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Team tower challenge

Let’s apply Kolb’s learning cycle to improve team collaboration effectiveness as part of a training. This exercise allows participants to have fun building a tower while reflecting on how to work more effectively as a team. What happens during the tower-building is often indicative of what happens in the team’s daily practice. Follow the different steps of Kolb’s learning cycle:

1. Activist: Learning through concrete experience with the team tower challenge

  • Divide participants into small groups and provide each group with building materials like paper cups, straws, tape, and sheets of paper.
  • The challenge for each group is to build the tallest free-standing tower within a specified time (e.g. 15 or 20 minutes).
  • During the building process, team members must collaborate, share ideas, and develop a strategy to build the best tower.

2. Observer: Reflecting on collaboration

  • After time is up, ask each group to discuss their experiences. Have team members reflect on what happened during the building process. How was the collaboration? Which ideas worked well? What were the challenges? What behavior was exhibited and what was not, and what was the effect on the group?
  • Have all groups note what they believe contributed to effective collaboration and what might have hindered them.

3. Theorist: Abstract conceptualization

  • Now it’s time to link experiences to theoretical concepts. Discuss with the groups a theory or model on effective collaboration. For example, nonviolent communication (Treasure 18: Backpack full of skills), team development stages (Treasure 12: Growth and development of teams), or dysfunctional teams (Treasure 12: Growth and development of teams).
  • Ask participants to compare their experiences with the discussed concepts. How do their actions during the activity relate to the ideas from the theory?

4. Pragmatist: Active experimentation

  • Give the groups a chance to experiment with the learned theory. They can develop a new collaboration strategy and practice by building another tower.
  • Have them reflect on how the new approaches influenced their collaboration: did they notice a positive difference?