Forming Triangles is a great energizer with a valuable message, being very useful for starting a conversation about self-organizing teams.
Running the activity:
This activity is divided into two parts.
First part:
- Ask the members of the group to walk individually in a random direction.
- After some time, say the magic word “triangle”: each group member will have to find two other people and form an equilateral triangle (each person is a triangle vertex and should point each arm towards the other two people representing the other triangle vertices; each person is a triangle vertex on one triangle only).
- Track how long it took the group to form the triangles.
Second part:
- Select one person to be the organizer of all triangles.
- Ask the members of the group to walk in a random direction.
- After some time, say the magic word “triangle”: the organizer has to form equilateral triangles with all group members (including the organizer in one of the triangles).
- Track how long it took the group to form the triangles.
The first part shows a self-organizing group; the second run shows a group guided by an organizer.
Typically, the self-organizing triangle formation runs faster than its counterpart, and the team feels more engaged in the activity. This activity fosters the conversation about an essential concept of successful agile teams: self-organization.