Tower Building Exercise_2 Objective: to use huddles and briefs to respond to changing circumstances that require a multi-team system to achieve the goal. Create teams of 6-8 people. You will have 1 minute to read these instructions.

Active Learning Goal: You have 3 minutes to build the tallest tower. Roles: Rules: Blocks are located at the front and back of the room. Runners retrieve blocks from bins but may only take 5 blocks at a time. Builders build the tower using the pattern of 1 large, 3 small blocks, repeat. No two blocks of the same color may touch. Runners are not allowed to build/ builders are not allowed to run. Any unused blocks that are not replaced in the storage bins before time is called will be subtracted from the tower height; one block subtracted for each unused block.   Report Out: Height of tower in blocks (minus unused blocks). Create teams of about 6 people. Complete the first iteration of the exercise. The situation has changed as compared to the first experience during the team structure module. Specifically, goals, rules, and resources have changed. Goal: Build the tallest tower you can in 3 minutes. Rules: runners can only take blocks from their assigned bin. Resources: bins contain only one or two colors of blocks. Teams will have to adapt in real time by huddling to develop a plan (e.g. runners must huddle and communicate with runners from other teams to exchange blocks for the colors that each team needs to follow the rules).

Learn from Experience Debrief What went well? What didn’t go well? Each Department/Unit is a Team Your Organization is a Team of Teams Traditional Org. Structure Debrief What went well? What didn’t go well? What will you do differently? Debrief. How quickly did teams establish situational awareness including the fact that assigned bins only had one or two colors? How did runners coordinate to distribute blocks to each team and still follow the rule that you can only take blocks from your assigned bin? Monitoring progress toward the MTS goal requires situation monitoring and mutual support tools as well as closed loop communication within and across teams. Summarize the key points to the larger group. Teams will have the pre-conceived idea that they have already done this activity. They will have to apply what they have learned about huddles to overcome their complacency and re-establish situational awareness, which includes recognizing that assigned bins have limited colors of blocks and that the builders cannot follow the rules unless runners obtain different colored blocks from different teams. When the situation changes, situational leaders can call a huddle to re-establish situational awareness. Roles may need to change to achieve the agreed upon goal (e.g. runners must now coordinate with runners from other teams to share resources).