Team Building Inc.

Search for the Lost Dutchman's Gold Mine™

"Dutchman" is a team building simulation that has entertained and enlightened participants worldwide. It is a powerful and proven team-building event that plays with organizations of all kinds.

The setting is modern-day Southwestern United States in the Superstition Mountains of Arizona. Outfitted in Cowboy hats and colorful bandannas, teams go on a search for gold from the famous Lost Dutchman's Mine.

The exercise focuses on collaboration as its main outcome. It also links to issues of quality, leadership, systems, communications and a variety of other organizational issues. Team size is 5 or 6 people and there is no limit to the number of participants. We've successfully delivered sessions for groups of 8 and groups of 600, from 11-year olds at a YMCA to top managers at multinational corporations to shop floor personnel in manufacturing plants to executive secretaries at international conferences.

It's outstanding for a highly interactive morning or afternoon event. In 3.5 to 4 hours, the group gets to play and then fully debrief the event and discuss real opportunities for improvement. It functions very well as a full-day program within a conference or as a specific training event on team building, leadership and collaboration. Many organizations use it in multi-day training and leadership development programs.
 

What participants have said about this session:

"It's easy to facilitate and the insights gained are significant. This is the perfect retreat exercise that stimulates self insight and broader thinking while helping to break down the barriers to collaboration."

Denise Voncannon, University Medical Center

 "The Lost Dutchman game is dynamite. The game is eloquently designed -- simple and quick to play yet packed with explosive power. The Lost Dutchman is unquestionably the best training game I have ever seen for teaching teamwork. In the written evaluations, over 80% of participants stated we should use it with other groups in the hospital. This is quite an endorsement of your creation."
Sam Tolbert, Director of Planning, Self Memorial Hospital