by Gabriella Samms

Created on: November 08, 2008   Last Updated: November 27, 2008

My company has several mandatory meetings during the year. They are always held at a place that is outside of the work environment and attendance is a must. New to my current job, I have only just recently attended the first one, but I walked away when day was done with a different perspective of my work environment and co-workers. This was all due to a little game we were asked to participate in at the meeting. Lately, our staff has had some difficulty relating to each other, or often finds others to judge negatively. This game was to show us how unproductive we can be as a team when we believe others are out to get us instead of just trying to help us.

The game began by dividing all who were present, into groups of six at several tables. Each table was given a closed deck of playing cards, and each a folded 3X5 card. Our boss explained that on one of the 3X5 cards given to everyone at each table would have a star drawn on it, and the star would represent to the person holding it that they were responsible for sabotaging the game. We were not allowed to share the contents of our 3X5 card to the others at our table; that information was to be kept to ourselves. We were instructed that the game consisted of opening the deck of cards, and given a small amount of time, we were to work together to put every card, by suit, number and letter i.e. 2 through Ace, as quickly as we could. The first table to accomplish this endeavor was the winner. However, we needed to take into consideration that one person at the table, the saboteur, would try their best to make the task much harder for us to complete.

The room, that was just silent moments before, was now busily pursuing a task that they thought was going to be quite impossible since one of their fellow opponents would definately be out to stop their progress. You could hear the voices of accusations from one table to the other, laughingly of course, but still an indication that everyone was aware that they had an enemy in their midst. As quickly as the game started, it ended, but many were already voicing their opinions as to who they thought was the bad person at the tables.

When the winning team was announced, my boss then asked the people at each table who they believed the saboteur was and why. Then my boss told all of us to open our 3X5 cards and show them to our team. No one in the room had a star. This, my boss said, was an important thing to remember when it comes to working together. She then explained her

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