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Purpose: Compare planned tactics for managing team turnover against observed team behaviors during an unexpected staffing change.

Use it when: Use during project kickoffs, retrospective workshops, or leadership sessions when teams face staffing churn, transfers, or onboarding challenges.

Skip it when: Skip if the organization is facing active layoffs, severe job insecurity, or high interpersonal distrust where involuntary movement feels punitive.

Group arrangement: An even number of teams (two or four groups) of 4 to 7 people, balancing extra participants across groups

Timing: Source suggests 30 to 60 minutes; UWT standardizes the run sheet to 35 minutes for up to 24 participants

Materials and tools

• 1 flip chart pad or whiteboard per team
• 2 dry-erase or chart markers per team
• 1 digital timer for the facilitator
• Printed prompt cards (separate cards for Topic A and Topic B)

Before participants arrive

1. Arrange tables or breakout stations as far apart as possible to prevent cross-team overhearing.
2. Place one flip chart pad and two markers at each table station.
3. Ensure clear aisles so the facilitator can approach and move participants quietly.

Say this to open

Today each team will brainstorm practical actions for mid-project staffing changes. Half of the teams will focus on what to do when losing team members. The other half will focus on what to do when gaining new team members. You have 12 minutes to discuss your challenge and record concrete recommendations on your chart.

How to run it

1. Form teams and set topics 3 minutes

   Divide participants into an even number of teams (2 or 4 groups) with 4 to 7 people each. Distribute separate prompt cards: give Topic A cards ('How can a team effectively handle disruption when members leave?') to half the teams, and Topic B cards ('How can a team effectively onboard new members?') to the other half. Send groups to their stations.

2. Run brainstorming and execute transfer 12 minutes

   Start a 12-minute timer. At minute 6, quietly transfer one person from each Topic A group to a Topic B group. In person, invite the aisle-seat member to switch; if they decline, ask the next person. Walk them over and say: 'Please join this team and work on their topic.' Announce to the original team: 'This member was reassigned; please continue.' In remote rooms, private-message a member for consent and move them via host controls. Let teams work until the timer ends.

3. Reveal the simulation design 4 minutes

   Assemble all teams together. Announce the hidden mechanic: Topic A teams lost members while analyzing how to handle lost members, and Topic B teams gained members while analyzing how to onboard newcomers. Explain that this unexpected transfer was an intentional live simulation to contrast theoretical advice with immediate reactions.

4. Reflect in current groups 6 minutes

   Have teams inspect their flip charts in their current configurations. Ask each group to discuss two questions: Did you use your recorded strategies when the transfer occurred? If not, what prevented you? Give groups 5 minutes for internal discussion and 1 minute to choose one spokesperson with a single key insight.

5. Facilitate room debrief 10 minutes

   Call on each spokesperson to share their team's top insight in 30 seconds. Next, invite 2 participants who moved to describe entering their new team mid-task, and invite 2 participants who stayed to describe their loss of momentum. Close by capturing two workplace practices the group agrees to adopt during actual staffing changes.

Debrief questions

• When your team lost or gained members mid-task, did you apply any of the advice you had written down? If not, what got in the way?
• Which felt more disruptive in the moment: losing colleagues or absorbing new colleagues, and why?
• What is one onboarding or offboarding practice from today that our workplace should use immediately?

Finished output: Flip chart lists of tactical practices for team turnover, reviewed against observed behavioral responses during live disruption.

Remote

Create breakout rooms labeled Team A (Losing) and Team B (Gaining) with shared digital whiteboards. At minute 6, send a private direct message to one participant in Team A asking if they are open to an instant transfer. If they decline, message another. Once agreed, move them to Team B via host controls without verbal fanfare, and paste a quick chat notice into Team A: 'A member has been reassigned to another project.' Reassemble in the main room at minute 12 for whiteboard reviews and voice debrief.

Hybrid

Seat in-person attendees in one room and place remote participants in separate virtual breakout rooms to avoid audio feedback. Move in-person participants across physical tables using the aisle-seat protocol, and reassign remote participants between virtual rooms via private direct message consent and host controls at minute 6. Convene in the shared room to review both physical charts and shared digital boards during debrief.

Access and participation choices

• Participants may contribute verbally, write notes on the flip chart, or serve quietly as team scribes.
• If an approached participant prefers not to switch groups, they may decline quietly with a simple head shake or private chat, and the facilitator approaches the next person without commentary.

If the session gets stuck

Transferred participants sit quietly and do not integrate into their new team.

Intervene briefly at the table and ask the receiving team: 'What step from your board can you run right now to orient your new colleagues?'

A team expresses frustration at being interrupted or tricked.

Acknowledge the reaction immediately. Note that unexpected project staffing changes in real workplaces feel just as sudden, which is why the exercise produces an authentic reaction to examine.

Terms used here

• RTA (Reflective Teamwork Activity): A training exercise where the immediate team process deliberately mirrors the topic being analyzed.