EXERCISE 2.2
Self-Actualization
The Scavenger Hunt
Purpose
To assist participants in playing a game that requires striving to actualize some of their potential capabilities. They will need to exhibit drive and set goals to be competitive. The game will require using their underlying skills for self-actualization, including optimism, problem solving, and assertiveness.
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80 minutes to 2 hours and 40 minutes
The facilitator will guide the group in conducting a scavenger hunt—a game that requires team action and a motivation to compete to win. The items are a challenge to find and require team problem solving and coordination. Each team, and then the group as a whole, will debrief and understand the motivational strategies they used, how they set goals, cooperated, and solved problems as a team. The group will compare their recognitions to the normal working environment and identify the specific learnings and strategies for incorporating improved motivation and engagement.
Outcomes
- Increased awareness of how the team applies its drive and sets goals
- Better understanding of how the underlying eight emotional intelligence skills impact our abilities and our accomplishments
- Take-away learning on improved ways to motivate one another, problem solve, and integrate EI skills back to the work environment
Audience
- Intact team
- Unaffiliated group
Facilitator Competencies 
Moderate to Advanced
Materials
- The Scavenger Hunt Handout—one copy for each participant
- List of team assignments
- List of scavenger items and ground rules, prepared in advance (see Step 2)
- Prizes
- Flip charts, pens, and paper
Time Matrix
| Activity | Estimated Time |
| Organize group into scavenger hunt teams | 10–15 minutes |
| Scavenger hunt. Give prizes once all return | 30–60 minutes |
| Team discussion with handout | 10–20 minutes |
| Full group discussion—apply to workplace | 20–45 minutes |
| Identify next steps for back at the workplace | 10–20 minutes |
| Total Time | 80 minutes to 2 hours, 40 minutes |
Instructions
1. If you are working with an intact team and are able to do pre-work with the leaders for the team, develop learning goals for how you assign your teams. The teams should be pre-assigned to accomplish those goals. If you have assessment information from an EQ measure or other profiles, such as Emergenetics, MBTI, FIRO-B, or others, use this information to build teams with different strengths so they experience the diversity—or teams that are very similar so they experience the dynamics of similar strengths and preferences. This allows the opportunity for participants to witness the differences within and between their teams and to build intentions for how they will work together most effectively in their normal workdays. This question will be revisited in Step 6.
2. Set up the game—build expectations for great prizes and the impression that those who do better will get better prizes. Send the teams out with ground rules on when to return, how far they can go, anything else relevant to your particular group and environment, and a list of items to obtain. You will need to create the list and ground rules based on the environment you’re working in and the type of teams. Here are some examples to draw from:
Scavenger Hunt Sample Items
- Snow ball
- Six-pack (they can be creative, it can be flowers, pop, etc.)
- A woman’s shoe (not from anyone in the whole group)
- Something fifty years old or more
- A collage representing every color in the rainbow
- A man’s tie clip
- A box of mints
- A plant
- An object from another nation
- Something that symbolically represents your team (and be prepared to tell us why)
- Other (Compile your list to represent the type of team you’re working with and what might be found within the time frame for the hunt in their location.)
Scavenger Hunt Sample Ground Rules
- You must stay together as a team.
- You must be back by X (tell them the specific time).
- You cannot buy any item.
- No item can come from any member of your team.
- You may go anywhere you want.
- Other (Again, create your rules to fit the dynamics of the team you are working with. Generally, only a few ground rules are needed.)
3. After all have returned, have a lively celebration and give out prizes.
4. Give each person a copy of the handout and a pen. Direct each team to meet to talk over and write answers to Questions 1 through 10. Tell them to write on the back of the handout if they need more room, or give them more paper.
5. Next have all the teams meet as a whole group to listen to one another and to discuss similarities and differences in their answers. Use the same set of questions from the handout as the small groups used, but this time record key points on flip-chart pages.
6. Instruct each person to take five to ten minutes to individually answer Question 11 on the handout.
7. Close by gaining commitment from participants to implement the action steps they proposed in Item 10 on the handout.
Answer Questions 1 through 10 within your scavenger hunt team first and then discuss them with the whole group.
1. Mark on the scale below to indicate your team’s motivation to succeed:
2. Mark on the scale below to rank each individual member’s motivation to succeed (give each team member a number):
3. Discuss and write a few points about why you gave the scores for Items 1 and 2 above.
4. Take a few minutes for individual reflection. How did each of you individually define success? Is this similar to your response in the workplace? How?
5. Now work as a whole to discuss how your team defined success. Write the definition here. Is this similar to your response in the workplace? How?
6. Discuss how playing this game reflects your ability and drive to set and achieve goals.
7. Were you involved and committed to the pursuit?
8. Self-actualization is built on many other emotional skills. Reflect on how the following factors came into play in this exercise, and then on how they are relevant to your work.
- Happiness
- Optimism
- Self-regard
- Independence
- Problem solving
- Social responsibility
- Assertiveness
- Emotional self-awareness
9. Discuss how your team worked together. Did you have different approaches or similar ones to problem solving? How well did you maximize your team’s differences and similarities?
10. If your full group is an intact team, develop at least two action steps that you want to take back to your work environment based on your learnings from this exercise.
11. Complete the following item individually when instructed to do so by your facilitator:
Take five to ten minutes, as your facilitator directs, and each person record some awareness you’ve gained in this exercise. Do you believe you are meeting your own goals for success in life? Most people say they are meeting some, but not all of their goals. How is it for you? Based on your experience in the scavenger hunt, what two items do you want to pay attention to so you meet your own criteria for success? This is a rich topic; you may want to continue exploring your thoughts during your personal time later to enhance your own self-actualization.