Our very first online Houston builds trust in a 40-person team

The online format is no obstacle for intra-team communication and trust-building training. "Houston, we have a problem" is an exciting online game that suits that case just right.

Mission.

A globally operating company supplies metal to make machine tools for manufacturing plants. Like many other businesses, it suffers from the pandemic's negative repercussions. Forced to work from home, employees have quickly grown tired and discouraged. They claim to lack solidarity, support, and a sense of a friend's shoulder to lean on.

Sometime before the New Year, the company celebrates its birthday. On this occasion, it decided to cheer the employees up with a smart team-building session and hold a business game for a 40-person team.

The primary goal was to make everyone feel that they are not alone.

Solution. "Houston, we have a problem" online game session.

The game was played in two rounds between 8 teams of 5 people per team. To assist the host, each team was given its personal moderator and a technician.

The only software used was Zoom + Miro.

The scenario offers the participants to become astronauts and head right to the Moon. Here, each of them received a different task - to collect rock samples, build a lighthouse, or plant a flag. Everything was fine until the life support system collapsed! The only way out is to go back to Earth. The mission requires all participants to accomplish their tasks to get the systems up and running in time. Should anyone fail, the whole team will be unable to return. With every second counting, any further step you take can save your mates.

The accomplishment of such a mission requires advanced skills in precise communication, stress management, and mutual assistance.

The game can produce the most unpredictable results. In our case, one team could come back to Earth. Following the game, the players had a discussion to reflect on possible issues preventing effective collaboration, problem-solving, and negotiation.

The participants agreed that the failure was caused by insufficient cooperation skills. Further on, we ran a comprehensive facilitation session to address this matter.