Decision Making Scenaries:
directions:
Use the prompts below to create opportunities for your teams to explore topics like problem solving, decision making, autonomy and team dynamics.
For each situation or scenario, identify the following elements:
- What is the problem?
- Who is or can be impacted?
- What types of elements need to be taken into consideration before making a decision (people, process, technology, etc.)?
- Who needs to be involved in decision making?
- Who has the power to make decisions?
- How do the decisions need to be communicated or implemented?
- Santa’s elves are becoming restless as the busy season approaches. There has been talk about creating a union as more people have the desire to work from home. What should Santa do to meet his deadlines?
- Your company has accidentally invented a time machine. Do you go back to fix a past mistake, visit the future to see what’s in store, or bring someone from history to the present?
- You and your coworkers have all been transported into a fictional cartoon episode where you are working with a talking dog to solve a bank robbery. Identify the skills each member of your team has to help solve the mystery.
- Imagine extraterrestrials are threatening to take over your office, and the only way to save it is to use office supplies creatively. Each team must come up with a defense strategy using items that can be found within the office space.
- You’ve been granted a personal robot assistant for a day. Do you delegate all your tasks to it, or do you challenge its programming by trying to teach it your quirks and preferences? How does this impact your overall organization?
- Create a fictional scenario where an email from the future has been sent to the present, containing valuable information. Teams must decipher clues in the email to solve a current work-related challenge.
- A disruption in the supply chain impacts the team’s ability to acquire necessary resources. The team must find alternative suppliers, adjust timelines, and ensure minimal impact on project delivery.
- You and your team members work at a magical hotel that travels from place to place. Identify a skill or talent each person has to keep guests at the hotel entertained while being relevant and entertaining all of the hotel patrons to keep making money and guests interested in the hotel.
- Pretend a project deadline has been moved up unexpectedly. Teams must devise a time-traveling plan to go back and manage their time more efficiently. What strategies will they implement to meet the revised deadline?
- Your team comes into work on a Monday morning to learn that your budget has been unexpectedly reduced. They need to brainstorm and prioritize cost-effective solutions to maintain productivity and quality.
- You and your coworkers have been transported to a magical land and you have to find your way back home. When you land, each person has a different magical power. What are each of your powers and how do they help you get back home?
- The team is informed that the project scope has significantly changed due to unforeseen circumstances. They must quickly reassess priorities, redistribute tasks, and create a new project plan.
- A new technology is introduced that could significantly impact the team’s workflow. The team must adapt to the changes, learn the new technology, and incorporate it into their daily processes.
- A competitor introduces an innovative product or service that could impact the team’s market share. The team needs to adapt by assessing the competitive landscape, identifying opportunities for improvement, and innovating their own offerings.