Annex 1
Us and Them - A Strategic Planning and Operations
Exercise
Instruction Sheet
Your group is about to participate in a strategic planning and
operations exercise which will involve your own team’s as well as
others’ actions for determination of the final outcome. All that is
required for your team’s success in this exercise is skill, careful
strategic analysis and prompt decisive action.
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1. |
This exercise may be played by several groups (or operations)
each composed of 4 small teams. Each team should have received one colored
felt-tip marker, these instructions for each team member and a copy of the
operational map to be used in planning your operational strategy. |
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2. |
You should already be divided into teams of no more than four
players each. These teams must also be combined into operations of 4 teams each.
Introduce yourselves to your teammates if you are not already acquainted. Decide
on one member of the team who will be responsible for implementing the
team’s strategy, and give them the colored marker, this person will be
referred to as the Marker-Holder for the team. Teams involved in the same
operation should each have a different colored marker, which also signifies the
name of that team, i.e. the Reds, Green, Blacks, or Blues. The Marker-Holder for
your team will record the team’s strategic decision or move directly on the
Joint Strategic Planning and Operations Recording Form which will be supplied by
your workshop facilitator to each operation. |
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Each group’s objective is to form 5 marks-in-a-row of the
same color on the form in any orientation: vertical, horizontal, or diagonal.
The object is for each team to form as many of these 5-in-a-rows as possible.
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Each team’s Marker Holder will mark only one square per
turn, and moves will be taken in turn by each group. Turns last 30 seconds, in
which each team can discuss, advise, and or delegate authority to move to the
Marker Holder. |
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5. |
Each team must decide on their move and have it marked on the
form by their Marker Holder within the 30 seconds allotted for each turn. The
workshop facilitator will monitor each team’s time for every turn. If you
fail to mark your move within the 30 seconds allotted, your team forfeits that
turn and the next team can begin immediately. |
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There will be a 5 minute strategy period before the beginning of
the first round of the operation. You can discuss your strategy and use the team
maps as preliminary planning tools for your teams if useful. The facilitator
will provide the official Operations Map to be used for recording the actual
strategic operational moves. |
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7. |
The exercise will be complete after 10 rounds. Two squares on
the map will be left blank at that point if all teams took all of their possible
moves. |
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8. |
The winners will be those who have constructed the greatest
number of same-colored rows of five on the form. |
Good Luck!
Strategic Planning and Operations Recording Form
Operations Map
Figure
Us and Them - A Strategic Planning and Operations
Exercise
Facilitators Guide Sheet
You should arrange the teams so that there are two or three
groups of 4 teams each. The number of people on each team depends on the number
of participants. Distribute the colored felt-tipped markers to each of the
teams, be sure that you have at least four different colored markers, so that
each of the four teams forming a group or operation can be distinguished
by their color. Each team should also receive one Strategic Planning and
Operations Recording Form.
Ask each team to move together so that they can devise any
pre-operational strategy. One task that they must also accomplish is the
identification of the person on each team who will be responsible to mark the
recording forms for their teams. These people - the Marker Holders - can be
honored by a formal presentation of their team marker.
Allow 5 minutes for the strategy planning meeting, during which
you can call the Marker Holders forward to introduce them to the other Marker
Holders in the operation.
At the end of five minutes give a loud “START” command
and then monitor your watch and say “turn” or “change” at
each 30 second interval. After 40 turns (when only 2 squares are left unmarked
on the forms announce “END”).
Collect the operational forms and compare them. Give the victory
to the four teams whose form has the greatest number of same color rows of five,
including all four colors. The point is that the groups or operations
that managed to get the most successes by all of their combined four teams is
the winner. Thus winning through blocking your opponents is still a losing
strategy for all four teams if the other four have made more points through
working together (or at least not “blocking”) each other so
effectively.
Many other issues can be highlighted here through a discussion
by asking these questions in the plenary:
1. What did the teams view as their goal in the
game?
2. Did they arrive at any strategies in their preliminary five-minute
planning session?
3. Did they consider planning together with the other
teams? Why or why not?
4. How did each team define “winning”.
5.
How did it feel to “block” others or to be “blocked” by
them.
6. If the teams could redo the exercise, what strategies might they
consider?
