Bandanna-Cup-Marble Teambuilding Game

This is a great, easy to use exercise that makes key learning points about each group member's responsibility to both follow and lead. Make sure you facilliatate this powerful debrief!

Group Size: 4 to 10 people per bandana
Time: 5 – 15 minutes
Space: Medium – Lots
Set Up Time: 60 seconds
Props: For each team of 6-10 people: one plastic cup, one bandana,one marble
Objective: Transport a marble balanced on a cup from one point to another.

Set Up / Preparation:
Create groups of about 8 people and supply each group with one bandana, one marble and one plastic cup (the plastic cup should have some kind of lip on the bottom of it).

The group surrounds the bandana and holds on to it with both hands along the edges creating a tabletop effective. The cup is now placed up side down on the bandana then the marble is placed on top of / balanced on the cup. The group is now asked to transport the bandana-cup-marble from one point to another.

Rules:
1. If the marble falls off the group must start again.
2. Everyone must hold on to the edge of the bandana with both hands.
3. The bandana must be kept tight and flat.
4. The supplied equipment (props) may not be altered.
5. No other supplies may be used.

Variations:
After everyone is set to go with the activity, ask them to place their bandana-cup-marble assembly on a small table in an adjacent room SIMULTANEOUSLY. There should be only one doorway to the other room so the teams are forced to wait on each other. The table should be small to force the groups to communicate and create a plan.

Debrief:

Have everyone circle up in their small groups and answer the following questions:

What metaphorically is the bandana, cup, marble, and table relative to your job in this organization?

What was your rolw in contributing to successs?

What got in the way?

More Variations
1. Place obstacles in the path of the group such as a tables or chairs. Consider
having the group go up a flight of stairs.
2. Use a taller cup and a larger, denser ball (like a baseball) to make this lots
harder

p>*From www.teachmeteamwork.com

Cultural extensions exercise

I just found this exercise online and it looks great - I have emailed the site for permission, in the meantime, check them out yourself... http://www.culture-at-work.com/body.html.

What extensions have humans created for these various functions of the body?

Purpose: The world can look different for several days after doing this exercise! It is useful in linking our societies' complex systems and technologies and beliefs with the fundamental, central reality of the human body as the core of our experiences and actions.

Materials: Names of different parts of the body, different functions of the mind, each on a separate slip of paper. For younger groups, you might also want to put one or two examples of extensions on each slip.

Instructions: Review the question "What objects or systems have humans developed to extend this particular body/mind function (beyond what is physically possible for a human to do without extra help)?"

Pick one of the slips out of the hat, and have the group generate a list together with the leader's help. Then ask participants to pair off. Each pair chooses a slip out of the hat. Give them about 5 minutes to generate the longest, most imaginative list they can.

Some Examples

Fingernails: screwdriver, scratch paper, backscratcher, thimble, shovel, utensils, tweezers.

Visual memory: camera, books, paintings, movies, post-it notes, planner, advertising, maps.

Skin: clothing, buildings, sunscreen, racial classifications, bedding, tatoos, artificial vitamin D.

Territorial part of the brain: maps, boundaries, armies, signposts, locks, global positioning systems.

Lungs: oxygen tanks for scuba diving, yoga, microphones and speaker systems.

Feet: trampolines, bicycles, escalators, cars, ballet point shoes, airplanes, 12 inch measurement unit, postal and delivery systems, canes.

Emotion of sadness: mourning rituals, Prozac, poetry, naming of buildings and places.

Counting on fingers (the original computing method was digital!): arithmetic, calculators, mathematics, computers, outlines, systems for ordering objects, calendars, money.

Discussion: You can either have each group read out the two examples that they think are most interesting, or draw a large silhouette of a human being and have each group write in one or two answers next the the appropriate part of the body. (You may need a separate sketch of a head if you have many pairs.)

An Age Old Problem

Get learners involved in teaching themselves.

Purpose of exercise: To encourage participants to improvise and learn to communicate in different ways and to show how frustrated we get when we aren’t understood, despite our best efforts.

Exercise: Tell everyone that until the exercise is over they are now no longer allowed to talk (This is important and you must enforce this as the trainer).

The exercise itself is really simple. Tell participants from the moment you say 'Go' they will have 5 minutes to organize themselves into a straight line, with the oldest on the right and the youngest on the left! They can not use pen or paper or speak.Remember you MUST enforce the "no talking" strictly or it completely spoils the exercise.

Alter the time depending on how many people you have, but for up to 30, we find that 5 mins is normally long enough to prove the point.When the line is formed, start at the right of the line and get participants to say their birthdays, and see how many mistakes there are.

This task normally sounds really easy at first, but when they have to start getting down to communicating differences in months and days between birthdays, tempers normally start to fray slightly. You will often see “angry” leaders emerge who start pushing other people around.

Debrief: have participants sit back down and talk about why they failed (or succeeded – either works to make the learning points). Bring up things like:

· Did a leader emerge or were there several leaders?
· Did leadership help or hinder?
· Did everyone use the same “system” once their regular tools were thwarted?
· What worked and what didn’t?
· Did people start getting frustrated? Why?
· If they were to do it again what would they do differently?

Then, (and this is key) – bridge the learning points clearly to the lesson you are about to teach and then reference the activity and examples from it as you make the lesson points.

I have used this exercise frequently, its one of the “pocket activities” I keep in mind for all kinds of sessions and I am always amazed at some of the ways people come up with to communicate – I have seen all different types of hand signals, foot stomping, some use eye blinking and once time I had a participant stare really hard at another hoping they could read her mind.

Have fun using this exercise to enhance learning retention.