30 Team-Building Games, Activities, and Ideas, continued 6. Lifeboat Game Time: An hour Purpose: Discover how emotions effect the success of our negotiations Participants: One or several small groups Materials needed: List of 15 people in a yacht Instructions: Give the team or teams a list of 15 people who are on a yacht. Tell them that the yacht developed a leak and is sinking fast. There is only one lifeboat and it will accommodate only nine people -- not one more can fit and there are no more life boats or life jackets. The group must then come to an agreement as to which of 15 people gets to go in the lifeboat and be saved. However, they must also list those they save in order of importance -- because if they run out of food and water the less important people will have to be dumped overboard. Of course this is often the more difficult job. The key for this game is to make the 15 people on the list as controversial as possible. For example include a priest, minister, rabbi or all three! A pregnant woman, powerful leaders from both major political parties, an ex-convict, a male physician and a female one, a political lobbyist, people of different ethnicities, etc -- the more emotionally charged the list the better. Give them a period of time to work out the problem. Make it long enough to get into heated discussion but short enough to be pressed for time. I usually allow six to ten minutes. The discussion afterward should be in depth and include everyone on the team. You can facilitate with questions. Such as... What problems did you experience? How did you resolve these issues? Was it the best way