A thriving business empowers employees to make smart decisions since these directly impact daily operations. What can leaders do to help their teams make better decisions?

One thing that smart managers and leaders do is facilitate effective decision making techniques, and you can do this with fun decision making games in the workplace. Such games encourage critical thinking and problem solving while instilling a culture of accountability. They’re the perfect addition to your next team-building retreat or company meeting. Let’s take a look at some of the most entertaining decision making games out there. 

11 Decision making games for your workplace

1. Phone Booth

This game is great for small teams of 4-6 people, so if you have larger groups you’ll want to break them up. You also need to create separate “phone booths” for each team, where they won’t be in direct contact with each other. You can do this with various partitions or cardboard pieces. Ideally, the booths should fit everyone, and they won’t hear or be able to chat with the other groups. Set a timer for about 20 minutes, and give the teams a problem to solve. For example, you might want to say “Find some new ways to increase customer satisfaction.” Each team will spend some time on this problem (remember, while not speaking to other teams). At the end of the designated time, have the teams come together and discuss their strategies. Then hold a discussion for everyone where you talk about what worked well and what didn’t. How did everyone work together? Did the best ideas float to the top? Did a natural leader emerge in discussions? If you want to enhance the team-building aspect of this game, you can have the teams work together to build their phone booth before getting started. 

2. Shout Out

In this game, members collaborate and contribute by shouting out some ideas. You’ll need some sort of white board or flip chart, and plan for 3 - 10 people in a group. First come up with a problem that you want to discuss. For example, “How can we reduce waste in our production process?” or “How can we bring that new product to market one week faster?” Give each person the opportunity to yell out an idea so that the whole group can hear. Once everyone has had a chance to speak, ask the group to come to a consensus on the best option, and then hold a discussion about it. Why is it the best idea? What makes it workable, etc? Also, did everyone feel listened to? How did the results from this process differ from just speaking to each other? This gives your employees a chance to learn more about problem solving processes and cooperation, in addition to potential solutions to real business issues. For more communication games and activities, visit our blog.

3. Desert Survival

The ability to make quick decisions (that are actually good) is highly coveted in most businesses. You want people around you who can quickly understand a situation and make choices, all while cooperating with others. This activity is a good first step toward honing those skills. To start, you’ll need to make a list of items necessary for survival. In your list, include anything you think you would want if stranded on a desert island - no item is too small or unimportant, just brainstorm everything a person might need. Then, divide larger groups into teams of 10 or less. Hand out the list and tell them they need to narrow down the list to only 5 items. They must come to a consensus on these items. Set a timer for just 5 minutes so they feel some pressure. At the end of the exercise, you can hold a discussion about how each group reached their consensus. This is also a great opportunity for management to observe the natural leaders in each group, which can be really helpful knowledge for delegation down the road. 

4. Trading post

Understanding pricing and its effects on supply and demand is a natural skill in the business world. This game can help your employees to focus on this area in new ways. You can do this game for any length of time, so it’s perfect for fitting into most agendas. Start with two groups, a pile of fake money, and some simple items to trade like paper clips or pencils. Each group should have their own money and supply of items. The groups will need to decide what things cost and come up with trade terms. Then, they should get busy buying, selling, and trading. At the end of the exercise, bring everyone together and see who came out ahead. Why did one group do better than the other? What did everyone learn? Supply and demand are pretty simple economic concepts that most people know, but this is a fun reminder and refresher. 

5. Resource scramble

In this game, teams will have the opportunity to practice some critical thinking and problem solving skills (as well as collaboration). Put people into groups of no more than 8, and give everyone a basket of simple supplies. For example, markers, paper clips, glue, and clay - things you have around the office are fine. Provide each team with a problem and have them use their set of resources to solve it. Obviously this game works better if the resources could actually be applied to the problem, so you might want to suggest something like “Design a new logo” or “build a prototype of a new seasonal product”. Ideally, the group will come up with a few solutions and decide on their favorite, but they may only produce one if everyone is in agreement and timing is tight. 

6. Ranking race

Thinking critically - and quickly - is a highly coveted skill in the professional world. This game calls for creating a ranking system, which is a natural way of thinking through information and categorizing it. It’s a really versatile exercise since no materials and very little prep time are required. Start by getting people into groups of no more than 10. Then, set a timer and give each group a list of items to rank, such as the best local restaurants or top movies of the year. Task each group with coming up with their own ranking system. When the timer goes off, everyone should present their final rankings. They can describe to the group how they came up with their ranking system and why the items are weighted the way that they are. Have teams make notes if they find a certain ranking system particularly helpful - maybe that’s a matrix that more people can use in the workplace going forward. For more team-building games with no materials, quick office games, or indoor team-building activities, make sure to follow our blog. 

7. Traffic light project management

Anyone who has managed a project before - or even worked as part of one - understands the importance of deadlines and status check-ins. This activity helps to drive those points home and give everyone practice on sorting through tasks and understanding progress. Teams can have any number of people, but it is a good idea to break large groups into smaller, more workable ones. Come up with a certain goal that you want them to meet. For example, hitting a certain sales quota within a quarter, or finding a less expensive office space to lease. The team should start by documenting all of the tasks that need to be done in order to meet the goal. When all of their tasks are written down, they should go through them and assign them a red, yellow, or green traffic light. The light colors represent things that are not done (and need to be done), the yellow represents items that are already in progress but not finished, and green means that task is already completed. Then they should use this light system to prioritize tasks. This provides a powerful visual when managing projects and can be applied to most initiatives that have multiple phases or tactics. 

8. Six thinking hats

If you want your team to focus on coming up with more creative solutions, this activity can help. You’ll need to organize people into groups of no more than 10, and have several different color paper hats. Each hat represents a different perspective. Here are some sample colors and what they correlate to: 

• White: Facts and information
• Red: Emotions and feelings
• Black: Critical analysis
• Yellow: Benefits and positives
• Green: Creativity and alternatives
• Blue: Big picture thinking

Give each group a problem to solve and tell them to approach the issue from their unique “hat” perspective. Using these different philosophies, the group should come up with a solution that works for everyone and takes all of these positions into account. You can have a debrief where everyone discusses the process and what they found most challenging. If you have time, you can always add a second or even third round where people switch their hats and approach a new issue from a different perspective. This is also a great exercise for managers to observe closely. It’s a great way of seeing how people think and where their strengths lie. 

9. SWOT analysis

This is more of an activity than a game, but still a really helpful one in most corporate environments. You’ll need space for taking notes, like a whiteboard or note pads. You can have any number of people on a team, so just divide groups according to what works for your event. Give each group a problem or project to analyze. They should complete a proper SWOT analysis, which consists of documenting strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. Each team can present their analysis following their work. This is a great way to brush up on some broad business and analysis skills that can be used in any workplace. 

10. Dot voting

Does your team tend to go off on tangents and get into circular discussions when talking about projects or issues? Meetings that devolve into unrelated conversations are a big challenge in many workplaces. You can practice these skills with this exercise, dot voting. To do it, all you need to do is present the issue and then have everyone suggest ideas for a solution. Write them down on the white board so everyone can see. Then, hand out sticky notes and have everyone place their papers under the ideas they like best. You might let them choose only one, or up to 3. Once everyone has had their turn, you will have an obvious visual that shows which of the ideas was most popular. This is a great tactic that can be used in many different meetings, discussion, and brainstorming sessions. 

11. Effort and impact scale

This is another exercise that can be applied in so many ways in most workplaces. It provides a strong visual of the effort required and the potential impact of various solutions. You’ll start by drawing a matrix on a white board that everyone can see clearly. Create four quadrants by drawing lines from the mid-point of each scale. Have everyone write their ideas or solutions on a sticky note. They should have a single sticky note for each entry. Next, collect the sticky notes and read them out loud to the group, one by one. Then hold the sticky note over the quadrant you made, and ask the larger group “Is the effort required to implement this idea higher or lower?” Depending what the group says, move the paper along the scale. Then, ask them if the potential impact could be higher or lower. Repeat this process until all of the sticky notes are placed somewhere on the matrix. At this point, you’ll have a visual of which ideas can make the most impact, with the lowest effort - and those are your winners. You can also take things a step further and prioritize the ideas, too. 

Include decision making games in your next team retreat

Work retreats and team-building events are the perfect opportunities to bring out some decision making games. Many of these ideas require very little preparation and don’t need a lot of people, so they are perfect for filling that empty 30-minute slot in your agenda. Or, you can put more thought into this portion of your event and broaden the time allotted for these activities. Either way, decision making games are perfect for improving collaboration, creativity, and critical thinking on your team.

If you’re not sure where to start in putting together a powerful agenda for your next team-building retreat, let us help.