Desert Island Decision
Time for the team building activity: 15–20 minutes
Setup effort: Easy (scenario + item list)
Estimated cost: Free
Business value: Strengthens decision-making, reveals team dynamics, and builds structured collaboration in team building sessions
What is Desert Island Decision?
Desert Island Decision is a classic collaborative team building activity where small groups must agree on which limited items they would keep to survive after a fictional scenario (usually being stranded).
Teams receive a list of items and must prioritize, eliminate, and justify their choices together.
The power of the exercise lies not in the “right answer,” but in how the team debates, negotiates, and reaches alignment under mild pressure.
It is widely used in leadership development, onboarding, and strategy workshops.
How do you run Desert Island Decision?
Divide participants into small groups of 3–5 people.
Present the scenario clearly. For example:
“Your team is stranded on a desert island. You can only keep 5 items from this list.”
Provide a list of 12–15 items such as:
rope
mirror
water purifier
knife
tarp
flare gun
first aid kit
solar charger
fishing line
Give teams 10 minutes to:
discuss
prioritize
and agree on their final selection
After time is up, each group briefly presents their choices and reasoning.
Optionally, reveal what survival experts typically recommend (adds fun contrast).
The full team building activity typically runs 15–20 minutes.
Why it’s great for a team
Many team building activities create energy but do not surface real collaboration behaviors. Desert Island Decision does both.
In a short session, it helps teams:
practice structured decision-making
reveal communication styles
surface leadership dynamics
encourage constructive debate
build alignment under constraints
Because resources are limited, teams must negotiate trade-offs — a direct parallel to real business decisions.
It is particularly effective:
in leadership programs
during offsites
with cross-functional teams
in new team formation
From an organizational behavior perspective, constrained prioritization exercises are strong predictors of real-world decision patterns.
Teams that practice structured debate often improve meeting efficiency and clarity of decisions.
How to organize it effectively
Scenario clarity and time pressure are the key success factors.
Provide a clean, visible item list and ensure teams understand the objective.
Use a visible countdown to maintain urgency.
As facilitator, avoid giving hints during the discussion phase — the value comes from the team’s own reasoning.
Keep group size small (3–5 is optimal) to ensure everyone participates.
During debrief, focus on how the team decided, not just what they chose.
Strong debrief questions include:
“How did you reach agreement?”
“What was the biggest disagreement?”
“Who influenced the final decision?”
In remote team building sessions, breakout rooms work very well for this format.
When well facilitated, Desert Island Decision is a high-impact team building activity that surfaces real collaboration and decision behaviors in a highly engaging, low-risk environment.