Ages: 12 and up. Recommended number of people: 7-200 (group sizes of 10 are ideal). Messiness factor: Might break a sweat – (close proximity – hope you’re not claustrophobic!). Materials required: None. Recommended setting: Both indoors or outdoors.

Human Knot Game

Goals of the Human Knot Game:

• Team building and communication
• Problem solving
• Ice-breaker or get to know others better

Setup for the Human Knot Game:

This game is versatile in that multiple group sizes can play. Form groups of about 10 people each. Have each group standing, facing towards each other, in a circle. Each person should be standing shoulder to shoulder. First, instruct everyone to lift their left hand and reach across to take the hand of someone standing across the circle. Next, have everyone lift their right and reach across to take the hand of another person standing across the circle. Make sure that no one is holding hands with someone standing directly beside the person.

How to Play the Human Knot Game

To play, the groups must communicate and figure out how to untangle the knot (forming a circle of people) without ever letting go of any hands. If you wish, this icebreaker can be played competitively, in which the facilitator says “Ready.. Set.. Go!” and has all the groups race to become the first group to finish. If any group member lets go of a hand (breaks the chain), then the group must start from the beginning, or you could impose a penalty/punishment for that person (e.g. wear a blindfold).

This game typically takes 15-30 minutes to complete. You can impose a time limit if you wish to make the game more challenging. When you are done with the Human Knot activity, you can ask some debrief questions if you wish, such as “How well did you group work together? What strategies did your group adopt? How did it feel to solve the game?” etc.

Variations

To increase the difficulty level, you can either (1) blindfold some of the players or (2) require that the game be played silently (no talking).

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Ages: 12 and up. Recommended number of people: Groups of 5-8. Messiness factor: No sweat. Materials required: Two sheets of paper and a pen for each group. Recommended setting: Indoors.

Commonalities and Uniquities

Form groups of five to eight people and give them two sheets of paper and a pencil or pen. The first part of the activity is Commonalities, where each subgroup compiles a list of the things they have in common. In order for it to make the list, it must apply to everyone in the subgroup.  You want to avoid writing things that people can see (e.g. “everyone has hair,” or “we are all wearing clothes”).  Try to get them to dig deeper. After about 5 minutes, have a spokesperson from each subgroup read their list.

Then, depending on your goals for the session, you can have half of each subgroup rotate to another group for Uniquities or you can leave everyone in the same group. On the second sheet of paper have them record uniquities, meaning that each item applies to only one person in the group. The group tries to find at least 2 uniquities for each person. After 5-7 minutes, you can have each person say one of their uniquities or have a person read them one by one, having others try to guess who it was. (Again, you want to go beyond the superficial, avoiding those things that people can readily see). This is an excellent team-building activity because it promotes unity, gets people to realize that they have more in common than they first might realize. The awareness of their own unique characteristics is also beneficial in that people can feel empowered to offer the group something unique.

(Contributed by Amy R.) Thanks Amy!

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Ages: 14 and up. Recommended number of people: Pairs. Messiness factor: Might break a small sweat. Materials required: Blindfolds. Recommended setting: Outdoors, in a location with no dangerous obstacles.

Trust Walk Activity

The Trust Walk Activity is a team building activity involving leadership and lots of trust as people navigate each other around obstacles.Instructions

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Ages: 12 and up. Recommended number of people: Groups of 5 to 10.  Messiness factor: No sweat. Materials required: Paper and pen, if desired. Recommended setting: Indoors.

Stranded on a Island

Stranded on a Island is a useful team building activity to help people get to know each other better.  Form groups of about five to ten people and give the following instructions: “Unfortunately, you will be relocated and stranded on a deserted island for an indefinite amount of time.  You may only bring one item to the island, and you only have a few minutes notice.  What will you bring? Share with your group your object, why you chose it, and what you plan to do with it.”  Have each person briefly share their item, why it is important to them, and what they plan to do with it. After everyone has shared, instruct the groups to figure out how they can improve their chances of survival by combining the items in creative ways.  Allow ten to fifteen minutes of brainstorming time, and then have each group present their ideas.  Give a prize to the winner (most creative group) if desired. (Contributed by Jeff T.)  Thanks Jeff!

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Ages: 14 and up.  Recommended number of people: Teams of about 4 people.  Messiness Factor: Be prepared to walk around.  Materials Required: Cameras for each team.  Recommended Setting: Outdoors.

Photo Scavenger Hunt

Prepare a list of about ten interesting places, things, and circumstances that can be captured using a camera.  You could list, for example:

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Ages: 14 and up.  Recommended # of People: Teams of 2-10 people.  Messiness Factor: Light.  Materials: Paper clips or other small objects.  Recommended Setting: Outdoors.

Bigger and Better

Instructions: How is it possible to turn a paper clip into a guitar, laundry machine, bicycle, or other huge objects like a yacht?  Through a team-building activity called Bigger and Better!  Split the teams into groups of two to ten, depending on the size of your overall group.  Distribute paper clips (or some other small object) to each group.  Clearly indicate the time limit for this activity (e.g. 2-3 hours), and let them go off to trade.  The goal is to come back with the biggest, best, most creative object after a series of trading and upgrading.  When the time expires, everyone reconvenes at a predefined location for the show-and-tell and judging process.

Judges choose the best items on various criteria: size, value, creativity, and overall best.  This game has benefits of having team members work together and think creatively on how to upgrade their items.  Camaraderie is gained through this fun process – enjoy!

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Ages: 14 and up. Recommended # of People: Several groups of 4-5. Messiness Factor: Quite messy. Materials required: Raw eggs, several straws, masking tape, newspaper, and any other materials for building.

The Great Egg Drop

Instructions

The Great Egg Drop is a teambuilding activity that involves creativity and problem solving given a set of resources.  To begin, assemble groups of 4 or 5 and give each group various materials for building (e.g. 5-20 straws, a roll of masking tape, one fresh egg, newspaper, etc.). Alternatively, you can give no materials and ask the participants to find materials from outdoors, but this increases the difficulty level significantly.  Instruct the participants and give them a set amount of time (e.g. 30 minutes) to complete building a structure, with the egg inside. When time expires, collect all structures and then dramatic finale in which the structures are dropped from at least 10 feet in elevation and then inspected to see if the eggs survived. The winners are the groups that were successful in protecting the egg. Many variations are possible — additional constraints, for example. This activity is useful to illustrate the importance of team and to highlight aspects of project management.

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