Teambuilding

Working in groups can be a stressful activity. Colleagues don't always work well together, personalities may be abrasive to each other or you may just be dealing with teen-agers in which case conflict is inevitable.When stress is high in a group it effects everyone, the very environment of a workplace, no matter the setting it is something that needs alleviation.One easy way to help build team-work and provide a distraction from the stressful factors of working or dealing with each other are simple team building exercises.

Lily Pads (Team Building Exercise)
Clearly mark off an area between fifty and a hundred feet with chalk. The width of the area does not matter. What matters is that there is a clearly defined beginning and ending point along the journey. Between these beginning and ending points create a path of "stepping stones" made from pieces of paper, cardboard, or even paper plates. These are to be your "lily pads". Use anywhere from twenty to thirty lily pads to form your path, make sure each is within easy stepping range of another.

After building this path it is time to begin the exercise. Gather all of your team at one end of the path. Inform them that all the space between this point and the ending of the point is deadly to humans. The only safe places to step are the lily pads. Once a pad has been stepped upon, if it ever loses contact with a human it sinks and will be removed (Watch carefully for this to occur, if it does remove the lily pad yourself). They must reach the other side and in order to win and all members must reach the other side.

Give the team 30 seconds to discuss this before forcing them to begin. Once the first person reaches about halfway through the path you will use a blindfold on one of the members of the team. If there are more than ten people in a group this should be repeated twice more once when the first person reaches the other side and a second time when the last person reaches the halfway point.

If a portion of the path becomes unusable or a member of the team falls or comes in contact with a section of the unsafe area then the group has failed. If this occurs re-place all lily pads that were removed and have them begin again. When the team wins reflect on what they learned and what the exercise meant.

Neutron Tag (Team Building Game)
This exercise must be conducted with an even number of participants, include or exclude yourself from participating accordingly. One team-member will be "it", another "free" member and the others will split into pairs of two. Each pair must link arms then form in a circle with the others.

The exercise begins when the member that is "it" chases the "free" member around the outside edge of the circle. The "free" member will then link arms with a person in one of the pairs. This forces the person that they did not link arms with to become free. They are now the person being chased and must link arms with a pair to escape.

They may not link arms with a pair that was adjacent to their own, nor with the pair they were separated from. If a "free" member is tagged by the "it" member the roles reverse("free" becomes "it", "it" becomes"free").

Play the game/exercise for about fifteen minutes to help relax your team and alleviate stress.