Surprise Model Workshop: How Does Team Model Building Work?
How does a corporate model workshop work? Limited resources, trading and bargaining, team models joining into one giant structure and a donation option.
The surprise model workshop is a corporate team workshop in which teams build models on a theme using limited, scattered materials, and at the end all the pieces join into one giant structure. What sets it apart from a classic model-making class is that the materials are never enough, so teams have to fill the gaps by trading, shopping and bargaining.
At the Pluxee event seen in the video, the workshop was set up in a hotel hall at numbered round tables. Teams built towers, vehicles and figures from colourful interlocking plastic pieces, while the workshop visual ran on the screen and the host explained the tasks.
How does a corporate model workshop work?
- Briefing: the host explains the theme and the task. The theme is set around your company, such as redesigning your products or building the office of the future.
- Resource allocation: materials are not shared out evenly; every team holds pieces that another team needs.
- Trading and bargaining: teams complete their missing pieces by shopping, trading or bargaining, just like in real business.
- Production: each team finishes its own model within the time limit and displays it on its table.
- The big picture: all the teams' models are joined together and one giant structure emerges.
What materials are used in model making?
Architectural and hobby model making use cardboard, foam board, wooden sticks and glue. In the corporate workshop, for speed and safety, we work with interlocking modular pieces that need no glue. As the video shows, these pieces let teams quickly build sturdy, colourful structures such as towers, vehicles or figures, and participants with no model-making experience join in from the first minute.
We choose the theme based on your company's agenda. Before a launch, teams can build a model of the new product; during a move or transformation period they can design the office of the future; and at a year-end gathering each department can build a piece that represents its year. At the close, when all the pieces come together, the resulting structure shows visually that everyone in the room contributed to the same goal.
What does the surprise model workshop give a team?
- Resource management: prioritising and planning limited materials.
- Negotiation: finding shared solutions by trading and bargaining with other teams.
- Cross-silo collaboration: seeing that every team's piece is needed for the whole.
- The big picture: making the company's shared goal tangible with the joined giant structure.
You can find the details on our Surprise Model Workshop page. On request, we donate the finished models to charities that deliver them to children in need; for another option with a CSR dimension see our toy workshop for corporate social responsibility guide, and for what to look for when choosing a workshop see our guide to choosing a workshop.
Frequently Asked Questions
To build the model theme around your company's message, contact us.
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