The Game Barter Puzzle

These activities are sometimes referred to as ‘lateral-thinking’ exercises, in which one or more people attempt to solve a seemingly insurmountable problem. Fun team building puzzles come in a wide variety of formats and may include purely cognitive problems or mysteries to solve, or physical challenges involving limited resources which are needed to complete the task.

Generally passive in nature, many team-building puzzles offer valuable teachable moments which invite participants to apply their learning to everyday situations.

How to play👉👉🎮🎮

Break your team into groups of equal members. Give each team a distinctly different jigsaw puzzle of equal difficulty. Explain that they have a set amount of time to complete the puzzle as a group. Explain that some of the pieces in their puzzle belong to the other puzzles in the room.

The goal is to complete their puzzle before the other groups, and that they must come up with their own method of convincing the other teams to relinquish the pieces they need, whether through barter, exchange of team members, donating time to another team, a merger, etc. Whatever they choose to do, they must do it as a group.

Purpose 

This exercise is time-consuming, but it accomplishes creative teamwork on several levels. As a team, they must build the puzzle. As a team, they must find a way to convince the other teams to help them. In other words, they must solve both the puzzle and the problem of getting their pieces back.

We can improve these things by this game

• Ample opportunities for group members to interact, share and solve problems.
• High levels of arousal, excitement, and frustration, where patience is often required.
• Opportunities for leadership, trust, communication, and group cooperation to emerge.
• Employ a ‘trial-and-error’ approach to learning and focus on the process and not just the task at hand.
• If you are particularly interested in dedicated team-building exercises, take a look at our group problem-solving activities.