Team Building Activities

HOME GROUP ADVISOR HANDBOOK

TEAM BUILDING ACTIVITIES

Helium Stick

Summary

- Deceptively simple teamwork activity. Form two lines facing each other. Lay a long, thin rod on the group's index fingers. Goal: Lower to ground. Reality: It goes up!

Group Size

- 8 to 12 ideal, but can be done with 6 to 14

Time

(Total time ~25 mins)

- ~5 minute briefing and set up

- ~10-15 minutes of active problem-solving (until success)

- ~10 minutes discussion

· Deceptively simple but powerful exercise for learning how to work together and communicate in small to medium sized groups.

· Line up in two rows which face each other.

· Introduce the Helium Stick - a long, thin, light rod.

· Ask participants to point their index fingers and hold their arms out.

· Lay the Helium Stick down on their fingers. Get the group to adjust their finger heights until the Helium Stick is horizontal and everyone's index fingers are touching the stick.

· Explain that the challenge is to lower the Helium Stick to the ground.

· The catch: Each person's fingers must be in contact with the Helium Stick at all times. Pinching or grabbing the pole in not allowed - it must rest on top of fingers.

· Reiterate to the group that if anyone's finger is caught not touching the Helium Stick, the task will be restarted. Let the task begin....

· Warning: Particularly in the early stages, the Helium Stick has a habit of mysteriously 'floating' up rather than coming down, causing much laughter. A bit of clever humouring can help - e.g., act surprised and ask what are they doing raising the Helium Stick instead of lowering it! For added drama, jump up and pull it down!

· Participants may be confused initially about the paradoxical behaviour of the Helium Stick.

· Some groups or individuals (most often larger size groups) after 5 to 10 minutes of trying may be inclined to give up, believing it not to be possible or that it is too hard.

· The facilitator can offer direct suggestions or suggest the group stops the task, discusses their strategy, and then has another go.

· Less often, a group may appear to be succeeding too fast. In response, be particularly vigilant about fingers not touching the pole. Also make sure participants lower the pole all the way onto the ground. You can add further difficulty by adding a large washer to each end of the stick and explain that the washers should not fall off during the exercise, otherwise it's a restart.

· Eventually the group needs to calm down, concentrate, and very slowly, patiently lower the Helium Stick - easier said than done.

How Does it Work?

· The stick does not contain helium. The secret (keep it to yourself) is that the collective upwards pressure created by everyone's fingers tends to be greater than the weight of the stick. As a result, the more a group tries, the more the stick tends to 'float' upwards.

Processing Ideas

· What was the initial reaction of the group?

· How well did the group cope with this challenge?

· What skills did it take to be successful as a group?

· What creative solutions were suggested and how were they received?

· What would an outside observer have seen as the strengths and weaknesses of the group?

· What did each group member learn about him/her self as an individual?

· What other situations (e.g., at school, home or work) are like the Helium Stick?

Toxic Waste

Equipment

- 1 bucket filled with “Toxic Waste” (balls)

- Ropes/Bungee/Cords

- 1 neutralisation bucket

- Blindfolds (optional)

- Red herring objects (optional)

Summary

Equipped with a bungee cord and rope, a group must work out how to transport a bucket of "Toxic Waste" and tip it into the neutralization bucket. Toxic Waste can be used to highlight almost any aspect of teamwork or leadership.

Time

Total time ~30-50 minutes, consisting of:

~5 minute briefing
~5 minutes group planning time, no action
~15-30 minutes of active problem-solving
~10 minutes discussion/debrief

Group Size

- Group sizes of approximately 7 to 9 are ideal, but the activity can be done with as few as 4 or as many as 12

The Activity

· This is a popular, engaging small group initiative activity which always "works", providing a rich teamwork challenge for about 30-45 minutes. Involves thinking, imagination, action, fantasy, risk and an attractive solution.

· The challenge is to move the toxic waste contents to the neutralization container using minimal equipment and maintaining a safe distance within a time limit.

· Moderately difficult - avoid using with groups who are still in the early stages of group development. Works best towards the end of a program and/or after the group has come together and dealt with basic teamwork issues.

· Can be done indoors or outdoors; outdoors is more dramatic because water can be used as the "toxic waste" instead of balls.

Set-Up

· Use the rope to create a circle at least 2.5m in diameter on the ground to represent the toxic waste radiation zone. The larger the radiation zone, the more difficult the activity.

· Place the small bucket in the centre of the radiation zone and fill it with water or balls to represent the toxic waste.

· Place the neutralization bucket approximately 10-15m away. The greater the distance, the more difficult the activity.

· Put all other equipment (i.e., bungee, cords, and red herring objects (optional)) in a pile near the rope circle.

Directions

· The challenge is for the group to work out how to transfer the toxic waste from the small bucket into the large bucket where it will be "neutralized", using only the equipment provided and within a time frame. The waste will blow up and destroy the world after 20 minutes if it is not neutralized.

· Anyone who ventures into the radiation zone will suffer injury and possibly even death, and spillage will create partial death and destruction. Therefore, the group should aim to save the world and do so without injury to any group members.

· The rope circle represents the radiation zone emanating from the toxic waste in the bucket. Emphasize that everyone must maintain a distance (circle radius) from the toxic waste wherever it goes, otherwise they will suffer severe injury, such as loss of a limb or even death.

· Give the group some planning time with no action e.g. 5 mins, then start the clock and indicate its time for action, e.g., 15 or 20 mins.

Facilitator Notes

· Toxic Waste is not an easy exercise and most groups will benefit from some coaching along the way.

· The solution involves attaching the cords to the bungee loop, then guiding the bungee with the strings to sit around and grab the toxic waste bucket. Then with everyone pulling on their cord and with good coordination and care, the toxic waste bucket can be lifted, moved and tipped into the empty neutralizing bucket.

· If someone breaches the toxic waste zone, indicated by the circle, enforce an appropriate penalty e.g., loss of limbs (hand behind back) or function (e.g., blindfolds if a head enters the zone) that lasts for the rest of the game. If a whole person enters the zone, they die and must then sit out for the rest of the activity.

· If the group struggles to work out what to do, freeze the action and help them discuss.

· If the group spills the waste entirely, make a big deal about catastrophic failure (everyone dies), invite them to discuss what went wrong and how they can do better, then refill the container and let them have another go.

· Ideas for varying the level difficulty of the activity:

o Adjust timeframe

o Adjust distance between the buckets

o Include obstacles between the buckets

o Include red herring objects in available equipment

Processing Ideas

· There are invariably plenty of key communications and decisions during the exercise that provide for fruitful debriefing.

· The exercise will tend to naturally expose processes and issues related to many aspects of teamwork, including cooperation, communication, trust, empowerment, risk-taking, support, problem-solving, decision-making, and leadership.

· Can be videoed for subsequent analysis and debriefing.

· How successful was the group? e.g. consider:

o How long did it take?

o Was there any spillage?

o Were there any injuries? (Often in the euphoria of finishing participants will overlook their errors and seem unconcerned about injuries and deaths caused by carelessness along the way. Make sure there is an objective evaluation of performance - it is rarely 'perfect'.)

· How well did the group cope with this challenge? (e.g., out of 10?)

· What was the initial reaction of the group?

· What skills did it take for the group to be successful?

· What would an outside observer have seen as the strengths and weaknesses of the group?

· How did the group come up with its best ideas?

· What did each group member learn about him/her self as a group member?

· What lessons did the group learn from this exercise which could be applied to future situations?

Variations

· Can be used with large groups (with multiple kits and divided into small groups).

· The toxic waste bucket can be used upside down, with a ball balanced on top.

· The activity can be framed in many different ways, e.g., instead of waste, it could presented as a desirable substance, such as a life saving serum which needs be carefully transported.

· Divide the group into leaders and workers. Leaders can talk but not touch equipment. Workers cannot talk but can touch equipment.

· For added drama, the toxic waste can be floated on a platform in a swimming pool

· A chemical reaction can be created by putting baking soda in the neutralization container and vinegar in the toxic waste container. When combined, they froth.

· Object Retrieval is a variation in which a group needs to retrieve a heavy object from the middle of a circle, without touching the ground in the surrounding circle

Zoom & Re-Zoom

Equipment

- “Zoom” and/or “Re-Zoom” books by Istvan Banyai.

Summary

- A group tries to create a unified story from a set of sequential pictures. The pictures are randomly ordered and handed out. Each person has a picture but cannot show it to others. Requires patience, communication, and perspective taking in order to recreate the story's sequence.

Group Size

- 20 to 30 ideal, but can be done with fewer (see variations)

Time

Total time~20-30 minutes

· ~5 mins set up and brief the group

· ~15 mins active problem solving

· ~5-10 minutes debrief

The Activity

· This engaging group activity helps develop communication skills, perspective taking, and problem solving skills.

· Based on the intriguing, wordless, picture books "Zoom" and "Re-Zoom" by Istvan Banyai which consist of 30 sequential "pictures within pictures". The Zoom narrative moves from a rooster to a ship to a city street to a desert island and outer space. Zoom has been published in 18 countries. The Re-Zoom narrative moves from an Egyptian hieroglyphic to a film set to an elephant ride to a billboard to a train.

· Hand out one picture per person (make sure a continuous sequence is used).

· Explain that participants may only look at their own pictures and must keep their pictures hidden from others.

· Encourage participants to study their picture, since it contains important information to help solve a problem.

· The challenge is for the group to sequence the pictures in the correct order without looking at one another's pictures.

· Participants will generally mill around talking to others to see whether their pictures have anything in common. Sometimes leadership efforts will emerge to try to understand the overall story.

· When the group believes they have all the pictures in order (usually after ~15 minutes), the pictures can be turned over for everyone to see.

Facilitator's Notes

· Works with any age group, including corporate groups.

· Can be done indoors or outdoors.

· Once the challenge is finished, allow everyone to see the pictures and encourage participants to sort out any mistakes in the order (can be done on a table or the floor), then let everyone walk around view the pictures in sequence so they understand the full story.

Variations

· Use as a novel icebreaker by handing each participant a picture on arrival. When everyone has arrived, explain that each person is holding part of a story and that the group task is to find out what the story is by putting their pictures in sequence.

· Use a time limit to increase difficulty and enhance focus on teamwork.

· Team performance can be measured (e.g., for a competition) by counting how many pictures are out of sequence.

· If there are a few more people than cards, then pair people up.

· For larger groups, if there is enough people then have 2 or more groups running the activity at the same time or use a sequence of cards to suit the group size.

· For smaller groups, try disallowing talking. This increases the difficulty and creates the need for expressive sign language. In general, allow large groups to talk because there is enough complexity sorting out all the pictures.

· Another way to increase complexity with small groups is to give each person more than one picture.

· To reduce complexity for young groups (e.g., pre-school), allow a small group to look through all pictures and organize the story from beginning to end.