Practice the art of cooperation!
"You are on a rescue mission to the North Pole. There has been an accident and a fishing boat has overturned in the frigid waters of the North Atlantic.....You must land your rescue plane on each of the icebergs and load the survivors. Ice storms, whiteouts and extreme winds are common in this area..."
The art of cooperation is something we are taught as children. For some reason, many of us forget that lesson when we enter the front door of work. This exercise is designed to let participants experience how fun cooperation and teamwork can be.
Let teams experience the power of teamwork and benefits of interdependence as they work together to guide the rescue plane from landing pad to landing pad using three guiding ropes. Adding to the challenge, participants are asked to "freeze," forcing them to conduct the rescue mission from wherever they happen to be standing.
The exercise simply cannot be accomplished without the effort of every person on the team or group. The same is true at work, although we all want to think we can do everything ourselves. Only the single entrepreneur actually does everything themselves. The rest of us depend upon other people to take care of certain tasks, sometimes incredibly important tasks. However, we often don't try to work as a team unless we have to. This exercise lets participants experience what can be done as a team and how much fun it can be.
Clear communication is required as well as the passing of critical information from person to person in order to accomplish the task. This event will show what happens when there are gaps in communication and the resulting frustration will be a source of long dialogue.
The goal of the exercise is to have the entire team involved, demonstrate the power of teamwork and show the interdependence teams have.
You may use many variations of this activity to achieve different outcomes, depending upon what is desired.
- Participants: 6 - 24
- Location: Inside and Outside, Inside with lots of room.
- Activity Level: Medium
- Time Needed: 15 to 20 Minutes plus debrief - 45 to 60 minutes total
- Objectives: Coaching, Communication
The team building activity comes in an easy-to-use storage bag and includes:
- Comprehensive information on purpose of the game, how to set it up, the storyline and the safety measures necessary during the course of the exercise.
- Instructions on how to debrief the exercise and questions that you should ask the participants.
- 3 ropes, 20 ft long
- 4 landing pads
- 1 ring and hook
- 1 customized airplane
- 1 60-ft circle