The House of Cards

Divide into small groups of 4-5. Assign a “leader” for each group. Provide each group with a deck of playing cards. Announce the goal is for each group to build the tallest structure possible in three minutes. Each group, however, must only follow the direction of their assigned leader. No one in the group takes action without being told what to do by the leader and no one can overrule the decision of the leader. Check for understanding. Start the activity. After three minutes of building check results and ask students to respond to the following questions:

1. Describe the experience of being part of this type of team.
2. What is useful and what is destructive about this type of leader-follower relationship?
3. When is this type of leader-follower relationship appropriate? When is it not appropriate?
   

Use the questions to highlight key points about how a dictatorial type of leadership is useful in crisis situations or when the leader has far more knowledge and experience than the team members, and point out how this type of relationship is not useful in collaborative situations or when everyone on the team has useful knowledge and experience to share.

Leadership Development Tip for May 1, 2008