Tower Building

Abstract

Tower Building is a practical, hands-on, interactive, and high energy experiential learning activity. Working at tables in teams consisting of 1 leader and 3-4 workers, teams compete to become the world's best Tower Builder. Over 3 simulated years (90 min total including debrief), teams annually develop a strategy, determine roles, align people to roles, forecast results, execute their strategy, are measured on their results, deal with challenges, and continuously improve their strategy each year. Similar to the real world, each year the teams encounter an unknown wrinkle. Consulting advice is available and teams get benchmarks for how they are performing relative to others in the room and relative to a Hall of Fame.

Tower Building contains very powerful lessons relating to Leadership, Teamwork, Adapting to Change, Innovation, Culture, Being ''busy'' vs being ''productive'', Overcoming Challenges, Process Improvement, Accountability For Results, Communication, Planning, Execution, and Continuous Improvement in Real-Time etc.

This simulation has been delivered to groups ranging in size from 10-200 people. Audiences have spanned sectors that include financial services, oil & gas, mining, healthcare, various levels of government, post-secondary institutions, etc. with outstanding feedback every time.