Top 10 Fun Management Games for MBA Students to Sharpen Leadership Skills

“All work and no play make Jack a dull boy”- as mentioned before, MBA courses can become extraordinarily tiring and intense with continuous presentations and projects, studies, classes, and constant placement worries. To counter this, most MBA courses have incorporated offline and online management games for MBA students to keep them engaged and motivated. Moreover, these games showcase the practical applications of the economics and business theory they learn through the course. This process of visualisation and claim helps them grasp the contents of their curriculum more effectively.

Top 10 Fun Management Game

1. Building Towers: Form two groups and hand over bundles of newspaper to both. Keep one pair of scissors and tape common between both groups. Ask them to make the tallest tower within 10 minutes and the one with the tallest will be the winning team. This game illustrates how both teams use the available resources, who plays a leader’s role who are their followers, and how they act as a team.
2. Paper planes: Ask each student to write a couple of questions on a sheet of paper relating to the previous lecture. Then each person makes their paper into a paper plane (or crunches it into a paper ball). Divide the class into 2 teams on opposite sides of the room and encourage everyone to chuck their planes at the other team. After a short while, everyone must pick up a plane closest to them, read the question aloud, and answer it. This game helps in recalling the topics of the last lecture and engaging everyone.
3. Beach Ball Toss: Write questions on an inflated beach ball and toss it around the room. Whoever catches the ball has to answer one question written on it. The questions can be fun ones such as What is your favourite dessert or favourite movie or they can be related to a particular MBA lecture.
4. The I Have It!: After a discussion on communication skills, ask the students to find a partner and for the next 2 minutes, they will be allowed to talk about anything in the world they want to discuss. There is, however, one rule – THEY CANNOT USE THE WORD ‘I’. They can do anything else they want; they just can’t say ‘I’. After 2 minutes, discuss how many were able to talk for those 2 minutes without using the said pronoun as instructed. Why do so many of us have difficulty avoiding the use of ‘I’ in conversation? This game would hence illustrate how we tend to be more self-centred than we may have thought and demonstrate the importance of focusing on the other person.
5. Back-to-Back drawing: Invite two people and have them sit back-to-back on a chair. Give one person a picture of a shape and give the other person a pencil and pad of paper. The person holding the picture would give verbal instructions to their partner on how to draw the shape without actually telling the partner what the shape is. After they’ve finished, ask each pair to compare their original shape with the actual drawing, and consider how well the first person described the shape, how well the second person interpreted the instructions and whether were there problems with both the sending and receiving parts of the communication process.
6. The name game: Split the group into pairs. Instruct each person in the group to think of a famous person and write it secretly on a Post-it. Attach the post-it to the head of their partner. In round 1 – take turns to ask closed (yes/no) questions. You may continue to ask questions for as long as you receive a ‘yes’. When the answer is no, swap over. E.g. Am I alive, Am I male, Am I a sports person etc. In round 2 – they must take turns to ask one Open or TED (Tell, Explain, Describe) question (except for ‘What is my name’ or similar!). If they mistakenly ask a closed question they lose their turn. At the end of this activity, the key message is that despite the obvious usefulness of questions, for gathering information we find it easier to ask closed questions but if the questions are not right, we may never receive the required answer.
7. Two Truths and a Lie: Ask each person in the class to write three statements two of them should be facts and one should be a lie. Each person in the class should read their statements aloud and the rest of the class would guess which one is a lie. At the end of this game, the class would know each other better and in a fun way!
8. The mixed picture puzzles: Divide the class into two teams and hand them two puzzles but mix some pieces of each puzzle with another one. The team that finishes their puzzle first wins the task. The key part of this game is learning how to collaborate with the other team members to fetch their puzzle pieces.

MBA Games for Skill Development

Here are some more fun management games that MBA students can engage in to develop key business skills dynamically and enjoyably:

Frequently Asked Questions:(FAQs)

Ques. What are the benefits of using games to develop leadership skills?

Ans. Games can provide a safe and engaging environment for MBA students to practice leadership in a low-stakes setting. They encourage teamwork, communication, problem-solving, and critical thinking – all crucial aspects of effective leadership.

Ques. What kind of leadership skills can be developed through these games?

Ans. These games can help students develop a variety of leadership skills, including:

1. Decision-making
2. Strategic thinking
3. Communication
4. Delegation
5. Conflict resolution
6. Motivation
7. Adaptability

Ques. Are these games for individuals or teams?

Ans. Most of these games are designed for teams, allowing students to develop their collaborative leadership style. However, some games can be adapted for individual participation as well.

Ques. How much time do these games take to play?

Ans. The time commitment for these games can vary depending on the complexity of the game and the size of the group. Many games can be completed in 30 minutes to an hour, while some simulations may take longer.

Ques. What are some examples of Fun Management Games for MBA Students?

Ans. Here are a few examples to get you started:

1. MBA Crystal Ball: Students take over a virtual business, facing real-world decisions on production, pricing, marketing, and more.
2. The Desert Survival Challenge: Teams work together to prioritize limited resources for survival in a simulated desert scenario.
3. Product Launch Simulation: Students lead a team in launching a new product, navigating market competition and budgetary constraints.
4. Negotiation Challenge: Students practice negotiation skills through role-playing exercises with different scenarios.
5. The Empty Room Challenge: Teams are given an empty room and limited materials to build a specific structure, fostering creativity and communication.