One effective way to foster team spirit is to provide an experience in which all members find everyone winning. In the Red-Black game, players must strategize and employ techniques to accumulate the most points and thus win the game. Using a mathematical formula, participants will likely try to select options that have them winning and the other team losing. As the game progresses, however, the players should learn how both teams can win. (See Resource 1.)
Get the energy flowing and attempt to understand where workshop participants are coming from by placing quotes on the walls around the room. Leave plenty of room between each quote. Ask participants to walk around the room and find the quotes that best exemplify their beliefs about leadership. More than one person can pick the same quote. Ask each participant to stand in front of the quote he selected and to explain its relevance.
Create a scenario in which participants can role play. Have one participant play the role of an employee who is frequently late or otherwise ineffective. Ask three or four others to play managers. Assign each a different way to handle the bad employee. For example, the by-the-book manager might refer to a tangible list of rules and consequences in seeking discipline. Another manager might be softer and more empathetic in her attempt to encourage better behavior. A third manager might completely ignore the problem. After each plays her role, have workshop participants express their thoughts about each approach.
Ask participants to identify leaders they admire. Give them time to write their own lists, then ask them to read the names. Choices might include leaders of social change like Mohandas Ghandi or Martin Luther King. Political and military leaders such as George Patton, Ronald Reagan or Barack Obama, might appear on some lists. Still other lists might include names from participants' own lives, like mothers, fathers or teachers. Encourage participants to explain why they picked the people they did. Getting people to think about leadership qualities in others can often inspire them to try to mirror those qualities in themselves.