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Prisoner’s Dilemma (aka Reds Blues)

BY NICK MARTIN (39 COMMENTS)

Prisoner’s Dilemma is a fantastic team building game which demonstrates whether people display

win-win (co-operative) or win-lose orientation (selfish competitive) in a fun situation which offers

the possibility of both.

You can download a FREE Powerpoint of this tool at the bottom 

Objectives

To achieve more co-operative behaviour between team members who are pursuing shared goals.

What is it?

Prisoner’s Dilemma is a game which demonstrates whether people display win-win (co-operative)

or win-lose orientation (selfish competitive) in a situation which offers the possibility of both.

It contrasts their actual behavior with their expressed intentions, i.e. do people who say they

support a win-win approach actually carry it out when the chips are down?

If they do, the implication is that they will be equally concerned that the other party’s needs are

also met in any agreement.

Why is it useful?

Often we’re more concerned with winning more than with achieving the optimum result. This

activity:

Explores the issues of risk and trust between team members and the effects of trust betrayal.

Demonstrates the effects of competition between teams.

Demonstrates the potential advantages of a collaborative approach to solving problems.

Demonstrates the necessity of establishing the purpose of any activity.

Resources Required

Approximately 1 hour is required.

SE A RC H W O RK SH O PB A NK

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Prisoner’s Dilemma (aka Reds Blues)

Stakeholder Mapping

Culture Triangle

Problem Solving Team Building

Team Role Development

W E SE ND NE W T O O L S T O A L L

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H O M E A B O U T T O O L S P O D C A S T S C O N T A C T

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Plenary Review

The whole group meets to process the experience.

The Facilitator announces the points total for each team, and the sum of the two outcomes is

calculated and compared to the maximum possible outcome (72 points).

The Facilitator leads a discussion on the effects of high and low trust on interpersonal relations, on

win-lose situations, and on the relative merits of collaboration versus competition.

Secret Sauce

Carefully avoid discussing the objectives of the exercise until the end.

The procedure is somewhat complicated so it helps to tell Participants that it’s the Facilitator’s

expectation that Participants will not fully understand the process until they’ve played a couple of 

rounds.

Money can be collected from teams and used as a prize to heighten competitiveness, in which case

the following addendum is made to the announcement of the objective: “The group with the higher

positive score gets the money”.

It’s very important to do the Plenary Review to ensure the group profits on the learnings.

The conferences produce some incredibly interesting learning points so try and push the teams

towards having them.

Download Files

Please ask any questions in the comments section below. If you’d just like to say thanks that would

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be very much appreciated too

FILED UNDER: TEAM BUILDING IDEAS, TOOLS

About Nick Martin

I have over 10 years experience as a change manager in the UK, am the founder of 

WorkshopBank and Head of Marketing at Nortlander Ski Tours.

Discussion

john mills says:February 22, 2013 at 1:33 am

what else do you have?

Reply

Nick Martin says:

April 6, 2013 at 1:16 pm

What else are you looking for John? Did you like this one?

Reply

Jena Perkins says:June 27, 2013 at 10:24 pm

Nick,

I copied your link to my LinkedIn page but cannot access the PPT. Can you please assist me? I

used this exercise at a previous company and was THRILLED to find it again! Thanks!

Reply

Nick Martin says:June 28, 2013 at 8:26 am

Hiya Jena

All you need to do is click the orange PPT icon in the Download Files section and a window

should open up with instructions on what to do next. It is a fantastic exercise isn’t it! I’d

love to hear if this version differs in any way to the one that you’re used to. Maybe it can

be improved?

Reply

Nick Martin says:January 8, 2014 at 9:44 pm

Hi Jena… you need to click the big orange PPT icon at the end of the article and follow the

instructions in the pop-up… hope that helps

Reply

 Jarlath Duffy says:August 23, 2013 at 4:38 pm

Hi Nick

I just couldn’t download the powerpoint – spent a lot of time trying. Can you please email me

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it? Thanks and great work.

 Jarlath

Reply

Nick Martin says:January 8, 2014 at 9:40 pm

Works OK for me Jarlath… never trust technology though so can you tell me what

happens when you click the PPT icon above?

Reply

 john says:September 3, 2013 at 11:21 pm

Hi Nick,

I tried to download prisoner’s dilemma via linked in but couldn’t make it happen. I left a

comment anyway, but have been unable to get the ppt. Can you email them to me?

thanks for your site!

 John

Reply

Nick Martin says:January 8, 2014 at 9:38 pm

What happens after you click the big PPT icon above John?

Reply

Chamara says:September 27, 2013 at 12:09 am

Hi Nick,

Great game. Exactly what I was looking for. Just wanted to Thank You for posting this.

Keep up the good work.

Cheers,

Chamara

Reply

 Julie says:September 27, 2013 at 5:36 pm

Thanks NicK!

Great exercise!

Reply

Rodanthe Lengle says:October 8, 2013 at 4:55 pm

Hi Nick,

Thanks so much for posting these tools- most appreciated. I crafting a Motivational

Workshop to include elements on communication, collaboration and trust. I was compelled

by Prisoner’s Dilemma. I have 20 people and less than an hour to devote to this activity. What

are your thoughts? Is this still a viable option? Other ideas?

In Gratitude,

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Ronnie

Reply

Nick Martin says:January 8, 2014 at 9:38 pm

Absolutely Ronnie… this will work perfectly.

Reply

Prashant says:April 17, 2014 at 7:17 pm

I have conducted a version of this exercise in many workshops (24 participants divided

into four groups of six each) and it works beautifully. If you can spend more time on the

debrief, getting participants to reflect on what prevented them from collaborating and

why it is important to build trust and communicate when there is a breach of trust that

would add a lot of value.

Reply

Michael says:November 21, 2013 at 10:34 pm

Hmmmm. Delighted to find the exercise. It is very similar to Seeing Red, which I run regularly.

for 3 teams.

BUT tried to download it twice, by linking to facebook, and no joy.

pay with a tweet seems a good idea, unfortunately it doesn’t work.

So a bad first impression I’m afraid. Your site is a great idea, but I will quickly disappear

unless you can get the technology to work.

Could you email me the slides?

Thanks

Michael

Reply

Nick Martin says:January 8, 2014 at 9:37 pm

Hi Michael… everything seems to be working OK when I try it … what happens when you

click on the PPT icon above?

Reply

dr j says:December 2, 2013 at 3:45 am

Would love to use this exercise, but when I click on the download icon, nothing happens.

Sounds like others have the same issue with it. You have great stuff IF we can get it to work.

Thanks!

Reply

Nick Martin says:January 8, 2014 at 9:27 pm

Hi dr j… can you email me at nick@workshopbank.com and let me know what’s

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happening for you? Sounds strange as there are plenty of people downloading

successfully every day.

Reply

GP says:January 8, 2014 at 9:03 pm

Thanks Nick — I came across your website while searching for the results formula for thisgame played with four teams (something I used pre-Internet eons ago). Do you know of it?

Reply

Nick Martin says:January 8, 2014 at 9:25 pm

Hi GP… thanks for commenting… I don’t know it actually… how does it work?

Reply

Matt Weis says:January 21, 2014 at 9:52 pm

Ditto on the download problem after posting to facebook. Please send. Thanks!

Reply

Nick Martin says:January 21, 2014 at 11:13 pm

Hi Matt… you need to click the big orange PPT icon at the end of the article and follow

the instructions in the popup… after that the document will automatically download to

your PC

Reply

Dave Harper says:February 11, 2014 at 9:12 pm

Brilliant resources, many thanks.

Reply

Pete says:May 8, 2014 at 9:03 pm

I have been a participant on this exercise but I will now be using this for my team as it is

perfect for demonstrating the power of communication and teamwork.

Thank you.

Reply

Nick Martin says:May 15, 2014 at 9:35 am

Glad you like it Pete and thanks for leaving a comment

Reply

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Lynn says:August 16, 2014 at 1:10 am

Hi,

I had the same problem trying to download your powerpt doc. I think it may be because I

have an old version of Powerpt (2007). When I try clicking on the orange icon it wants me to

buy a newer version of MS Office. Can you post your slides as pdf at least for those of us who

are having trouble?

thx for sharing,

Lynn

Reply

padmavothi says:August 16, 2014 at 7:30 am

Hi Nick

I just love the simple explanation. I’ve tried to download the PPT without success. It says pay

with a tweet, I tried and twitter takes me to a creating a marketing campaign. I sure would

love to use this game in my Values workshop. Can you share it me on mail

Thanks

Padma

Reply

liz says:October 20, 2014 at 7:06 pm

Hi, I have tried to dowload without success, and have given my email details in order to do

that. Could you please send it onto me soonest. Thanks Liz

Reply

Nick Martin says:October 25, 2014 at 10:26 pm

Hi Liz… good to speak to you over email and glad the download works now … let us

know how it goes!

Reply

Vishal says:November 24, 2014 at 7:36 pm

Hi Nick,

I am thinking to use this for one of my classroom activities. Pardon me if this is a daft

question: What is the role of team representatives here? How do they communicate with

their teams if they are acting as prisoners?

Reply

Nick Martin says:November 27, 2014 at 11:38 am

Hi Vishal… that’s a great question… the team reps are still ‘prisoners’ during the game

but they also play spokesperson for their particular team… team reps are good because

it keeps the conference rounds more under control (only 2 people speaking instead of everyone) but feel free to try without them and let the teams conference as one … does

that help?

Reply

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Usama says:December 8, 2014 at 3:25 pm

Hi Nick,

Looks a very promising exercise but I am still not able to understand exactly how will this

exercise exactly be played out. We divide the people in two teams & after that I am really not

sure. How do the Teams Select Red & Blue and when does the questioning happen & who

questions all pretty unclear. Can you please elaborate or mail me as to how exactly this is to

be played, will be a great help. Want to include in a Training Session of mine shortly…

Reply

Nick Martin says:December 20, 2014 at 12:20 pm

Hi Usama… first you divide the group into two teams called Team A and Team B … each

round consists of the teams discussing between themselves whether they’ll choose RED

or BLUE. When their choices are made the colours are brought together and a score given

to each team based on the scoring table. There is no questioning as such but there are a

couple of conference rounds where the teams are allowed to talk to each other to try and

agree a strategy. Does that help? Have you downloaded the Powerpoint or PDF as maybe

it’s easier to understand on there.

Reply

anna says:December 22, 2014 at 11:35 am

HI Nick,

Can I check with you… I find this very interesting. However I’m not able to download PDF or

PPT. I got the link in the email but when I click the link, it pops up an error message saying

unable to download prisoners-dilemma.pdf from workshopbank.leadpages.net.

Unable to open this Internet site. The requested site is either unavailable or cannot be found.

Pls try again later.Will you have an alternative way for downloading? Thanks

Reply

Nick Martin says:March 12, 2015 at 4:32 pm

Did you work this out Anna? Try different browsers or your home internet network to see

if that works.

Reply

Miche says:January 16, 2015 at 11:41 am

If you have problems downloading its probably to do with your browser. Im using a secure

work laptop with an old version of explorer which would not download it. When I changed to

a new browser like firefox no problem – it does work.

I’m going to try and use this at a team event next week, do you think it will work with a larger

group of 30 – could I pair them up ?

M

Reply

Nick Martin says:March 12, 2015 at 4:22 pm

Thanks for the downloading tip Miche. I certainly think it could work with a group that

size. Let me know how it goes.

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