Tanja Hartwig
Overview
A medium-sized industrial enterprise wanted to make “communication” its annual theme, with the aim of optimizing the way its four corporate sites communicated and interacted. Problems or frictions between departments or colleagues were to be discussed and solved in private, not in public. Despite its growth, the company was a small medium-sized enterprise with a family atmosphere. As they didn’t want the climate to suffer as the workforce grew, the company defined the following goals:
• We can become even better. It is important for people to work well together.
• We want to treat each other in a friendly way and communicate in a spirit of partnership and equality, irrespective of the position held.
• We want to grow and prosper as friends and partners.
• Our motto: talk more to each other than about each other!
The annual motto was to be underscored by a communication event that was open to all employees of the company. Participation was voluntary. Our task was to support all departments. A total of seven event dates were planned, each with 12-15 participants.
The itinerary involved making a joint visit to a customer company or a supplier. Since usually only some of the employees had direct contact with the outside world, the idea was to make it possible for anyone who was interested to get to know customers or suppliers. Afterward, they traveled on to the venue, a cooking studio with a large room, and were welcomed with a light snack. We then took over and invited them to indulge in an afternoon of communication.
We took the requested topics and divided them into blocks:
• Getting to know each other in a somewhat unusual way
• Cooperation and trust with StringBall
• Appreciation and respect
• Active listening
• Building a “tower of a team”
Topic
We had focused on cooperation and trust as the overarching theme, as the aim was to enhance cooperation between different departments and foster mutual acceptance. There were also managers in each group. StringBall was an opportunity to gain new learning experiences and also to swap leadership roles.
Staging
a. Preparation
I prepared a large room. The StringBall strings had already been sorted and were hanging at the ready. The two stands had also been assembled and were ready to go. I had built in small obstacles.
Transfer to the real world
| Elements in the learning project | Elements in the real world |
|---|---|
| Activity setup with small obstacles | New challenges can only be mastered successfully if we work together |
| Whole setting | Tackling new, unfamiliar topics and also sometimes relinquishing or assuming the leadership role |
| Strings | One person cannot transport the ball alone; One’s own behavior always affects others |
| Egg/ball | We are part of the whole; everyone bears responsibility |
| The “blind” | Taking on the role of a non-decision-maker; trusting in the behavior of others |
| The “sighted” | Taking responsibility for others; personally stepping into the leadership role |
b. Performance
“A somewhat unusual way to get to know each other also encompasses the topic of cooperation and trust. I would like to invite you to take part in an experiment. Your task as a group is to transport this egg from this first point to this other point using only these strings. Please split up into two groups. One group will take the strings and be blindfolded, the other group will lead their colleagues.”
c. Progression
Immediately, they started whispering: “How are we going to do this?” The first leaders came forward and said they would like to be led for a change. Very quickly, the groups formed and they became more motivated to achieve the goal together.
I provided a little facilitation saying they needed to define their own strategy. Each of the groups at the seven events discussed and tried out different strategies. Tension and motivation were evident each time and the goal was always reached within similar times. All of the groups were very proud of their success.
Reflection
At the end, we discussed what went particularly well, what the group could learn from, and what else happened in each round. Since this was a short training session, the reflection phase was also brief. However, the experience gained with StringBall had an impact on the subsequent activities. The enthusiastic reaction to successfully transporting the ball boosted further cooperation.
Conclusion
The participants were enthusiastic and felt that they could transfer the success they had experienced together into their work with each other. They were able to experience themselves, their colleagues, and their managers in different roles and saw this positively.