Team Building Spy Scenarios

We are constantly receiving emails and calls about team building spy scenarios.

You must be very careful about putting spy scenarios into team building. Spy scenarios are designed to get individuals to question each other and each other’s motives. Remember, this already happens enough at work!

However, team building spy scenarios can be incredibly fun if they are used to help people understand how easily they fall into what we call 'MSU' – ‘Making Stuff Up’.

Pick just about any team building activity and then tell the group that there may be as many as one saboteur for every 15 people. Give each person an index card and tell the group that there may be ‘spys’ that will attempt to sabotage the activity.

However, do not give out any ‘spy’ index cards before the team building activity. Because there is the possibility of a spy, everyone will be on the lookout for one. Also, if you create some kind of reward for finding the spy, everyone will be totally focused on the imaginary spy in the group. The team building activity becomes secondary in importance.

During the debrief of the activity, you can ask everyone who they thought the spy was. You will find that everyone thinks there is a spy in the group.

If you would like help selecting the perfect team building activity for your specific needs, please call and ask any of our facilitators for help! Whether it be questions about team building spy scenarios or other great team building possibilities, our facilitators have a wealth of experience to assist you.