Find your fit in the team
You’ll need
- Pens or pencils
- Scrap paper
Before you begin
- This activity needs to follow an occasion where everyone’s worked in teams. It could be a game, an activity like cooking, a challenge such as a hike, or an event like a camp.
- If you’re struggling to think of a recent occasion, try running a team game or a problem-solving activity as a warm-up.
Choose the big questions
- The person leading the activity should remind everyone of the occasion they’re using, for example, the challenge they completed a few weeks ago.
- Everyone should get into the same teams they were in for the chosen occasion.
- Each team should write questions about different roles on scrap pieces of paper. Some might be specific to the activity (for example, ‘Who made sure all the food was stored properly?’), others might be more general (for example, ‘Who was supportive?’).
We’ve included some examples below in case anyone needs some inspiration.
Answer the big questions
- Each team should stand in a circle.
- Someone should read the question on the first piece of paper. Everyone should say what they think the answer is – it could be one or more people, everyone, or no one. The team should come up with an answer they all agree on.
- If they’ve chosen one or more people, the chosen people should hold the slip of paper in front of them.
If they’ve chosen more than one person, it might be easiest to give the slip to one person but write the other names on the slip.
- If they’ve chosen ‘everyone’, they should put the slip of paper in the middle of the circle.
- If they’ve chosen ‘no one’, they should put the slip of paper outside the circle in a ‘discard’ pile.
- Everyone should repeat steps two to five for each question. They could make up more questions and roles as they go, especially if things come up in discussion.
For example, they might be chatting about who had the ideas and realise someone else was great at being realistic and keeping everyone on track!
- Once they’ve handed out all of their slips, the group should look at how they’re split between the team. What does that tell them about how their team worked together? Is the split ideal, or could it be better?
We’ve included some more detailed things to think about below. The best teams involve everyone equally. If one person has too many tasks, they may struggle to do them all well, and if someone’s not given enough tasks (or the wrong tasks for their skills), the team will miss out on what they could do. Some tasks and roles are held by everyone, such as thinking of ideas, being supportive and being responsible for the team’s success.
Do it all again
- Each team should imagine they’re going to do the chosen occasion again. They should think about how they’d re-distribute the slips. Does anyone have too many? Are there some that everyone should hold? Were there some that didn’t have an owner?
- Everyone should think about other team occasions. Would any of the slips of paper be the same for all of them? What different roles might there be? Who would take on each role?
For example, people could think about solving puzzles, fundraising, hosting, cooking, putting up a tent, or taking part in an adventurous activity. They all have different roles – and it’s normal for different people to have experience of different things. Perhaps the best chef’s not the best person to lead the way when navigating. At the same time, the best navigator might be hopeless when it comes to mealtimes!
- The next time people work in teams for a task, they should remember this activity. Can they split the task into different roles? Would it be best for different people to take on different roles? What should everyone be responsible for?
Remind everyone that the best teams share responsibility and support each other while using the skills and talents each person has. How can they work together to help everyone shine?
Who had the ideas?
- Who had the creative thoughts about what the team should do next and how they should solve problems?
- For example, who thought of interesting twists and turns for the route, made sure the project was creative, or mixed the unexpected together to make a tasty meal?
Who was supportive?
- Did specific people really encourage everyone and cheer them on?
- Who spread positive thoughts?
- Who watched out for anyone who was struggling so they could help them?
Who answered the big questions?
- When everyone was unsure about what to do, who clarified things?
- Who answered everyone’s questions about the team’s next steps?
Who carried out the actions?
- Who did the hard work to make sure everything got done?
- For example, who made the model, got stuck into building, or committed to chopping vegetables?
Who solved problems?
- Who stepped up when the team needed to solve a problem?
- Who thought on their feet to help everyone fix things and recover from challenges?
Who made the decisions?
- Who had the final say on what the team did next? Did the team vote, or did one person have the final say?
Who was responsible for the result of the task?
- This is the only one of the example questions that has a correct answer!
- In any team, everyone’s responsible for the result. By doing or not doing, helping or not helping, everyone makes a difference.
- Which slips are in the middle because the answer was ‘everyone’? Is it a good thing that everyone carried out these tasks? How did sharing the tasks as a whole team impact the outcome?
- Does one person have more slips than everyone else? How did that make them feel? Does it affect how well they can do all of the tasks?
- Is anyone holding nothing? Why? It might be because the tasks they focused on weren’t mentioned on the slips of paper. It might be because there weren’t enough tasks to go around. How could the group have split the tasks differently to make sure that everyone was involved?
- Which slips are in the discard pile? Why did no one take on these roles? How might it have changed the outcome if these tasks were included?
Reflection
This activity was all about being a team player and communicating. Just like a machine is made up of lots of parts that all work together, a team’s about how each person helps each other as well as having their own roles. Why is it important to make sure everyone has a role? Do some people suit some roles better than others? Where else do people work in teams? People might think about sports or games they play, making projects at school, or jobs they might have in the future. How do people in the best teams treat their teammates? Supporting each other, listening to people, and trusting each other are all really important.
Safety
All activities must be safely managed. You must complete a thorough risk assessment and take appropriate steps to reduce risk. Use the safety checklist to help you plan and risk assess your activity. Always get approval for the activity, and have suitable supervision and an InTouch process.
- If you think people need a bit more structure, you could write or print ‘Some big questions’ to get them started. You could also run through the ‘How are the roles split?’ questions, leaving a little time for the teams to discuss each one.
- You may want to encourage groups to include questions that recognise everyone’s roles, to avoid one or two people being left out.
People should be able to express their ideas in a way that suits them. If chatting in a group doesn’t work well for someone, everyone could use a big piece of paper to draw and write, or the person could tell a friend what they think and ask them to share with the group.
All Scout activities should be inclusive and accessible.
You could also run a quick version of this activity before you do things as teams – it may help the team decide who’ll do different tasks and roles.
This activity was all about young people taking the lead on evaluating their teamwork. What roles did they enjoy? What kind of roles would they like to try in the future?