How to Rob a Bank!™ | Team & Project Planning Training Activity

All aspects of project planning are covered in this fun and stimulating activity. Teams must mastermind a bank robbery, recruiting the appropriate staff, purchasing the right equipment and ensuring it arrives on time.

At the start of the activity teams have already commissioned research on three likely banks. Armed with a diary, teams decide on which bank to go for and then plan their heist. They have already recruited a getaway driver, but they need a base from which to work from and to practice with the equipment before the robbery. A certain Mr Big will bankroll the project but he'll want his money back plus a cut of the loot. So teams have to calculate all the costs and come up with a profitable, viable plan. Obviously there are risks and these need to be identified and assessed.

Faced with a rather unscrupulous looking set of mugshots, teams must pick the three robbers who will carry out the robbery itself. They also need to employ a 'fence' to get rid of the loot and launder the proceeds. And finally, they need to work out how the money will be distributed once all costs have been taken into account, remembering that there is no honour among thieves.

Teams have a Planning Sheet enabling them to identify the main parts of the plan: general outline; start dates; working capital; payouts; profit; risk analysis; single major concern.

Teams work on presentations to a local anonymous specialist (the Trainer!) who will decide if their plan is viable or not.

• Allows teams to plan a project
• Taking account of staffing issues (human resources)
• Ordering other necessary resources (equipment)
• Planning a schedule
• Costing the whole project and calculate ROI
• Carrying out risk assessment

1. Introduce the activity with the PowerPoint or verbally.
2. Divide the group into teams. Issue each team with a How to Rob a Bank folder. The folder gives all the necessary details that teams need in order to begin their planning.
3. Observe teams at work and make notes for the Debrief. Have they understood the instructions; have they begun work on a schedule? Is someone doing the costings? Are they working well as an integrated team? Are they on schedule?
4. If appropriate, allow teams time to prepare a presentation of their planning.
5. Hear the presentations and check their Planning Sheets.
6. Conduct the Debrief. Ask teams to review how they worked together and what the key lessons they learned were.
7. Summarise the learning and relate to the key stages of project planning.

Full guidance supplied in the Trainer’s Notes.

Hard & Digital Copy

• ☑️ Hard copy pack supplied
• ☑️ PDFs & PowerPoint supplied

Digital Copy

• ☑️ PDFs & PowerPoint supplied

Contents

• Trainer's Notes
• Trainer's PowerPoint
• Team Folders with information on: Target Banks, Vital Information, Finance, Staffing, Diary Planner, Summary of Plan
• Set of Research Results
• Handout: 10 Key Points for Planning a Project
• Handout: What Makes Effective Workplace Teams?
• Optional Handout: Gantt Chart

This activity is for face-to-face and virtual classroom use. 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.