There are two things that the MBA program gives utmost importance to: Diversity and

Teamwork. Right from day one of our MBA program, team work has been prioritized and

the reason for that is to reflect real life work situations on the students so that they may get

a feel of what it takes to be an integral part of the ever-evolving global society. The ability

to work efficiently and effectively in a team is becoming a necessity and students are made

aware of that as we have separate teams for all the courses we are enrolled in. Although, I

have always been a team player, learnt from the other members in the team, and enjoyed

the whole experience; working on complex business problems in these teams is not “fun” in

the traditional sense. In the midst of being bogged down by business cases, sustainability

reports, analytical techniques, working with a team in the Organizational Behavior course

was refreshing. Moreover, the idea of playing a game as part of a team project was very

exciting. Having played only competitive board games in the past, such as Monopoly or Risk,

I was looking forward to playing a board game that required a team to collaborate with

each other to reach one common goal.

This reflection paper discusses my team’s performance in the forbidden island game along

with exploring the reasons behind the team dynamics and how our past experiences as a

team led to the emergence of certain roles as the game progressed. This paper also

examines my role in the team, how it differs from my participation in other teams and what

might be the reason behind the change in roles from one team to another.
Our first step towards tackling this new kind of project was to familiarize ourselves with the

rules of the game and what we wanted to achieve. I suggested that we do the above while

progressing through the game as it would be a live example and help us understand the

rules better. However, the rest of my team members, were skeptical about that idea and

did not want to begin the game without knowing enough about it beforehand. This made

me realize that my idea of immediate implementation and figuring out our goals as we

moved forward with the project, did not resonate with my team. A similar situation had

occurred in our previous project wherein I had suggested making slides for a presentation

while we were discussing the material whereas my team members wanted to set up a

framework for the whole presentation before they started making individual slides. Having

realized this, I understood that the other members of my team we not as comfortable being

unprepared and stepping into the unknown as I was, and did not take their decision to

spend some time reading the rules before they even opened the box for the game

personally.

After we had gone over the whole rulebook, I had a fair idea of how the game worked and

announced that we should start. We decided to commence playing with the rule book out

as a backup guide. Since this was our first game we didn’t plan on any strategy and just

decided to start the game and get an understanding of how it works. During the game, all

my teammates were hesitant in making moves and kept second guessing themselves,

waiting for a cue from me as to what the appropriate move should be for the turn. Their
informational dependence gave me a sense of being the leader of the group, something

which I hadn’t experienced before.

Being very agreeable and towards the introverted end of the spectrum, often I end up

taking the back seat in a group and tend to follow. My experience with other groups has

been that, individuals who speak up more often and project the image of knowing the

material are not challenged by other members of the team and frequently assume the

leadership role. However, in the past, I had never been one of those individuals. The

difference here might have been the size of the OB group which was much smaller than the

other groups that I’ve been in. We were a democratic group with everyone being very

agreeable and less extraverted. So even though I didn’t want to be the leader in this

scenario, just because I spoke up and mentioned that I understood the game, everyone else

stepped back and let me take up the leadership role. Looking back, something very similar

had happened during the Marshmallow challenge, a week before the forbidden island

simulation. One of the team members had mentioned that he had done a similar challenge

before and all the others just stepped back and were informationally dependent upon him

for the rest of the challenge. Since that approach was successful for us the last time,

everyone was comfortable with doing it again for the simulation.

As the game progressed, we started being more intuitive in our decision making and started

to function more like a team, with my leadership role being less pronounced with every

turn. I realized that it wasn’t the leadership role that I enjoyed but it was contributing to the

team and having my voice heard. The size of the group really helped in lowering my
defenses and stepping out of my comfort zone. This had been the case with the other

members of the group as well, as with every meeting more of us were talking, making jokes,

and trying to contribute. Albeit very diverse, we had evolved into a cohesive group while

working on other projects for the class, such as the group presentation and the

marshmallow challenge, and the team simulation was only strengthening our cohesiveness,

as now we were doing something not just for a grade but also for fun.

Midway through the first round, one of the team members from another team stopped by

our breakout room. Upon learning that we were still on the first round, he seemed

surprised and told us that most other teams, including his own had finished round 1 and

were taking a break. This was the turning point in our simulation, not because we were

threatened by competition but because we weren’t. To me that showed strong group

cohesiveness; no one in the group questioned whether were doing something wrong, or

what strategies could the other groups have applied, we just continued playing the game

like we were before. We were able to translate the collaborative group dynamic into the

game, winning the first round. There was a sense of confidence in the room, but it was also

very calm. It felt like every one of us believed that we would be able to pull this off from the

get go. In retrospect, the idea to take up an extra 20 minutes to review the rules thoroughly

before starting the game really helped us function better as a team. This was a great

learning experience for me as I am someone who jumps into the problem without building a

proper framework for a solution. Understanding the problem and being familiar with the
possible solutions not only increased the team effectiveness but also increased group

confidence in the decision making.

For the next round, we decided to challenge ourselves and start at the “Elite” level on the

water rise card. This game was very different from the first; there was excitement in the

room, which showed that all of us were open to experience a challenge. As the game

progressed we stood up, were cheering every time we drew cards and were making

decisions much faster that we did in the first game. Ten minutes into the game we were

asked by one of our other classmates to come back to class as the time for the simulation

was almost up. This further expediated our decision-making time, resonating with phase 2

of the Punctuate Equilibrium Model. This is where we felt the threat of competition, but not

against a competing team but against time. We were jumping, shouting and were extremely

excited to finish the game as the “water rise” levels increased and the deadline for the

simulation approached. All these factors contributed to an increase in group cohesiveness

and we were able to win a tougher round two in 1/3rd the time it took us to finish round

one. By the end of the simulation, our confidence in each other had reached a new level

and I wished that it is with this confidence that we should’ve worked on our group

presentation (Project 1) during which we were more skeptical about each other’s ideas and

extremely low on cohesiveness.

It was inspiring to see how easily we could face a challenge once we were confident about

each other’s abilities. Besides helping on a team front, the game gave me some personal

insights about how I function in a team and what makes me open up to the people around
me. I realized that when my opinions are being heard and the people around me believe

that I am a value addition to the team, I lower my defenses and participate more in the

discussion. It was surprising to see how much insight one can gain on real-world scenarios,

from a simple game, especially if we look back and analyse the situation and the how the

events unfolded.