The Battle, the activity to combine problem solving and team building!

In today’s business world, the emphasis is increasingly on people. Many companies make it a point of honor to provide a work environment that encourages the professional accomplishment of all employees.

However, companies still face challenges and problems to solve. Collective intelligence is often called upon in order to develop solutions to identified difficulties. In order to combine team spirit and problem solving, we offer you an activity, the battle!

Several activities that combine these two issues have been launched, including one, the Battle, which we will present in more detail. This activity helps meet various objectives related to problem solving such as :

• Identification of friction points related to a project
• Proposing solutions to identified difficulties
• The possibility of deepening the implications linked to a project

In order to meet these objectives, the battle consists in putting your employees in competition by splitting them into two groups. These two groups confront each other with the aim of opposing problems and solutions. One group is therefore responsible for identifying problems and the other for finding solutions, which they must record on post-its.

Then, once each team has had time to work together and has several ideas for problems and solutions, you can solicit the “Problems” team. The “Problems” team must then issue a “problem card” and the “Solutions” team must respond with the most suitable solution card possible. Each round, the most convincing team will win a point. The competition motivates the two teams to work together and thus to consider a maximum of problems and complex solutions to remedy them!

Before your meeting, think of creating a Table activity on Beekast and insert 4 columns, in the following order :

• Problems
• Problems to debate
• Solutions to debate
• Solutions.

Be sure to activate the moderation of ideas so that they are revealed at the right time.

On D-Day, form two teams and appoint two referees to observe and take notes. The “Problems” team will have the task of imagining difficulties linked to a project and the “Solutions” team will have to anticipate them and propose counter-arguments.

Then invite both teams to submit their ideas in their respective columns (Problems to Debate and Solutions to Debate) in the following format:

• Problem 1 : Unknown market
• Solution 1 : Creation of a local subsidiary
• Etc

When each team has enough problems and solutions, all ideas should be added to the “Problems to debate” and “Solutions to debate” columns, waiting for moderation.

The “Problems” team then chooses a problem from its list and announces its number (example: “Problem 4!”). You must allow it to appear on the screen. The “Solutions” team then chooses the solution that best responds and the moderator also authorizes it. Each team can then explain the problems and solutions and discuss in order to provide as much detail as possible. The referees observe and take notes. At the end of the exchanges they agree to give a point to the most convincing team.

Once the first round is over, the moderator places the problems and solutions discussed in the “Problems” and “Solutions” columns. You can then proceed to the next problem until you no longer have a problem. Once all problems have been dealt with, the team with the most points wins the activity (most often the problem team).