Program Goals:
1. Activities that Teach: For participants to be exposed and take part in “new” experiential activities. Additionally illustrate the power of training and the retention of the training materials once participants are fully engaged in the training.
2. Enjoyment: The teambuilding program will be enjoyable and set an expectation that the team setting will be rewarding while requiring hard work to increase and sustain effectiveness.
3. Get to Know Others: For participant to learn about the team and the members that make up the team. Develop respect and appreciation for the skills, diverse backgrounds, values, and talents that each member brings to the team and understand that their individual attributes are a resource to be tapped for team effectiveness and learning.

Emphasis will be placed on viewing how these activities can be used to teach others.

Program Agenda: 3 Hours

Initiative: Icebreakers and Openers
• Gotchya an icebreaker that opens the group to laughter and comfort with each other
• Preference Card Interview (Based upon DiSC profile system) an activity that asks participants to choose cards with various words that represent behaviors. Participants then speak to other participants about why they chose the cards and how it relates back to their personal expectations of the day.

Initiative: Noodle Press Participants are split into teams of 3 – 5 people and compete to assemble the largest pile of “pressed” pool noodle pieces.
Focus: Get to know others, Competition/Collaboration, Using directives as guidelines, Increased Creativity
Processing: What did you learn about your teammates? What were some creative outcomes? Looking back at the activity what are some different ways to accomplish the goal?

Initiative: Perceptions of Communication A power point presentation that shows various illusions, and videos of people being creative.
Focus: Communication and interpretation of sending and receiving messages, Opening dialog to internal reality and acceptance of others reality.
Processing: What do you see? How do these images relate to communication? Can you think of examples from your life where the sent message and your interpretation of the message differed?

Initiative: Lean on Me Participants are lead through a sequence of problem solving activities using Knives and Marshmallows
Focus: Customer satisfaction, Creativity within boundaries, The power of Synergy
Processing:
Round 1 – How are the three knives before construction, like a group, and the same three knives after construction, like a team?
Round 2 – What were the differences between working alone on the first round and working together on this second round?
Round 3 – In what way does team size affect performance and interaction?
Round 4 – What are the differences between using activities and models, compared to doing the real thing?
End Processing? What were some of the key factors that allowed you to accomplish each task? How did your role change as more people were added to the task? Based on the overall experience what are some advantages to learning by doing?

Initiative: Knot Exchange Create the biggest tangle of rope in the middle of a team and then see how quickly another team can undo it.
Focus: Team Problem Solving, Passing off and Receiving other teams’ problems, Helping others to succeed.
Processing: How was your teamwork? What was the reaction when we switched to a new tangle of rope? What was it like making a mess compared to undoing some else’s mess? How can we use this activity to teach others?

Initiative: Trust Trap Sequence Participants are lead through a series of trust building and problem solving activities using loaded mouse traps.
Focus: Leaving individual comfort zones as well as gaining greater trust in co-workers.
Processing: How did this activity build trust? What changes have you noticed since you finished the stages? How did you overcome any anxieties? How well did you coach your partner? How can we use this activity to teach others?

Initiative: Wrap Up and End Process Metaphor Cards
Processing: When you are ready show the group the card you chose and explain why you chose it.

Special Notes on Processing and Reflect:
Create-Learning Facilitators will process and reflect after the majority of the activities. This session may include although is not limited to use of Metaphor cards, group drawing, Socratic question and answers, Small group presentations of learning, Personal reflection through the use of sharing circles and various hand signals, as well as creating concrete plans of how the skills gained will be used in the workplace personally and professionally.
Create-Learning has shown results using a variety of processing activities to actively engage each participant. Create-Learning uses processing techniques and activities to give each individual participant the greatest learning possible for the day.
Individuals and teams will learn about the different personalities and skills of their peers. This is learned through the hands on nature of the activities and the highly interactive processing session after each activity. Create-Learning enables the group to take credit and responsibility for their own learning, and gives them tools that can be used immediately in the workplace.

Back to Team Building Sample Agendas