Survival by Teamwork Business Game

An engaging survival business simulation that develops teamwork, decision-making and problem-solving skills. Participants analyse a desert survival scenario and prioritise a limited set of items needed to maximise their chances of survival. Individuals first make decisions independently before working together as a team to reassess their priorities, encouraging discussion, negotiation and collaborative thinking.

The exercise demonstrates how structured discussion and shared reasoning can improve the quality of decisions compared with individual judgement alone.

You are in Egypt, taking part in an organised trip through the remote part of the White Desert in a specially constructed coach/jeep for desert conditions. The vehicle hits an old landmine, killing the driver and the tour guide. No one else is seriously injured, but the front of the coach has been destroyed. You are way off track, and there are no mobile phone or GPS tracking signals available. The surrounding area is reasonably flat and appears rather barren, except for occasional cacti. You and your fellow tourists are dressed in shorts and lightweight casuals for Egypt’s hot summer months. With only the clothes you are wearing and 12 items gathered from the wreckage, how will you survive?

First, as individuals, the training game participants decide on a course of action and rate the importance of the 12 items. Then, working as a group, they rate the importance of the 12 items again. Participants are then given an opportunity to compare their individual and team rankings of the 12 items with an expert’s opinion. In most cases, the team performs better than the individuals.

Communication

Listening skills and influencing are key to this activity. There will be an exchange of ideas, feelings, intentions, attitudes, expectations and perceptions – all important areas for effective communication.

Conflict management

Participants invariably choose different solutions in response to this situation, so conflict develops. Sometimes a participant will say “I don’t care what the rest of you are going to do, I am going to …..” How does each participant deal with the conflict?

Consensus

All participants need to work together to find a mutually acceptable solution (rather than producing a “we-they” situation). They will discover that a key positive of achieving consensus is that no member feels violated or ignored; this results in higher-quality decision making and stronger commitment to the agreed solution.

Decision making and problem solving

• Here are just a few of the many questions participants in the training game will have to answer:
• Should they go for help or should they stay?
• What is our strategy – survival or rescue?
• What items are important for these?
• What are the best options for solving this?
• What should we do when half the group have prioritised an item and the other half want another item?
• We are running out of time; how can we achieve the best result in the time left?

Influencing and negotiation

Participants will have different ideas and priorities, but as a team must agree on a strategy. If they fail to negotiate a successful solution, lives can be lost! Much negotiation and influencing will need to take place.

Leadership, management and supervising

If the participants do not choose a leader/chairperson, there is a need for a natural leader to evolve and take charge. Otherwise they will run out of time and bad decisions will be made. The leader also has to:

• Create a positive, informal atmosphere
• Agree common objectives, targets and standards
• Co-ordinate the team’s efforts and provide direction
• Ensure that all team members actively contribute to achieving these goal
• Ensure open communication
• Set an example and manage time effectively
• Support and motivate.
• Managing meetings

This training resource is excellent for demonstrating how and how not to chair a meeting effectively, providing useful insight not just for the group leader, but for all participants.

Team development

As well as benefiting from the practicalities of this training activity, participants will also be involved in a useful debriefing session, which will ask questions such as:

• How do you feel you handled the activity?
• How well did you organise yourselves at the beginning?
• Did you have a strategy? Did it work? If not, why not
• What barriers to communication were present?
• What went well for you?
• What did your team do well?
• Where could your team have done better?
• What are the key learning points that you can take back to your workplace?

Additional strategic competencies that this popular teamwork training game helps to develop include:

• Inclusive Decision-Making: Promotes inclusive decision-making by valuing diverse perspectives and ensuring all voices contribute to the team discussion.
• Creative Thinking: Develops creative thinking as participants explore different perspectives and consider alternative uses for the available items.
• Risk Management: Develops awareness of potential risks and the need to prioritise actions that maximise the group’s chances of success.
• Strategic Planning: Encourages teams to think strategically by assessing priorities, allocating resources and agreeing on a clear course of action.
• Change Management: Reinforces the importance of adapting decisions and strategies as new information and viewpoints emerge.

Organisations use this impactful team exercise: 

• As an icebreaker, leading to a greater understanding between group members
• In assessment and recruitment centres for assessing teamwork skills
• To focus on team performance and practising conflict management skills when opinions differ
• As an activity to highlight the need for both effective team and individual skills
• At team building and training events, conferences, seminars, offsites and away days
• For remote Learning and Development (L&D) events
• Within companies,  the public sector, universities, colleges and schools.

• Portable, simple to set up and supplied with clear instructions and debrief suggestions
• Buy ‘off the shelf’ and use as many times as you want or let Elite’s trainers facilitate for you
• Attractive, absorbing and challenging
• Versatile to meet a wide range of learning objectives and appropriate to any group with a shared language.

• Trainers Guide, including information on how to run the game and apply learnings in delegates’ roles
• Team Instructions with ranking table
• Ranking table answers
• Observers’ Instructions
• Debrief Sheet

Read through the Trainer’s Guide and briefing sheet to ensure you are familiar with the activity and your role as facilitator.

Explain to the group the scenario they will be dealing with, and ask them to individually rank the items in order of importance. They have 10 minutes to complete this task.

Once all participants have completed their individual rankings, explain how to reach consensus and give them the Consensus Seeking notes.

Tell them they have 20 minutes for a small group (up to 45 minutes for a large group) to work as a team and reach a team consensus.

Share the expert’s opinion with the participants so they can compare their individual and team rankings with the experts. In most cases, the Team Difference score is better than the Individual Score, i.e. The team’s rankings were closer to the experts.

Debrief both the individual and group parts of the game.

• Survival by Teamwork Business Game PDF
• Business Games Brochure
• Course Brochure
• Team Building Brochure

“We use this for so many training courses; it is an invaluable training activity.”

“It is so easy to run and participants reveal a lot about themselves. This ‘live data’ is so useful for us when debriefing.”

“We tried this training game at an assessment centre and it worked so well, we use it regularly now.”

• Multiple games can be played at once to accommodate groups larger than 48.  We recommend 3-12 participants per trainer.
• Additional licences are required to play more than one game at a time:  Two games are required for 49-96 participants, three games for 97-144 participants, etc.
• There’s no restriction on the number of times you can use our games.
• It is possible to play Survival by Teamwork in other languages if the trainer verbally translates the English instructions and solutions. It requires more translation than some of our other business games.
• Also available to play remotely.