Empowering Women Entrepreneurs through Team-Building Exercises

Most entrepreneurial skills aren’t learned from textbooks alone – they’re learned by doing, often in situations that force you to observe, adapt, and let go of the urge to control. The Broken Squares Group Exercise, originally developed by Dr. Alex Bavelas in 1973, is one such activity. Simple in setup but powerful in outcome, it has been used for decades in educational and corporate training contexts to surface the real dynamics of how groups either succeed or fail together. For women navigating the barriers of entrepreneurship – where collaboration is not just helpful but often essential for survival – the lessons embedded in this exercise are remarkably relevant.

What is the Broken Squares exercise? 🔗

The Broken Squares exercise is a structured group activity where participants work together to solve a puzzle – without speaking a single word. Each participant receives an envelope containing cardboard pieces, and the group’s collective task is to assemble five equal-sized squares, one in front of each team member. The twist: no one can complete their square with only the pieces they start with. Success depends entirely on what others are willing to give.

The exercise is typically run in groups of five, seated around a table. All pieces distributed at the start must be used – there are no leftovers, and every piece matters. The group wins only when every single member has a completed square in front of them, not just one or two. This collective completion rule is central to the exercise’s design and its deeper message.

The rules and how they shape group behavior 🔗

The constraints placed on participants are deliberately restrictive, and that’s the point. Three core rules govern the activity: participants may not speak to one another; they may not take a piece from someone else or signal that they want one; and they may only give pieces freely to other members. The piece being given must also be accepted unconditionally by the receiver.

These rules strip away the most common tools people rely on in group settings – verbal negotiation, direct requests, and strategic taking. What remains are observation, generosity, and awareness. Participants must rely on body language and gestures, developing non-verbal communication skills while fostering empathy and emotional regulation as they read the room and respond to others’ unspoken needs.

The hoarding problem 🔗

One of the most telling moments in the exercise happens when a participant manages to assemble their own square early. It’s common to see that person grow frustrated that their teammates aren’t keeping pace – even folding their arms or withdrawing from the group’s process once they feel personally done. This behavior, though instinctive, is exactly what prevents the group from winning. If someone holds pieces that others need, the entire group stalls – regardless of how complete any one person’s square looks.

The observer role in the exercise (sometimes assigned to a sixth participant) is tasked with watching for precisely these moments: who gives pieces freely, who finishes their square and disengages, and who struggles but refuses to let go of pieces that aren’t serving them. These behaviors, when surfaced in the debrief discussion afterward, are often the most instructive part of the whole activity.

Non-verbal communication under pressure 🔗

Removing verbal communication doesn’t simplify the exercise – it dramatically increases its complexity. Building relationships among team members and a willingness to offer resources without verbal communication requires a level of situational awareness that most people don’t practice in everyday work environments. Participants have to notice when someone is stuck, infer what piece might help, and act on that inference without any confirmation. This process mirrors many real-world collaboration challenges, where people must read context, not just content.

What the exercise reveals about teamwork 🔗

At its core, the Broken Squares exercise demonstrates that collaborative problem-solving without verbal or written communication requires interdependent teamwork – a fundamentally different mode of working than most people default to. The activity makes visible several dynamics that are easy to overlook in conventional group settings.

First, individual completion is not the same as group success. A participant who finishes their square but ignores the group has technically achieved their personal goal while causing the collective to fail. Second, hoarding pieces – even unintentionally – creates bottlenecks that no amount of individual effort elsewhere can fix. Third, offering input into a group without expecting reciprocal giving is one of the basic principles of effective negotiation, and it’s a skill that has to be practiced deliberately.

What the debrief uncovers 🔗

The structured discussion that follows the activity is where the real learning is consolidated. Facilitators guide participants through questions about behaviors that helped or hindered the group’s success, and how those behaviors mirror real-life problem-solving situations. Common reflections include moments of frustration when pieces wouldn’t fit, the difficulty of asking for help without words, and the realization that letting go of a piece – even a piece that completed your own square – was the action that unlocked the group’s success.

From an experiential learning standpoint, repeating the activity after the debrief gives participants a chance to apply what they’ve discussed – to try new behaviors and see their impact firsthand. This cycle of action, reflection, and adjusted action is what makes the exercise memorable rather than merely entertaining.

Why this matters for women in entrepreneurship 🔗

The barriers women entrepreneurs face are well-documented. According to the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, women are less likely to have access to financial capital, formal networks, and mentorship opportunities – all of which are critical to launching and scaling a business. Research from the University of Colorado found that while women reach out to mentors at equal rates as men, male mentors are disproportionately likely to accept outreaches from male mentees – a structural bias that limits women’s access to the very networks that open doors to funding and partnerships.

Against this backdrop, the ability to build collaborative relationships – the precise skill the Broken Squares exercise trains – becomes not just a soft skill but a strategic necessity. Mechanisms such as mentoring, resource sharing, and collaboration have been shown to play a pivotal role in addressing challenges, fostering resilience, and enabling venture survival, particularly in resource-constrained environments where formal institutional support is scarce.

Pooling resources instead of competing for them 🔗

The Broken Squares exercise makes a specific and powerful argument: you cannot win by holding onto everything you have. This maps directly onto one of the most transformative mindset shifts available to women entrepreneurs – moving from competition to collaboration. Women entrepreneurs are overcoming barriers by fostering environments of collaboration, sharing experiences and resources, and engaging in peer support programs. This “community over competition” approach creates conditions where diversity flourishes and opportunities multiply.

Research on women entrepreneurship has found that women who focus on creating collaborative work environments tend to be comfortable sharing information and power, adopt a democratic managerial approach, and prefer teamwork – strengths that align closely with what the Broken Squares exercise develops. Yet social stereotyping has historically framed these traits as weaknesses rather than assets, creating an additional barrier women must navigate.

The group wins only when everyone wins 🔗

Perhaps the most pointed entrepreneurial lesson in the exercise is the collective completion rule: the game is not over until every player has a completed square. This isn’t just about being generous – it’s a structural truth about sustainable business ecosystems. Women account for nearly 30% of entrepreneurs globally, yet still face persistent barriers such as limited access to financing. When women build networks that actively pass resources to those who need them – mentorship, referrals, knowledge, introductions – the whole ecosystem becomes more viable, not just the individuals who receive help.

Women entrepreneurs actively create social value for their peers through resource-sharing and collaboration, even as they navigate struggles for their own survival, driven by both instrumental motivations like shared networks and moral motivations rooted in solidarity. The Broken Squares exercise, in its quiet and wordless way, makes this principle visceral rather than abstract.

Leadership without words 🔗

The no-speaking rule in the exercise also puts a spotlight on a form of leadership that women are frequently positioned to excel at: modeling helpful behaviors and facilitating group success through observation and action rather than command. In entrepreneurial settings, this translates to leading by example – demonstrating a collaborative spirit that team members naturally mirror. As a woman entrepreneur, leading by example is one of the most powerful ways to foster collaboration, cultivating a team culture built on trust rather than hierarchy.

From the exercise room to the boardroom 🔗

The Broken Squares exercise is compact – it can run in under an hour – but the behaviors it surfaces are anything but trivial. The participant who breaks up their completed square to give a piece to someone stuck is demonstrating exactly the kind of strategic generosity that drives thriving entrepreneurial networks. The participant who holds back, waiting for others to solve the problem, illustrates the cost of disengagement even when personal goals appear met.

For women entrepreneurs specifically, who often operate in environments where women-focused incubators and accelerators provide safe spaces for collaboration and peer learning, exercises like Broken Squares offer a concrete, embodied way to practice the very behaviors that make those ecosystems work. They build the muscle memory of giving before being asked, of noticing what others need, and of understanding that your success and others’ success are not competing outcomes – they’re interdependent ones.

When women pool their resources, create powerful networks, and achieve things they couldn’t accomplish individually, it doesn’t just benefit them – it breaks down barriers and paves the way for broader female entrepreneurship. The Broken Squares exercise captures this logic in miniature: five people, five cardboard puzzles, and one lesson that travels far beyond the table.

What do you think? When you reflect on your own experiences in group work or professional settings, do you find it easier to give resources freely or to hold onto what you have until your own goals are secured? And do you think structured exercises like Broken Squares can genuinely shift how people collaborate in real entrepreneurial environments – or do old habits return once the exercise ends?

References

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