The Urgent Order!™ | Teamwork Training Activity

A special order is received by teams who represent the staff and management of an electronics company. Their task is to manufacture (from plastic pieces) a number of new ‘computer chips' for a customer.

With the materials they have, teams must create 10 'unique' chips. Unfortunately some of the pieces are the wrong colour and teams will need to exchange these with other teams to fulfil the task. But will they?

The chips need to be ‘sprayed’ and ‘dried’ before being neatly packaged, labelled and prepared for despatch to the customer. This is a trial order - if it is done well then larger orders are likely to follow.

Halfway through the activity, teams receive an urgent notice from another customer who wants a quotation for a potentially much larger order (for the same computer chips). They now have to prioritise the work as this is urgent. Accuracy and attention to detail are paramount, but the original trial order still has to be completed before the deadline of 60 minutes.

Very often, teams know exactly how they should behave but in practice, it’s all too easy for priorities to go out of the window! How can teams ensure that at work this does not happen and that they become highly efficient, motivated and successful teams?

• Teamwork skills
• Managing / coordinating a task
• Managing interruptions & priorities
• Attention to detail & accuracy of work
• Creative thinking & problem-solving
• Keeping focus on customer needs
• Influencing skills

1. Introduce the session explaining that teams have a task to do and they have exactly 60 minutes to complete it.
2. Divide the group into teams and issue Team Briefs to each team.
3. Observe teams in action and make notes on any interesting behaviours you witness. These observations can be used at the debrief to comment on how well teams worked together.
4. At the halfway point, issue a copy of the email quotation request.
5. At the 60 minute point stop the teams and collect in the packages they have put together. Check these for accuracy, design and overall appearance. Score each team's contribution using the guidelines in the Trainer's Notes.
6. Begin the debrief and lead a discussion on how the teams worked. How did they start? Did they have a good understanding of the task? Was everyone involved? How did they prioritise, delegate and work together?

Full guidance supplied in the Trainer’s Notes.

• Trainer’s Notes
• Trainer's PowerPoint
• Trainer's Reference Sheet: The 10 Legal Shapes
• Team Briefs
• The Urgent Email
• Trainer's Scoresheet
• Team Review Sheet
• A4 Floor Plan: Spray & Dry Rooms
• Set of 50 Plastic Interlocking Cubes (for Teams 1 & 3)
• Set of 50 Plastic Interlocking Cubes (for Teams 2 & 4)
• A4 Paper (colour & white)
• 60-second Timers
• Team Resources: A4 Card, Sticky Tape, Rulers, Scissors

This activity is for face-to-face classroom use. It is supplied as a hard copy pack and the digital files are supplied via the Northgate Trainerhub.

This Northgate Training activity comes with a five-year licence for repeat use with up to 24 participants at a time, for use by Trainers based at one licence-holding site.

All Trainers physically based at the same office location can access the Northgate resources during the five-year term, including the digital resources supplied on the Trainerhub via your own site-specific Trainer Dashboard. If you have Trainers based at other locations, and/or remote workers, who would like to access and use the Northgate resources, we can advise further depending on your requirements.

For further information on our licence terms please view the Northgate Licence Agreement.