Helium Stick

Deceptively simple teamwork activity. Form two lines facing each other. Lay a long, thin rod on group's index fingers. Goal: Lower to ground. Reality: It goes up! A popular, engaging small group activity. 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. Can be used to highlight almost any aspect of teamwork or leadership. Objects are scattered in an indoor or outdoor place. In pairs, one person verbally guides his/her partner, a blindfolded person, through the minefield. 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 trying to understand from another's point of view in order to recreate the story's sequence. A fast paced activity that can be modified to suit age and setting. Each participant gets one gutter or half pipe tubing. The object is to move a marble or assorted size balls using lengths of guttering from point A to point B without dropping them. A powerful teambuilding exercise for medium sized groups. Participants must touch the randomly placed

Toxic Waste

Mine Field

Zoom

Pipeline/Gutter Ball

Keypunch

numbers, in sequence, within a given time frame in multiple attempts. A team building exercise based on the icebreaker "Group Juggle". Groups are challenged to juggle as fast as possible. Invite group to "tender" a time they can deliver. Group activities that can be done with balloons. Promotes gentle, fun physical movement, people getting to know one another, trust and working together. Fun, physically demanding, competitive team activity. Several teams pull against each other, requiring communication and tactics as well as strength to outmanoeuvre and win. A classic teambuilding activity in which a group is challenged to physically support one another in an endeavor to occupy an ever diminishing space. "Your plane crashed...your group needs to choose the 12 most useful items to survive..." Small groups design an egg package to save an egg from breaking when dropped. Plus a 30 second jingle to sell their package. Followed by the Great Egg Drop-Off. A simple, close physical contact group cooperation activity. The group forms the three parts of an Amoeba: protoplasm, cell wall and

Warp Speed

Balloon Activities

Multi-Way Tug-of-War

All Aboard!

Survival Scenarios

Great Egg Drop

Amoeba Race

nucleus. Then the group travels, splits into two amoebas, and the amoeba have a race. Group dynamics exercise. Each person is represented by an object. The objects are "caste" like dice and group members share their feelings and re-arrange the objects. Involves small groups in designing and presenting a new group activity. A challenging exercise which requires all the elements of teamwork communication, goal-setting, planning, cooperation, creativity, task orientation, etc. In small groups, set the challenge of creating the most inspirational team building quote in a set amount of time, e.g., 10 minutes. Each team reads out their quote and teams vote on the best quote. At the end of the activity, hand out some other Team Building Quotes.

Group Mandala

Create Your Own Group Activity

Team Building Quotes

Mine Field

Objects are scattered in an indoor or outdoor place. In pairs, one person verbally guides his/her partner, a blindfolded person, through the minefield. In groups of ~8, a person in the middle closes his/her eyes, does a "trust lean" and is "passed around" the group. Requires good facilitation and fairly mature group. In pairs of similar size, one becomes a Faller and one the Catcher. Teach

Willow in the Wind

Trust Lean

methods for spotting, falling and catching. Start small and build to bigger falls, then swap. Debrief what made you feel more or less trusting? In pairs, one person is blindfolded. Holding hands, the blindfolded person is lead gradually from a slow walk up to fast running. Swap. A dramatic trust activity for a large group. Group forms a gauntlet, arms out in front. As a person walks down the gauntlet, people raise their arms. Build up to people down running the gauntlet through a sea of chopping arms! In a forested area, pairs take turns being blindfolded, lead to a tree (for touch and feel) and then lead away. After removing the blindfold, the tree hugger tries to locate his/her tree. Illustrate the importance of eye contact by having people in pairs stand facing each other and staring into each other's eyes for ~60 secs. Remove sunglasses. Illustrate the importance of both eye contact and physical touch by having people in pairs stand facing each other, holding hands, and staring into each other's eyes for ~60 secs. Illustrate the importance of physical proximity by having people in pairs stand facing each a comfortable distance apart. Then ask people to move a little closer and feel what its like. Then ask people to increase the distance apart and notice how it

Running Free

Slice 'N Dice

Hug-A-Tree

Eye Contact

Eye Contact with Touch

Proximity

changes one's feelings. Involves a person falling backwards from table height into the arms and hands of the group. Each group member can opt to take a turn as faller. Although commonly used, some believe it should be avoided due to the risk of physical and psychological injury. See photos. Controlled vertical descent from height (~5m-100m), using ropes, harnesses and friction devices. At moderate height (~10-30m), a person is on belay, standing on a small platform. The challenge is to jump for a rope or rope swing. From considerable height (~100m) a person leaps into space, relying on dynamic rope to lower the person to safety. At major height (e.g., 300m+) a person leaps into space, using specially designed equipment and skill to land safely. 10 ways to improve social support within groups, including group contract, supportive physical contact, group discussions, modeling and feedback, etc. Expand your program's repertoire with a variety of well-known and novel trust building exercise gear, including Co-operband, Cooperblanket, Lycra Loop, Mine Field, Partner Straps, Flexible Trolleys, Geo Crossing and Raccoon Circle Activity

Trust Fall

Rappelling / Abseiling

Pamper Pole / Leap of Faith

Bungee Jumping

Parachuting / Parapunting / Basejumping

Ways to Improve Social Support in a Group

Trust Building Activities

Webbing and My Family, Your Family.

Descriptions of Trust Building Activities (on other websites)

Blind Crossing

Blindfolded people walk towards and find a seeing partner, guided by verbal directions from the seeing partner. Can progress to Blind Pinball, Mine Field & Blind Walk. [www.firststepstraining.com] A group is blindfolded and linked together - holding hand of someone next to them and shoulder of person in front. The group is then lead on a walk - anywhere from 10 minutes to 2 hours, depending on level of challenge desired. Sherpa Walk, Mine Field, Trust Falls & Dives, Count Off 2, Running Free, Human Ladder, People Passing, Boundary Breaking, Height Lineup, Falling Now by Chris Clark

Blind Walk

Trust Activities [more]

Why use icebreakers?

Create a positive group atmosphere Help people to relax Break down social barriers Energize & motivate Help people to "think outside the box" Help people to get to know one another

Icebreaker, Warmup, Energizer, Deinhibitizer Descriptions (on this website) Balloon Activities Games you can play with balloons to get

a group having fun and working together. Includes the hilarious "Fire in the Hole" (balloon on tummy, running at another person, bursting the balloon). Throw balls to others in a sequence, using each person's name. Works every time. Can be extended to "Warp Speed" (to see how fast the group can throw balls through a set order to each group member). Fun, interactive get-to-known activity. Ask a group to organise themselves into smaller groups, based on categories such as favourite colour. Fast-moving 5 min. group activity to get people together and focused. In a circle, right finger on next person's left palm. Try to grab a finger before yours gets grabbed. In a circle, people put their arms in and hold someone else's hand, then try to unravel the knot without letting go of hands. Involves getting physically close to others, stretching, laughing and problem solving. People write down two truths about themselves and a lie. Then introduce the three "facts" to the rest of the group who tries to guess which one is a lie. Group members write personal fears anonymously on pieces of paper which are collected. Then each person randomly selects and reads someone else's fear to the group and explains how the person might feel. Fosters interpersonal empathy. Active, fun group activity to explore

Group Juggle

Categories

Gotchya (Grab the Finger)

Human Knot

2 Truths & a Lie

Fear in a Hat

Have You Ever?

and celebrate the rich diversity of people's past experiences. Works well with large groups. 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 trying to understand from another's point of view in order to recreate the story's sequence. Participants are blindfolded and assigned an animal. The challenge is to use animal noises in order to meet up with other animals of same species. Releases energy. Loud, fun, chaotic, then gradually order and unity emerge.

Zoom

Animal Sounds

Icebreaker, Warmup, Energizer, Deinhibitizer Descriptions (on other websites) A fun, moving-around activity that breaks the ice, loosens people up, gets people alert and engaged. Good for a group just beginning to get to know one another. In a circle, people look at ground, then on "heads up" look into someone else's eyes. If 2 people are looking at each other, they scream and are both out. Continue to see who is last - hilarious. [www.firststepstraining.com] In pairs, one is the chaser. With a big group, this allows for lots of hiding behind others - fun and active. [www.firststepstraining.com]

All My Neighbors

Screamer

Pairs Tag

Introduction Team building programmes around the world are a growing phenomena. It is a common practice for most organisations today to hold team building events at either department level or company level at least once a year. One of the main reason is that most managers today believe team building events are able to bond organisation members together both horizontally (between subordinates) or vertically (between managers and subordinates). However, what is lacking is the understanding of the concept of team building. As a result, team building events today often end up to become merely a trip to the park, a one night stay at a posh resort or an afternoon of games. The outcome has left much to be desired unless the concept of team building is well understood which is essential to maximise the benefits for the time spent. Robbins and Coulter (1999) in their book "Management" defines team building as "interaction among members of work teams to learn how each member thinks and works". Unfortunately, in today's practice, the definition of team building has been misinterpreted. The key phrase here is "to learn how each member thinks and works". Team building events therefore should go beyond the idea of a "trip to the park". They have to allow for learning about how each member of the team thinks and works in relation to the workplace. On the contrary however, most team building practitioners today are commonly using so-called team-building events to simply encourage people to work together, not learn about how each team member actually thinks and behaves. The common message carried behind the way most team-building games is "you all must learn to work as a team". The facilitator needs to do more - they need to provide structured opportunity for helping team members learn more deeply about how each person operates in the workplace. In the Malaysian context, the wrong perception of team building has come about, I believe, due to many team building practitioners running team building event armystyle. Although the games and activities used may have been modified to suit civilians, the methodology behind the training is still very much army-styled. I was in the army and I know what team building army-style is about. You are made to work as a team. If you do not, the whole team suffers. Take a point in case everyone has to fall- in sharp at 6.30am for physical training everyday. If one person is late, the rest of the platoon members will have to endure physical punishment together with him. You see, in the army, you are made to work as a team. It is a necessity to survive, it is not a choice. However, this is not true in the corporate world. Not all organisations are made in such a way that if they dont work as a team, the organisation will not survive. In fact, some organisations promote individualism. AT&T, Ford, Motorola, Google and other large U.S.-based companies are examples of companies that encourage individual achievement and recognition (Robbins, 2001). Adults do not just learn to work as a team from a one or two day event. So, why don't people just learn to work as a team by just attending a few games and activities as part a team building event?

Barrier 1. Adults are more complicated than children As adults, we are much more complicated now as we have been when we were much younger. Lets compare to when we were much younger, say 13 years old. In those days, people generally easily acquainted with classmates, worked and played with them. On average, special efforts to "learn to work with others" are unnecessary because children live and grow together. As we get older, we learn to become more sceptical of others. This is often culturally reinforced. We are no longer as nave in our ideas about other people. Combined with the rapid shifts in workplace environments and personnel, this eventually makes it harder to work as a team. Barrier 2. Adults are more inflexible in accepting changes and other peoples values As we grow, we become more inflexible and intolerable of others. We may not accept others views and opinions and therefore, may not so easily change ourselves so that we may be able to work with others. However, we may try to compromise as we work along. Therefore, by just asking adults to work together is not the answer. Working together takes time, it takes effort. Some people may not even gel together after years of being in the same office. It does not help by asking people to work as a team; they have to experience and understand other people's ways of working and being in order to really believe in their capacity to find effective ways of working together. Barrier 3. Is teaching team building really relevant to workers' needs? Adults are able to learn things if it is applicable to them. Teach someone how to use the Personal Digital Assistant and he/she will probably learn it in a few minutes if he owns one. However, teach him how to do some mathematics problem s/he will probably forgets it in a few hours if he does not need to use it. If its applicable, is memorable. Therefore, adults do not need to learn to work as a team. They have already obtained the skills of working with others. There are exceptions to this of course! If the job determines that they have to work together, they will. Therefore, it is often redundant or unnecessary to teach people how to work as a team. If they do not, simply speak, they have decided not to and they will abide with that decision. You cant teach an old dog a new trick so to speak. Therefore, team building events is not the answer to all failing teams. To make team building events practical and beneficial, consider the following: Solution 1. Allow for interaction that leads to understanding A trip to the park will not 'just work'. It may promote interaction, everyone may have a good laugh, but it is not structured. The best they could probably remember is that they had a good time. It has to be structured. You must be able to lay out your goals. At which level of interaction are they at? To which level do you want them to interact? Bear in mind the purpose of interaction is to create understanding, and understanding that will help each other to know where they come from and why do they act in a certain manner. Useful information could be gained e.g. the persons family background, how was s/he brought up, what are his pastimes, who are his friends. All this may just surface from the interaction, but generally needs more structured prompting. Solution 2. Provide behavioral opportunities for revealing underlying thinking and behavior patterns

Initiative games are best used to see how we behave. A problem is given to a team to solve. Each of the team members may have different ways of solving the puzzle. By allowing team members to understand why Mr. A or Mr. B and Mr. C makes certain decision will enable the team mates to understand better why Mr. A makes such decisions in the workplace. The process is crucial, not the endsit is the means. During one raft building activity, one facilitator shouted to the team If your raft sinks will just show that you are unable to work as a team. My friends, it is not important if the raft sinks or not, most importantly, how each of them makes decision and reacted in front of the eyes of their team mates is the most important! Conclusion Team building events are meant to take people away from the office and put them in an unfamiliar place. It is where people are most likely dressed informally and therefore, behave differently. At these occasions, positions in office are often forgotten and the true self thus appears. As one participant once said we tend to put down our guard and behave differently. Not only do we act differently, we say different things too. The way we act and behave out of the formal work setting is often our more true self. Team building experiences should help to show our true human nature. We may start to notice that Director A has a great sense of humour a real joker. Or the HR director has a kind, caring soul. Knowing each others true attitude and behaviour will often change our perceptions of fellow workers. The next time you meet Director A along the office corridor, you would probably give him a cheeky smile a reminder of what happened at the team building event the other day! Team building events will therefore be more successful when there is a structured programme which will allow specific objectives to be met. Activities that allow opportunity to reveal the way we think, make decisions and react will create better and further understanding of work mates. Finally, a team building event that allow each others attitudes and behaviour to surface creates better relationships in the office. However, managers are reminded that team building does not just happen in one day or two days, it has to happen in the workplace every day and it takes time. Managers must promote interaction in the workplace among work mates to learn how each member thinks and works, to allow team building to work. This might also involve several different training methods including class room training, role plays, profiling tests and many others. Managers need to contribute to the process rather than being hopeful for the best results from one or two team building events. Based on the understanding of the principles of team building as cited above, it is hoped that managers will be able to make a better decision when organising team building events. Reference