I once used a teambuilding excersise that was about a group of people stranded on a desert island. The team had to pick what would be priorites for them to excape the island and survive. There was a list given of objects.

Does anyone have this game or something like it? I would appreciate it if you could let me know.

Thanks in advance.

If someone has anything else to suggest I would appreciate it. I had a event where each team had to build bridges with just toothpicks and glue. A cost was given on the toothpicks and glue and the team whose bridge that held the most weight and cost the least was the winner.

Few of the following ice-breakers can be of significant use during training sessions :

1] Alphabetic Introductions
Each participant is asked to choose a letter of the alphabet. Duplicate letters are permitted. They are then given five minutes in which to describe themselves using single words beginning only with that letter. You could award a small prize for the person with the most number of words.

A further optional stage is to ask participants to write down their chosen words on a sheet of paper with their name at the top and display it on the wall for the duration of the event. Others could be asked later on in the event as to whether the words accurately describe the individual.

2] Catch Ball
Instead of going round the class in order when making introductions etc, throw a ball (preferably a soft one) at one of the students who then does the first introduction. This student then throws the ball to someone else. Challenge the class to complete the introductions without throwing the ball to the same person twice. It's probably a good idea to clear the coffee cups before starting this exercise.

3] Chinese Whispers
The traditional version of Chinese Whispers is to whisper a sentence to the first person in the class, who whispers it to the next person and so on until the last person repeats the message out loud to the rest of the class.

Typical of the kind of distortion you can get is the classic where: 'Send reinforcements, we're going to advance,' becomes: 'Send three-and-four pence, we're going to a dance.'

Debrief the exercise by asking:

Where did the message get distorted?

How can we help the communication process? • Big picture • Key points •
Headline • A bit at a time • Look for meaning and connections

4] Count the F's
Hand out copies of the following quote:

FEATURE FILMS ARE THE RESULT OF YEARS OF SCIENTIFIC STUDY COMBINED WITH THE EXPERIENCE OF YEARS.

Ask people to count the number of F's there are in the passage. Very few people will identify all 6 at the first attempt.

5] Change
This simple exercise makes people aware of the impact of change and how they feel about it. Ask the participants to fold their arms. Then ask them to fold their arms the other way round. Wait in silence for a few moments before asking them to unfold their arms. Debrief by asking: how difficult it was to fold their arms the other way; what it feels like with their arms folded the other way round; and did they have an urge to unfold or re-fold their arms.

Hope the above ice breaker games shall be an excellent integration within the training sessions.

Regards,

CHRM

"To win...you must stay in the game" - Claude Bristol

One may also follow this game as a part of their team building exercises :-

[A] Helium Stick (Description of a Team Building Exercise)

- 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....

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
1] What was the initial reaction of the group?
2] How well did the group cope with this challenge?
3] What skills did it take to be successful as a group?
4] What creative solutions were suggested and how were they received?
5] What would an outside observer have seen as the strengths and weaknesses of the group?
6] What did each group member learn about him/her self as an individual?
7] What other situations (e.g., at school, home or work) are like the Helium Stick?

References : Booth Sweeney, L. & D. Meadows (1996). The systems thinking playbook: Exercises to stretch and build learning and systems thinking capabilities. The Turning Point Foundation.

Regards,

Chris