In week six, we formed groups of six for Mental Blocks. In the beginning, Ian introduced the rules of this game to everyone, and each of us will be assigned to different angles of graphics. Four of them will be assigned to the distribution area and range of color. The remaining two people will get the structure diagram of the figure without color, and the two people’s perspectives are different. We need to build the final graphics in a limited time, usually a minute if I recall correctly and everyone agrees. I think what makes this game more interesting is that there are different rules on each card, for example, you can only touch the triangle directly this round; you can only touch grey this round. This meant that everyone needed teamwork and communication to build the final graphics together. This effectively prevents one team member from taking on all the roles. Everyone has the opportunity to participate in the game. I think it’s a great idea to not directly state that everyone should be involved in the game, but to use additional rules to help everyone work as a team.

We started the game after a brief understanding and communication of how the game was played. I think for this game, the larger the number of people, the more difficult the game will be. Because we often hear one person say, “This graphic is the same as mine,” and then hear another person say, “But this graphic is different from me.” When everyone is actively participating in the game I often get lost in everyone’s words because everyone is talking at the same time, I try to capture everyone’s voice but I can’t. But we improved as the game progressed. We decided that the priority was that the person who got the graph structure would first build the structure using a single color graph. This reduces everyone’s arguments and increases the time to think while watching fellow builds. This method makes our next game easier and much more effective. We can complete various tasks in an orderly manner. I remember we spent a minute and a half solving puzzles in the first round of the game. Although our time was up, we decided to go ahead and see how much time we needed. But when we have a plan, we can quickly speculate on the final outcome. I remember one time when we got the card after the first two people finished building, everyone behind them agreed on the final answer. We only spent less than thirty seconds. This makes everyone happy and feels like everyone is starting to blend in as a group.

After the game, I think this game can be a great help for group activities in learning teamwork. For example, this game can be played when the work unit is holding a team building. This game allows everyone to improve their teamwork skills while having fun. And I think this method can also reduce the occurrence of conflicts among the team.