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Passing by the Fluno Center on University Avenue, I’ve seen grownups (they don’t look like college students) running around the front lawn playing games. Who are they? What are they doing?

You’re right, they’re not college students. Although take away the business attire and 20 years—and add a Frisbee—and they could be.

Instead what you probably saw were team-building games being played by groups of professionals (first-line workers all the way up to executives) from around the region who come to Madison to learn cooperation skills that they can apply to business in the workplace.

Chris Hinrichs, president of Ventures in Change Corp. and ad hoc faculty member for 17 years, leads the groups. In one exercise, Hinrichs takes eight to 10 of these nervous workers and arranges them in a circle, blindfolded. He then lays a thick, 50- to 60-foot-piece of rope in the middle of the circle, and tells the workers to work together to lay the rope out in a square.

Hinrichs says that the process teaches the participants about their weaknesses as a working group. In the time the group struggles to make the square, it becomes obvious who the leaders are, who makes the decisions and who adheres to the rules of the exercise.

So what happens? Hinrichs says that without fail, the egotistical extroverts take over, and others stay silent. When pressed, participants usually make the connection that when the introverts aren’t asked their opinion, they don’t give it, and they start feeling left out and resentful, complying only passively with instruction.

“How can you apply this to the office?” Hinrichs might ask.

The majority will understand that everyone should be encouraged to participate, but also that there is some responsibility among the more passive types to give their input on a day-to-day basis. And pow! Profits increase.

Companies including Cuna Credit Union and Covance have come through the center, and Hinrichs also has worked with 3M, Harley-Davidson and Kraft.