The Most Versatile Activity in My Toolbox: Team Tally

I recently posted an article on my blog about Team Tally, an activity I consider one of the most versatile in my toolbox. Over the years I’ve shared it with educators, facilitators, and trainers all over the world, many have reported back to me that they have adapted it to a variety of community building, academic, and training content engagement situations with learners of all ages. In this time where educators and trainers are having to quickly design remote learning and team-building activities, I am thinking Team Tally could be tailored for virtual/online community building or content review. Thoughts? Ideas? Examples? Please share! https://blog.experientialtools.com/2020/02/25/the-activity-i-always-have-in-my-bag-of-tricks-team-tally/

Original Article from the February 25th Inspired Educator Blog:

In past posts, I’ve explored the idea of re-purposing icebreakers/rapport builders for exploring academic or training content, or as an active way to engage a group in reflection and dialogue. Team Tally continues to be on the top of my list for this kind of dialogue sparking activity with multiple purposes. It is my go-to community building, reflection, and review activity for groups of various ages, situations, and sizes. Over the years, I’ve shared versions of it in my books and here on the blog. Still, it is one of those techniques that continues to change and develop with use, and one that I continually hear from workshop participants that they’ve successfully used and tailored to their programs. Because it’s a simple activity that packs so much punch, I thought it worth revisiting here once again in its latest iteration.

Team Tally is so powerful because it blends the right amount of healthy competition to draw participants in, and if thoughtfully designed, carefully sequenced questions will keep them sharing in a non-threatening, collaborative atmosphere. A thoughtful educator or facilitator can create context, blend in targeted review, reflection, and data gathering questions around specific content, themes, or topics. Because it is participant-directed, it is ideal for transitional times, i.e., when returning from a break, mealtimes, or, when an unexpected change in a schedule occurs, and you need a self-directed activity to engage the group in while you adjust materials or set up.

Materials: Choose/create a Team Tally that fits your group. There are examples of rapport building and reflection versions in Tips & Tools for the Art of Experiential Group Facilitation, The Inspired Educator, Inspired Learner, and past editions of this blog. On my desktop, I have a team tally folder with close to a hundred variations adapted over the last 15 years for groups of all kinds (I am happy to share templates you can adapt – email me at [email protected]).

Facilitation Suggestions:

• Divide participants into small teams of 4 to 6 participants (this is an effective large group activity that could be done at tables in even a large conference situation).
• Ask teammates to talk through the get to know you or reflection questions on the list and come up with a cumulative score for each item
• This leads to engaging conversations, reflection, and connection as group members listen to and learn from each other.
• For the targeted information gathering, review and reflection, versions, give participants an extra sheet of paper for participants to write their answers down. This will give you data for formative assessment, or collective information to give back to the group as a peer teaching activity.
• After groups finish, gather everyone back for teams to share. I de-emphasize the score and emphasize the process by going around as groups finish and ask them to “not only tally their score but go back and choose two or three questions you found most interesting or generated the most discussion.” I find when I do this when groups report out, they not only share their score but some specific ideas and often inspiring highlights of their discussions.

Outcomes: Time and time again, I’ve seen participants connect socially and build rapport and community over the discussion of shared experiences through this activity. I have used this Team Tally to focus on specific workshop, training or, academic outcomes and check for understanding or gather data on participant’s opinions about or knowledge around a topic. For example, during my time helping develop the Dylan’s Wings of Change “Wingman” peer leadership and social and emotional learning program, we used this with targeted questions around what youth felt were topics they think peers need to learn about and practice, and qualities of an effective facilitator. The answers to which we collected and then gave back to them later as they worked on designing and facilitating their programs.

In my work with educators, I target questions around favorite engagement or reflection strategies and then share the notes taken by each team with the whole group as a workshop follow-up. I regularly hear from workshop participants who I’ve shared this with that they’ve adapted this successfully for a variety of purposes. If you are one of those facilitators, please reach out and share. If you would like a template or example in word to adapt to your groups, contact me at [email protected].

Visit experientialtools.com for more activities and resources. I would love to hear your ideas on how you are adapting experiential approaches to online and remote learning environments.