15 DYNAMICS OF TEAMWORK - JOB - 2024

Are you in charge of a group, the leader, boss or a teacher? The teamwork dynamics that I will explain to you will help you break the ice, generate ideas, improve decision-making, evaluate leadership skills and much more.

Group dynamics could be defined as the procedure or the systematized medium in which the activity of a group is organized and developed. It refers to the interactions between people who talk to each other in a group or teamwork environment.

They are used as strategies that are constituted along some rules or practical procedures that are very useful when what you want is to facilitate and improve the action of a group when the participants must build and work together and bring positions, opinions, thoughts, etc.

Group dynamics can be studied in different environments: business, academic, social… generally, when there are more than three people, a group dynamic is taking place.

In groups people take on different roles: people with leadership, people who are quieter, others who care more about people's feelings, etc. And that is what people assume when they are in a group and are not even aware of it.

In general, these roles are shaped according to the personality of each one and the experience they have had in group settings. However, they can be modified and improved.

What are the benefits of these dynamics?

Group dynamics are relevant because they influence group productivity. If we work on team building and encourage group dynamics, we can increase what the group is capable of achieving.

The best way for them to improve is for them to learn to handle the situation, redirecting the group. The entire group is responsible for its effectiveness and everyone shares the responsibility for the group and its results to come to fruition.

An effective group or team is one in which each of the members takes responsibility according to their talents and experience.

15 teamwork dynamics

We include here some activities or dynamics that can be used to encourage teamwork. They are ideas and exercises that can be used as tools to help understand and improve the effectiveness of a group.

1. Ice-Breakers (“break the ice”)

They are activities to get to know each other. For example, you can divide the group into pairs and have one person interview the other for a few minutes.

A small outline of guiding questions can be provided depending on the objective we seek or it can be done freely.

Another alternative would be for one of the members of the couple to tell their life (who he is, where he comes from, why he is here, etc.) to the other member of the couple and vice versa.

It is suggested that everyone then return to the large group and that one member of the couple introduce their partner.

Through this dynamic, in addition to knowing yourself, you learn about the importance of listening.

We can also have each member of your group introduce himself; You should specify what things should be said: name, strengths, a funny thing that happened to you, places where you have traveled, wishes…

The activities to get to know each other are interesting because you have to know a person to understand them. And the more they understand each other, the more effective they will be at work.

2. Technique 6.3.5

It is a dynamic that serves to generate creative ideas. In groups of 6 people, the participants gather around a table to generate ideas related to a topic that had been previously agreed.

Each participant is offered a blank sheet where they have to write down three short ideas, since they only have five minutes to write them down.

Once the five minutes have passed, they will pass their sheet to their partner, where the process of writing three new ideas will be repeated in five minutes.

Once the entire cycle has been completed and all the sheets have been circulated, there will be 18 ideas on each sheet.

3. The solidarity cubes

In this dynamic, the group must build a certain number of cubes at the request of a toy company. To do this, the group must be divided into three subgroups.

Each group must make 15 5 × 5 cubes in one hour and the material they have is the following:

• Group 1: 2 cards, 1 ruler, 2 pencils, 3 scissors, 1 glue
• Group 2: 2 cards, 1 ruler, 2 pencils, 2 scissors and 1 glue
• Group 3: 2 cards, 2 rulers, 2 pencils, 1 scissors, 1 glue

The quality of the cubes will be assessed. Through this activity, the roles assumed by the different members of each will become clear, we will see how they work to coordinate and carry the work forward.

Certain behaviors such as competitiveness, individuality…

After the dynamics there will be a group debate to comment on all this.

4. The hot air balloon

A situation is proposed to the group:

“A meteorite falls into the ocean creating a giant wave that submerges all the continents of the planet.

However, you and five other people find yourself flying over Teide National Park in a balloon. After a few hours, you start to lose air but you see an island. The sea is full of hungry sharks and the only way for the balloon to reach the island is to shoot one of the occupants ”.

A debate must be established to decide who will be the one to leave the balloon. Each of the participants has an assigned role: a priest, a journalist from the pink press, a nurse, a political advisor, a teacher of primary education and an official from the National Institute of Statistics.

You have to fulfill the premises that: you are the only survivors and you have to ensure the continuation of the species; the decision must be made unanimously; none of the participants can voluntarily leave the balloon and all must present their arguments.

This test aims to analyze the group decision-making process and see the communication processes, as well as analyze the ability to cooperate and implement help, equality. Initiative and leadership can also be seen.

5. Case study

It is about the group carrying out an exhaustive analysis of a given situation from multiple points of view to obtain conclusions. The goal is not to reach a single solution, it is interaction and dialogue between group members.

A case is chosen first, a single problem is posed, presenting the relevant details so that it is understood and can be resolved. It must be tailored to the type of participants to be interesting.

A working script can be offered to help them focus. And then the case is presented in a summarized way and by groups it is offered to them.

Each group discusses the case and reaches conclusions according to the script. And then he gets into a large group.

It is a useful technique to respect the ideas of classmates, to establish active listening, to see how they solve a problem in a group, how they discuss ideas and agree, etc.

An example case could be the following (although we insist on the importance of its being appropriate to the target group):

“Pilar is a woman, a housewife and mother of two children who, after seeing a new brand X broth advertised on television and in magazines. She really likes the publicity and characteristics of this soup, as well as the vitamins it contains. have.

Pilar, due to the publicity, decides that morning to go to a supermarket to buy soup. When some time has passed, she comes out of it with a broth, but not brand X, but brand Y..

What has happened in the supermarket so that your purchase has varied?

6. Role play

With this dynamic we can evaluate the ability of candidates in the use of communication when there is a situation to resolve. The ability to negotiate can also be observed.

To do this, the participants are distributed in pairs and given a case that they will have to solve by representing it.

The cases can be like the following:

“Tomorrow I have to miss work and I have to tell my boss. However, the last time I asked him to be absent, last week, he discovered that the excuse I gave him was a lie. However, tomorrow is true and I need to be absent ”.

“I have a co-worker who asks me to please stay today to finish her work, around 20-30 minutes because she has to leave earlier since she has a wedding and she must go to do her hair. I don't feel like doing it ”.

7. The desert island

This group dynamic allows evaluating the ability of candidates to exercise the role of leader when there is a problem situation to solve.

The participants are divided into groups of maximum 6 and given a printed case. They must sit around a table and each of them has the case. They have 10 minutes to solve it.

The case is as follows:

“You are on a plane and you are going on a vacation. However, there has been an accident on the plane and you are the only survivors on board the boat, which is about to sink from the weight.

A few kilometers away you can see a desert island, which you can reach if you lighten the weight of the boat.

Here are 12 objects, which you must classify by priority. Do the classification, first, individually, and then you discuss the order of priority of the objects until you reach a consensus ”.

The listing is:

• 5 packs of diapers
• 1 revolver without ammunition
• 20 liters of drinking water
• 1 packet of cigars
• 1 cash register with money in different currencies
• 5 kilos of coal
• Thread and hooks
• Condoms
• 2 bottles of whiskey
• 1 parachute that does not carry instructions
• 1 gold lighter
• 1 mirror

The most relevant: keep what allows the planes to be signaled, such as a mirror or parachute; what allows to make fire (lighter, coal), what helps them to survive (fishing, water), and what they can cure themselves with (alcohol).

8. Group communication

Paper and pencil are needed and one of the participants is chosen. This will be the one who makes a drawing that others will not be able to see.

You can start by making easier drawings (based on lines and geometric shapes). And later, through instructions, he will try to get the rest of his classmates to copy it on their papers without having seen him, only through his explanations.

9. The card game

It is a dynamic based on communication and how sometimes we do not correctly interpret other people's messages.

For this, different letters are prepared where words are put: freedom, pain, child, table, heaven…

At the beginning, the participant thinks of a message and transmits it to the neighbor through five letters (five words).

The partner receives the five words (five letters) and writes on a sheet what he thinks the partner wanted to tell him. And so on.

When it is finished, the difference between what was meant and what the partner interpreted is observed. And at the end, the usefulness of dynamics is discussed.

10. The group of cannibals

It is a dynamic that allows argumentation. Participants must be divided into groups of a maximum of 8 candidates.

Each of the participants must receive a card with a number (from 1 to 8) and a form where the case is described.

They should be told that they must solve the case as a group and that they have 20 minutes to do so. The case is as follows:

“8 tourists are traveling in the Jungle with the guide, but are suddenly captured by a tribe of cannibals. They have eaten the guide and locked up all the tourists. Eating the guide, the cannibals have for a week, and next week they will choose the next.

However, it is they who must decide who will be next and the order in which the cannibals will eat them. They must also decide how to escape from there.

Each one will adopt an assigned role (according to the number they have had) and from the character they must negotiate with the others that they must be the last to be eaten:

• Obese singer who knows medicine
• Strong young assassin
• Lame prostitute who knows how to hunt
• Old man who knows the area
• Blind locksmith
• Sick biologist
• Lion tamer who is deaf
• Interpreter who knows the language of the tribe

11. Things in common

Participants are asked to divide into groups of about 5 people. Next, they are told to find 10 things that they all have in common.

They cannot describe things about clothing, or about work, or about anatomy.

They should take note of those things they have in common and write them down to put them later in the large group.

12. Very funny questions

It is an activity that allows group members to get to know each other, open up to the group and have fun. A series of questions should be proposed, those that occur, that can give game and be fun.

The group is divided into different subgroups of 4-5 people randomly. A description of the different questions is provided for you to answer.

These questions can be: "what color do you see yourself and why? What other name would you have chosen, if you were an object what would you be, what would be the slogan of your life, what place would you be, etc."

It should be put in common in the group and later in the large group.

13. The lie

You can start by distributing the groups into small groups of 5 people or it can be done in a large group.

The idea is that all participants choose three or four statements about themselves. Only one of them must be a lie.

It is convenient to give them time to think about them and that they are adequate enough that it is difficult for their colleagues to choose which is the true one.

We ask you to think about them individually and write them down on a piece of paper. Subsequently, and in turn, they should read the sentences so that everyone can debate and come to an agreement as to why they believe that this is the lie.

We need group members to agree and each of them to debate and argue their position.

Later the person will say which of them was the sentence that is not true.

14. Shared drawing

It is a dynamic that can make group members reflect on the need for dialogue and communication for the proper functioning of the team.

It is about making the group leave the room and enter only one of them. In the room we will have put a large sheet of paper or a blackboard where the first participant of the group will start a drawing.

Later we will cover it up, revealing only a part of his drawing and we will make the next participant go through, who must continue with his partner's drawing. So on until everyone has participated.

Once finished, we can talk with them about what has happened and the emotions that the process has generated.

15. Photo-truth

It is a technique that allows the group to observe how reality is negative and no one has the complete truth, as well as that with the help of a group its members can complement each other.

Groups of about 7-8 people are formed and a photograph is put on the board. They are given time to observe her, but cannot speak or stand.

The coordinator removes the photo and then everyone writes down on a piece of paper how old they are to be the person.

It is a painting where you can see, depending on how you look at it, a young woman around 18 years old or an old woman.

They are given 1 minute for each one to mark the age and 5 minutes for them to discuss it as a group and agree on the age. There will be those who have seen both and who have seen only one.

Then we let them see the photo again but reminding them that they cannot speak. They are told that they can come up and see her from whatever angle they want but they cannot speak.

They come back to agree. And in a last stage we show them the photo again and allow them to talk and help each other.

Once finished, we will ask the group to come back together and comment on what conclusions they have reached, what they have learned and if they can draw any conclusions for their daily life.

And what other dynamics of teamwork do you know?

Other dynamics of interest

Group dynamics for young people.

Assertive communication dynamics.

Motivational dynamics.

Dynamics of self-esteem.

Dynamics of emotional intelligence.

Group integration dynamics.

Dynamics of creativity.

Trust dynamics.

Leadership dynamics.

Dynamics of conflict resolution.

Dynamics of values.

Presentation dynamics.

References

1. Chehaybar, E. (2012). Techniques for group learning: large groups. National Autonomous University of Mexico.
2. Canary Islands Government. Group dynamics.
3. González, I., De León, C. Group learning strategies. University of Córdoba (Department of Education).
4. Kaneko Aguilar, J. (2013). Group dynamics workshop applied to personnel selection. Cesar Vallejo University.
5. Marle Nazzaro, A., Strazzabosco, J. (2003). Group dynamics and team building. World Federation of Hemophilia.
6. Pastoral Juvenil Coyuca. Techniques and dynamics to work in a group.