Sharing Management WisdomA Team Building ActivityTraining sessions and teambuilding activities thatinvolveandengage attendeesare a challenge when your group meets regularly. Your participants have diferentlevels of knowledge and need. Additionally, they have diferent numbers ofreporting staf members and the professionalism and experience of their reportingemployees ranges widely.Yet, for teambuildingandtraining, regular meetingsensurethetransfer of thetraining information to the work place. Regular meetings also ensure that eforts toapply thetrainingarereviewed and shared.Theyalso builda cohesive sense ofbelonging to a team in the minds of your participants.ere!s a simple team building activity that creates excitement during a regularlyscheduledteambuildingandtrainingsession. Thisteambuildingactivityallowsyour participants to share their accumulated knowledge and wisdom with the otherparticipants. "uring this team building activity, the facilitator steps aside and theparticipants take center stage with their knowledge and expertise.#ith a group of twenty$four, this team building activity will take approximately anhour and a half. %o, this team building activity works well as the focus of a teambuilding session or as a part of a day$long or multiple day team building event. Thisteam building activity is appropriate as the main event in a team building sessionthat lasts a couple of hours.%teps in %haring &anagement #isdom' A Team (uilding Activity). "ividethemeetingparticipantsintogroupsof four people. *or thisteambuilding activity, you will want to assign groups based on years ofmanagement experience. Thiswill allowyoutohaveteammemberswithvariousyearsof management experienceparticipatingineachgroup. %o,start by asking your participants to raise their hands if they have more thanten years of management experience.Assign each of these participants to their own table. +f you have more thanyouneedtodividethemeetingattendeesintogroupsof four, placethemanager with the least experience at the table with the manager who has themost. Then, ask how many participants have ,ve or more years of experiencemanagingpeopleandassignthemtothetablesof themoreexperiencedmanagers.*inally, ask how many managers have fewer than ,ve years of experienceandassignthemtothegroups with the moreexperiencedmanagers.Thismethod of assigning participants to groups so that you create various levelsof experiencewithineachgroupis integral tothesuccess of this teambuilding activity."o not use a numbering of method or a self$selection method to organi-ethese groups. your results will sufer from the lack of diversity. +ndeed, if youknowtheattendees, asyouassignbylevelsof experience, avoidputtingdepartmental coworkers in the same group./. Tell the newly formed groups that their assignment is to look back over theirwork careers and determine the ten most important pieces of wisdom theyhave learned about managing people. + provide the following example frommy own accumulated knowledge' "on!t ever expect any individual to wholeheartedly support and 0own0 any way of doing things that he or she had nopart in creating or developing. At best, you will only obtain 0buy in.0 1se thisexampleor pull anexamplefromyour ownaccumulatedwisdom, but doshare an example.2. 3rovide the time needed by the participants to think about and 4ot down ideasbefore you ask them to share their wisdom with their small group. + ,nd thatcoming up with ten pieces of knowledge, that group members want to share,generally takes twenty to thirty minutes. You will know when mostparticipants are ready for the next step when the level of noise in the roomincreases.5. 6nceparticipants havehad achance to think about their accumulatedwisdom, ask them to share them with their small group. &y preference is thateach person share one at a time. They share their ,rst. then, each personshares their second, and then, their third. Tell the smallgroup members tolook for common themes and similarities in the pieces of wisdom shared.7. Tell the groups that each person will be asked to share several of their wordsof wisdom with the whole group upon completion of the small group exercise,if they are comfortable doing so.8. "ebrief the team building activity by asking the group how they reacted tothe words of wisdom, both telling their own and hearing those of coworkers.9. :ontinuetodebrief theactivitybyaskingthelargegroupif participantsnoticed themes in the wisdom shared. #hen the discussion is ,nished, asktheparticipantsif theyhaveanythingthey!dliketoaddtothediscussionbefore moving on with the rest of the session or ending.Variations for Sharing Wisdom: A Team Building ActivityYou can assign non$management or mixed groups to come up with various types ofwisdom gleaned through working. An example might be' :ome up with the ten mostimportant piecesof wisdomthey!velearnedabout howtoworkefectivelywithpeople. A second example' :ome up with the ten most important factors they!velearned about working efectively with their boss, or any boss.