As defined by the creators of the board game, the primary object of Forbidden Island is to, “ . . . work together to keep Forbidden Island from sinking in order to buy enough time to capture its four treasures. Once . . . captured . . . (the team of adventurers) must make it to Fools’ Landing and escape by helicopter to win. If however, the island sinks before (the team) can complete (its) tasks, the mission ends in defeat!”

Since a game like Forbidden Island was designed to encourage collaboration between the players, the class was divided into several small-sized self-management teams that would be responsible to learn how to play Forbidden Island together under minimal supervision. In addition to the challenging task of capturing the four treasures while keeping the island from sinking, the class was also tasked with reflecting on the course material as it applies to our individual experience as a member of the team of adventurers while playing Forbidden Island. According to organizational behavior theory, working together as a self-managed team typically allows team members to perform challenging and complex tasks that require a high level of interdependence among members. Furthermore, self-managed teams that demonstrate high group cohesiveness and collective efficacy are more likely to successfully achieve goals and accomplishments. In fact, subject matter experts agree that the tasks that are usually assigned to self-managed teams enhance intrinsic motivation by encouraging the team members to utilize a variety of skills in order to complete the entire assigned task.

With a common end goal in sight, I simply assumed that, in spite of our diversity and differences, our team would have shared the belief that it should have successfully completed the assigned task in order to effectively reflect on our individual and group participation in the Forbidden