40–60 minutes (20–30 minutes for the game, 20–30 minutes for debriefing)
General H P, T, O, D
1. To explore the factors that influence the selection or rejection of individuals by a team
2. To provide participants with firsthand experience of being an insider or outsider
3. To explore individual and team behaviors that contribute to meeting an objective
4. To examine how values such as competition and cooperation affect a team when it focuses on “winning”
• 6 identical puzzles with 12 pieces; (5 sets with 11 pieces each for the teams, placed in envelopes)
Note: You can create your own puzzles by adhering any picture of your choice to card-stock paper and cutting it into puzzle pieces. Or you can purchase small puzzles in toy stores.
• 3 separate puzzle pieces, only one of which completes the 12-piece puzzle
• 5 envelopes large enough to hold the 11-piece puzzles
• $10 cash in crisp new $1 bills
1. Form participants into equal-sized groups, leaving 3–5 people as “outsiders.”
2. Distribute identical puzzle envelopes (with 11 pieces in each) to each team. Announce that the first team to complete its puzzle wins the game.
3. While the teams are busy assembling their puzzles, give a puzzle piece to each of the outsiders. Outsiders can wander around but are not to participate in conversations. Warn the outsiders that they may feel bored and that all but one of them may feel abandoned. Ask them to move about, observing the teams but not becoming involved in the team efforts.
Note: Every team is missing one puzzle piece, the same one. Only one outsider has the piece that is missing from the team puzzles, which means that only one team will have the ability to complete the puzzle.
4. As teams begin to realize that they are missing a piece of their puzzle, announce that each outsider has a puzzle piece and that the outsiders are now permitted to join a team. Outsiders will, however, only visit each team and show their puzzle piece (this is to be done in total silence). After visiting each team, the outsiders will return to the front of the room.
5. Announce a time limit of 3 minutes for the next part of the activity. Ask each team to send a representative to the front of the room to “recruit” any one of the outsiders to join his or her team. Outsiders should listen to recruiters but not announce any decision. Have the recruiters return to their team after the 3 minutes are up.
6. Ask the outsider with the missing puzzle piece to identify the team that he or she would like to join. Stop the outsider from actually joining that team.
7. Now announce that the team that completes the puzzle first will actually win $10. Ask the teams to discuss the implications of this incentive to their recruiting strategy. Give the teams approximately 3 minutes for a discussion, and then announce another recruiting session, also 3 minutes.
8. Ask recruiters to return to teams. Ask the outsider to choose a team. The team completes the puzzle and receives congratulations and the $10.
1. Describe what happened as your team built the puzzle, during the first recruiting session, and during the second recruiting session.
2. How did you feel about how your team assembled the puzzle? In the recruiting session? Do you think your recruiter did a good job?
3. As an outsider, how did you feel during the activity? As the “selected” outsider? As the “rejected” outsider?
4. How did the money incentive influence your recruiting discussion?
5. What values were potentially operating in the behaviors exhibited? What personal values might have contributed to your feelings and behaviors?
6. What have you learned about yourself as a team member? About task/relationship? About outsider/insider behaviors?
7. How might you use the things you learned in your everyday work life?
1. Outsiders are often ignored when teams are focused on task.
2. Outsiders receive more attention when they have necessary resources.
3. Being an outsider can generate both positive and negative feelings and behaviors.
4. Introducing rewards into a process can create greater competition or cooperation, based on value systems.
1. What happened at the beginning when you were forming your team (assuming the facilitator had the participants form their own teams)?
2. How did your team go about putting together the puzzle?
3. What happened when the outsiders visited your team?
1. How do you feel about the way the game was played? Why?
2. Near the end of the game, how did you feel about outsiders who did not have the puzzle piece?
3. Outsiders: How did you feel when the recruiters ignored you? or when all of the teams wanted you?
4. What was your reaction to the winning team’s receiving a cash prize?
1. What did you learn from observing the outsiders without the missing piece? The one with the missing piece?
2. Based on your experience with the game, how do you react to these statements?
a. You feel happy when people need you.
b. It is hard not to feel rejected when people ignore you, even if it is not your fault.
c. When competition is intense and money is involved, people act differently.
d. Women are more sensitive than men are about rejecting others.
e. You may want a person for your team, but he or she may not have what it takes to get the job done.
1. What do the puzzle pieces represent in the real world? (Note: Watch for competencies, knowledge, and personal characteristics in this discussion).
2. Who do the outsiders in the game represent? Have you ever felt like an outsider?
1. What if none of the outsiders had the missing puzzle piece? What if all of the outsiders had the missing piece? The same puzzle piece?
2. What if each team had a different puzzle to construct?
3. What if the winning team received $200?
4. What if the recruiters had more time to persuade the outsider?
Adapted from an activity presented by Sivasailam Thiagarajan at The Summer Institute for Intercultural Communication, 2000.