Desert Island Activity

Many of us have played a game similar to this before – if you were stranded on a desert island, what essential items would you choose to survive? Participants are given a list of items to choose from and must work together to decide which items will help them stay alive.

The participants are given the following scenario: You are all stranded on a desert island, and may choose only three of the following objects to survive.

The list of objects may include items such as:

• a bag of fruit and vegetable seeds
• a Swiss army knife
• a fishing net
• sunblock
• a 100 ft rope
• a waterproof bed sheet,
• a large, strong bucket
• 2 litres of kerosene,
• A lighter, and so on.
• You can make these objects as obscure and strategic as possible so that members are challenged to really think and plan for their survival.

For smaller teams, you can ask each person to individually choose their three items and explain why.

For larger teams, you can split the team into groups and allow them to collaborate on which items they want to choose (using multi-room video conference options). Once all the smaller groups have decided on their items, continue the virtual meeting and ask each team in turn to explain their choices.

This activity encourages creative thinking and decision making when faced with difficult choices. Activities like this help virtual workers learn to collaborate in a virtual environment.

The topics of this publication: interactions, make agreements, teamwork