The Results Driven Structure
Equipment: blocks or other building materials
Guidelines: Half of the group is sightless. I usually just have them close their eyes on the honor system for safety purposes. The sighted half is without speech but each person can make a unique noise (e.g. one person may snap their fingers, another may clap, another may thump their cheek, another may whistle, etc.,). A structure is built quickly by the facilitator in the middle of the room. The speechless members may study it for up to one minute and then the facilitator will disassemble the structure and place the pieces around the room. The sightless team members may touch the building materials and may speak. The speechless team members may see and make noises, but may not touch the sightless persons nor the building materials. The team is to reassemble the structure as it was originally built by the facilitator.
Processing:
What was this like in your life/job/organization?
How did it feel to be without sight/speech?
How did the team reach the solution?
Who took the lead and what did they do that was most effective?
Leaders
Equipment: none
Guidelines: Have the group start as they are, do not ask them to circle up or sit down. Just ask the participants to all get in the exact same position, every body part placed identically to everyone else's on the team. "We can go on as soon as everyone complies."
Processing:
Who was eventually copied by everyone else and why?
What steps can you identify that you went through as you attempted to conform to the
same position that everyone was in?
How comfortable was it to become exactly like everyone else or to go along with the peer
pressure?
Who resisted and why?
Web Heads
Equipment: one long pantyhose leg per two participants, one large light ball
Guidelines: Pairs put the ends of panty hose on their heads so that they are connected. All of the pairs come together and are challenged to play moonball. Only the panty hose may touch the ball and the team scores one point for every time they can bounce the ball back up into the air. Like volleyball, no pair may hit the ball twice in a row. The object is to get as many points as possible.
Variation: Have the team start in a circle so that a web is created by the hose. Place the ball in the center of the web and have the team try to bounce the ball as many times as possible.
Processing:
How did the team make decisions and how did they know that a decision had been
made?
Was there consensus and buy-in to the plans? If not, what happened?
Was there a sense of competition or cooperation? Why?
What team skills (planning, communication, problem-solving) were improved over the
last event?
Which skills need to improve further?
What will they look like
when they perform as an excellent team?
Steal-A-Stick
Equipment: dowel rods, one more in each row than there are total number of participants
Guidelines: Have the team line up in a straight line facing you. Place the dowel rods in rows just in front of the team members (seven participants = eight dowels in front of each participant):
Ÿ Ÿ Ÿ Ÿ Ÿ Ÿ Ÿ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __
The Continuum of Services
Equipment: flexible building materials such as straws and marshmallows or tons of Tinkertoys, tape
Guidelines Each person in the department or each department in the agency or each agency in the community is given an ample amount of resources. Each entity is asked to build a model of their services including inputs labeled as the types of clients or services they receive and outputs labeled with the type of product they produce. Clients or services might be straws going into their marshmallow with tape on each straw labeled 'runaways', 'chemically dependent youth', 'blank intake folders', and 'supervision'. The straws (of another color perhaps) coming out of the other side of the marshmallow may have tape on them labeled 'dictation', 'individual counseling', 'plans of service', and 'parenting groups'. After each entity has completed their model, list the inputs in the department/agency/community as a whole and the outputs the department/agency/community needs to receive. Now try to match up each model with each of the other models and the general inputs and outputs. If all persons are being served and all services are available, the model should end up without a single straw or marshmallow unattached. Like a flow chart, there should be a continuum from one end to the other.
Processing:
What inputs and outputs are left over? How can those be corrected?
Who learned that they are expected to do something that they had not realized before?
What plan of action is necessary now? Who will accept responsibility to see it through?
The Closure Carnival
Equipment: none
Guidelines: If your experience in group today was a ride at a carnival or theme park what would it be called? Go around counter clockwise after the first person volunteers the name of their ride. Give the group plenty of time to think about the name of their ride. If someone passes, come back to them at the end.
darinphillips@yahoo.com
IRC 1436951
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