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Team building activities

Team building is a collective term for various types of activities used to enhance social relations and define roles within teams, often involving collaborative tasks. It is distinct from team training, which is designed to improve the efficiency, rather than interpersonal relations. Many team-building exercises aim to expose and address interpersonal problems within the group.

Below you can find the list of team-building activities created collectively by the users of YEDU on-line course. If you know an interesting team -building activity and you would like to share it with others, feel free to edit the page and add your idea at the bottom.

Crossing the electric fence

The purpose of this exercise is for the whole group to pass over the fence without making contact with the fence wire. There are two variants to this exercise - basic and advanced. Both of these two variants are excellent for perfecting working together and relying on each other.

Required Resources: Basic: Rope, shoelaces or any type of pole Advanced: 2 x ropes, 2 x plastic drums, 4 x plastic fencing stakes and a ladder.

Total Time: 40 minutes (briefing, setup, the challenge, debrief)

Tie a rope 5-10ft in length between two trees. This will be your electric fence line. You can also use a pole and balance it between two objects such as tables or chairs (just make sure you weigh it down to prevent it from rolling off when knocked). The rope should be tied tightly. The height should be the same as the tallest participant in your group. The higher the rope, the harder the challenge, so adapt the height to suit the age and ability of your group.

Get the group to stand on one side of the rope. Introduce the electric fence and explain that all team members are required to cross the fence without touching it. If they do touch the fence, the entire team will restart the challenge and return back to the start point. Teams may be disqualified if they attempt to go under or around. Fast movement like jumping or diving underneath is not allowed.

Source: https://workrfun.com/activities/43-Electric-Fence-Team-Building-Activity/

The Marshmallow Challenge

In eighteen minutes, teams must build the tallest free-standing structure out of 20 sticks of spaghetti, one yard of tape, one yard of string, and one marshmallow. The marshmallow needs to be on top. It emphasizes group communication, leadership dynamics, collaboration, innovation and problem solving strategy.

Fun icebreakers for meetings can be hard to find – The Marshmallow Challenge is one of those icebreaker games for work that feels almost like play. The Marshmallow Challenge was developed by Tom Wujec, who has done the activity with hundreds of groups around the world. Ice breaker ideas that are fun, well designed and have a proven track record are definitely worth a try

Egg drop

This fun activity could be used as a team-building activity both for people who have just met and for already existing teams. Breaking people up into groups, each one needs a fresh egg, some straws, masking tape and other items for creating a package to protect the egg. Using the raw materials provided, the team goal is to build a structure that will support a free falling egg dropped from a predetermined height (e.g. 7 feet) without the egg breaking. Get to know you games with an element of danger are always fun ice breakers for meetings. This is a method that shows and fosters team communication, collaboration and strategic thinking as well.

wiki/team-building.txt · Last modified: 2020/03/18 15:27 by janek