Team Communication Practice Activities

1. Team Communication Practice Activities Treasure Map

2. Treasure Map Objective To provide clear, written directions to help guide a team member in locating a treasure on a map. Applications • Communication • Data Analysis • Leadership • Problem Solving • Strategic Planning Group Size Eight to twenty participants, who will work in teams of up to six members each. Time Required Twenty to thirty minutes Materials Several blank sheets of letter-size paper and one large sheet of newsprint or drawing paper for each team; a pencil for each participant; a set of crayons for each team (optional); a clock or timer. Team Communications Practice Activities

3. Process • Instruct participants to form a minimum of two teams of up to six members each, and assign each group to a different area of the room. Distribute one large sheet of newsprint to each team and one pencil to each participant. (Crayons are optional.) • Explain that each team will have approximately ten minutes to create a “treasure map.” The maps may be as elaborate as the team desires, including trails, mountains, town, lakes, etc., but should not show where a treasure is located. When the map details have been completed, each team should make a small spot on its map and mark it as the starting point. • Allow approximately ten minutes for the teams to create their maps. • Direct each group to choose one team member to be its “treasure hunter”; these players are instructed to leave the room. Each team then chooses another player to go to an opposing team’s map and to name a spot for that team’s “treasure” to be located. No mark is made on the opposing team’s map; the team whose map is being viewed is simply informed of or show the location on the map. Players should try to make the spot difficult to reach from the map’s starting point. After the players have given a treasure map location to an opposing team, they return to their own groups. • Distribute one sheet of letter-size paper to each team. Explain that the groups have five minutes to write step-by-step directions relating how to go from the starting point to the location of the treasure (which was determined in step 4) on their team’s map. It should be emphasized that the clearer the instructions, the better the team’s possibility of winning. Stop group work when the five minute time period has elapsed. • The treasure hunters return and stand before their own team’s map. One player from that team will read the directions to the “hunter”. As the directions are being read, the hunter traces a line on the map according to the verbal instructions. The team whose hunter reaches the treasure first wins. Discussion • What type of information helped the treasure hunters the most? (Use of details, compass directions, etc.) • What kind of information was the least helpful? • How did planning the map and writing the directions relate to communication effectiveness? • Relate this game to planning and communication in the workplace. Team Communications Practice Activities