If you’re not familiar with Bartle’s Player Types – this is the simple version with the 4 most common:

EXPLORERS: If you love to explore the world, interact with the game, find hidden stuff and don’t care that much about winning. Explorers usually rush into playing even before reading the rules.

SOCIALIZERS: If you want to play with someone. The game is not socializers’ main focus; the people are. They love chatting and interacting with others.

ACHIEVERS: If you really want to win. Achievers want to be first! They are competitive and want to find the best strategy. They don’t like losing at all.

KILLERS: If you want to win, but also like it as much when others are losing. Killers’ strategy is balanced between beating the game and beating others.

But how is this related to teamwork!?

Well, as you probably know, we’ve coached 200+ tech teams on how to become powerful. And the first step we do is to play The Empty Chair game. It’s a cooperative game, but at the same time it reveals the team dynamics, the team dysfunctions and the team strengths.

We can’t express with words how interesting (and sometimes quite exhausting) it is to see the team conflicts that arise when people try to find a common solution.

Usually, there are 2+ Achievers who constantly argue about whose idea is better. They try to become the leader of the group.

The Explorers love to play and explore and typically have to battle with the Achievers and Killers who want to win by thinking, organizing and coming up with a strategy.

Socializers feel energized if people are feeling great. And although they are the largest group (some 80%), if the mood goes down, so does their motivation to work with others.

So, what’s your game type?