Problem Solving Exercise: Design a Menu

Purpose
This is a team building exercise suitable for all ages and both the academic and
professional world. The aim is to get a number of teams to work together on a common
task and understand the importance of working towards a particular target. You can easily
customise the exercise to explore a variety of concepts on management and teamwork.
The main task in this exercise involves creating a menu for a particular event. Groups get
to create, share and defend their choices which allow you to explore topics such as
teamwork, leadership, problem solving, goal setting, cooperation, negotiation and
persuasion.

Objective
Create a menu based on the criteria provided.

What You Need

Papers

Setup
Part 1:

Divide the delegates to groups of about 3 or 4. Ideally aim to have 3 groups and no
more than 5 groups.

Explain that each group is tasked to create part of a menu for a given occasion. You,
as the tutor, must decide up front what this occasion is and then brief the delegates
on it. For example, consider the following examples:
o A dinner for company Christmas Party
o A dinner for the Managing Directors 50th birthday party.
o A dinner for an award ceremony
o A dinner for VIPs attending a conference

Ask groups to decide between themselves which course they want to focus on. For

example, group A can design the main course while group B can design the dessert
and so on. Groups must declare what they are working on so no two groups get to
work on the same course.

Allocate 15 minutes for groups to embark on this task. They must design and then
record their menus on paper.

After the allocated time, ask them to provide and share their menus.

Now ask the delegates if they have considered any success criteria. How do they
know that their menu has worked?

In groups, ask them to brainstorm these criteria and record them on paper. This may
lead them to ask you questions about the details of the settings. Answer based on
the case you have selected. Again you must have a clear idea for the setting so you
can answer these questions.

Allocate 5 minutes for this part.

Now ask groups to revisit their menus and update them based on the identified
success criteria.

Allocate another 5 minutes for this part.

Bring everyone back together and ask them to share their menus and criteria
together.

Follow with a discussion.

Part 2:

In this part, get all groups to work together to finalise a menu.

Observe them as they go through this task. Consider the following:

o Each group has already designed a part of the menu, but simply putting
these parts together to create a final menu may not be appropriate.
o Teams must therefore work together to design the final menu based on what
they have already designed.
o It also means they must harmonise their success criteria, which would
require negotiation, persuasion and cooperation.
o Now that all teams are working together, it can quickly lead to a lot of
debate with few results as more people express more opinions. They can

approach this chaos in a number of ways such as the following:

Set up a rule so that only each groups nominated leader can talk.

One person can be assigned as a facilitator to coordinate the

brainstorming and decision making process.

Make note of your observations so you can provide feedback during debriefing.

Allocate 20 minutes for this part.

Follow with a discussion.

Timing
Explaining the Exercise: 5 minutes
Activity:

Part 1: 15 min design menu + 5 min success criteria + 5 min redesign of menu + 10
min sharing = 35 minutes

Part 2: 20 minutes

Total for Part 1 and 2: 55 minutes

Group Feedback: 10 min Part 1 + 10 min Part 2 = 20 minutes

Discussion
For Part 1:

When designing your menu initially, did you consider how to measure its success?

When you considered the criteria, did you have to change your menu? If so what
does this suggest?

How did you approach the task as a team?

Did you nominate a leader to facilitate communication?

Did you spend time researching or finding out more about the event (such as by
asking questions from the tutor) before creating a menu?

Did you end up selecting food that you like yourself rather than targeting a
particular audience and setting? For example, spaghetti might be nice, but can be

inappropriate for a high profile VIP dinner where everyone is wearing their nice
suits.
For Part 2:

How did you approach the task?

Did you setup a system so that the brainstorming session does not get out of hand
and remain productive?

Did you use any systematic group decision making?

On what basis are you all now confident that your overall menu would work?