A great team event gives every kind of player a way in – and reveals strengths ordinary working life can miss…
A common danger with team events is that only the loudest, fastest, fittest or most obviously confident people thrive. If the challenge is all physical, some people are left behind, while if it’s all logical brainteasers, others keep their heads down. In performance-based events the natural extroverts have a great time while the introverts count the minutes until it’s all over.
A really good team event gives everyone a way in.
That is one of the ideas behind our A Winning Hand cards. Each card represents a different kind of energy people can bring to a team: the Strategist, the Champion, the Helper, the Connector, the Creator, the Explorer, the Disruptor, the Team Player, the Joker and more.
The cards are not a personality test or designed to pin anyone down. In fact, the interesting thing is often the opposite: one person can play several cards. Someone may be a Strategist in one moment, a Helper in the next and a Joker by time pudding comes round.
So the key question is: “What is in your team’s hand – and what might play bring out?”
In ordinary working life, people become known by their roles and job titles, but these things rarely tell the whole story.
Working all week inside process there might be a brilliant Creator, or a person with real Champion energy might be inhibited and feel cautious. Teams often have far more in their hand than they realise.
The challenge is creating the conditions in which those cards can come out.
Play changes the setting. A properly designed playful challenge creates a different kind of space: one where normal hierarchy vanishes and people step outside their usual roles, and the group has something real to do together.
When people are absorbed in a shared mission, they start to reveal different and previously hidden strengths. So often in our events, someone unexpected shines, and reveals themselves to colleagues in a new light. Not only that, but it leads to a new confidence and sense of belonging that endures well beyond the day.
These game-changing contributions are much easier to see in play than in a meeting about collaboration because play is immediate: play makes people show, not tell, their true abilities.
A team event with purpose needs different routes in for different people, and different moments in which different strengths can shine. For example:
The strongest experiences give different players a chance to make themselves integral to the team.
The cards also give teams a playful language for noticing what just happened.
Too often, “team dynamics” can quickly become heavy or abstract – and a bit awkward (people do not generally enjoy sitting in a circle and talk solemnly about trust). They may, however, be very happy to say, “I thought you were going to be a Strategist, but you were such a Champion in that challenge,” or “I didn’t realise how much Helper energy you bring until we were all under pressure.”
The cards make the conversation lighter, yet still meaningful.
They can be used at the beginning of an event, with people choosing the card they feel most drawn to, or the one they think a colleague might be. Then they can come back at the end, once the team has actually done something together.
Useful questions might include:
Those questions can open up generous conversations and help people see one another with more curiosity and less assumption.
For HR teams and leaders, this is where a playful event becomes more than a treat, reward or break from work: it becomes a way to help people understand one another differently.
It’s important to stress that this approach does not reduce people to ‘types’. Rather, it widens the picture by creating shared experience: giving teams a challenge in which collaboration becomes urgent and real (and often very funny).
That is the Transformational Power of Play in action.
At Sharky + George, we think about three conditions that make play work: Space, Connection and Flow.
When those conditions are present, the cards start to show.
People think more freely and connect more naturally. They discover unexpected courage, humour, kindness, invention and leadership in one another. They come away not only having had a brilliant time, but having seen the team differently.
So, what is in your team’s hand? Who brings clarity, courage or momentum? Who brings people in? Who builds trust? Who makes ideas real? Who asks the question nobody else has asked? Who keeps the spark alive?
Play is a great way to find out.
Read more ideas about play, teams and work in our free white paper The Transformational Power of Play.
