A Game Of Hidden Agendas..

I came across a very simple but interesting game that soft skills trainers use to demonstrate effect of hidden agendas in a team. Assume that there are three teams named red, blue, and green. Each team has three boxes or cubes – the same colour as of their team names.

The teams are supposed to build a wall made of colored cubes or pencil boxes. They have the manpower, raw materials, and the skill to build a wall of cubes. But, the trainer will give each team a chit that will have some criteria. The team members have to continue building the wall keeping the criteria in mind.

The teams will start building the walls. But, will continue assembling and disassembling their color blocks as the criteria for their respective teams would have not been met. The trainer will observe the game and hint that they are not able to freeze the wall.

After about 10 minutes of the play, the trainer will ask the teams to forget the chits with the criteria. Then the teams will immediately finish building the wall. The trainer asks the teams to read out the criteria in their chits. The criteria will be, “Red should not be next to Blue, “Blue should not be next to Green”, and “Green should not be next to Red.”

Because of the hidden agendas each team was holding, they could not build a wall or product or a complete output. Once the hidden agendas were removed, the wall or product was built immediately. The same theory holds good for completing a project or work at office. Do we have to list the hidden agendas at workplaces???