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Teambuilding - Blind Management

How do you motivate and have people do things when they don't know what it is they are doing?

This event has people explore those aspects of work with “employees” blindfolded and literally left in the dark while “managers” are limited in what they can say and how they can lead. The interaction between managers and employees is fascinating as interpersonal dynamics play out and individuals learn the tenets of good leadership through experiencing something that could be best described as the opposite.

Process:

We start out by separating the group, arbitrarily, into “management” and “workers.” We then blindfold the workers and leave them alone for a while. Management is taken away to a management summit where they are given instructions. The object is for the workers to move an object from one spot to another, using a special bungee moving device.

These are:

They cannot tell the workers what they are trying to do
They can only talk to their direct reports
They can only give directive commands
They can only use negative reinforcement - "You are doing that wrong"

This activity gets more difficult as the facilitators move through the teams and get some of the team members to quit, others to not listen, and still give others conflicting information. Both “management” and the “workers” become frustrated with the progress and start to blame the other side. About three-quarters the way through the event, the facilitators call a management summit. At the summit, they change the rules for the managers.

These new rules are:

They can give explanations to what they are doing
They can use any kind of feedback that they want
They can be as creative as they want in getting their “workers” motivated, rehired, and recommitted

After this summit, teams work much better and more cohesively. Some managers even have the insight to have their workers take off their blindfolds (although this does not always happen).

Insights:

Blind Management provides a great learning experience for participants and can be used to explore the following concepts:

The importance of good communication
The value of information at all levels in the organization
The power of empowerment
Support and encouragement
Understanding how important teamwork is to overall success
The trouble with assumptions
How important information is at all levels in achieving goals
The power of positive vs. negative reinforcement
The effect of assumptions on leading a group
How creativity can be accomplished even under strict rules

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