as:

• What problems did you experience?
• How did you resolve these issues?
• Was it the best way?
• How else could you have resolved your differences?
• Why did these problems occur in the first place?

Then…

• How does this exercise reflect your day-to-day relationships?
• What are the similarities between what you just experienced and negotiations at work and at home?

After fully exploring these questions ask your team — or teams — to reconvene. This time they will list three things they would do differently now that they have had this discussion.  Be sure to tell them that this follow-up exercise is not about the lifeboat or anyone on it – It is about the process of negotiation.

Desired outcome:

The critical take away here is that negotiation often fails because each participant wants to get his or her way. A better method may be to first learn the needs and intents of others.   Understanding fosters a spirit of cooperation and therefore agreement.

Use the three things each team determines they learned as a guide to create better understanding in future meetings and discussions.