ColourBlind

• Have the group sit down and put on blindfolds.
• Explain the objective and rules of the activity – answer any questions.
• pass out items – I use 5 sets of 5 wooden toys, with 3 or 4 of them missing.
• Ask the group to pass each toy around the circle until every toy is handed out, and everyone has at least one toy.
• Remind the team that their goal is to identify each set of toys, how many toys are in each set, and which toys are missing from the sets.
• Chaos!
• Let the team go on without making a plan for a few minutes – experience the frustration and the confusion of not having a leader or a plan.
• If the team does not redirect their efforts towards selecting a leader and a plan, then give them a little prompt.
• Watch as things begin to fall into place, and the team begins to work together.
• Debrief – “What happened?” “Describe the process” “How is this like life?” etc.

For many groups, this activity erupts into a lengthy discussion about the challenges of working together, the need for strong leadership, and more.

Very powerful tool!

Here’s a picture from a recent ropes course program

Here you will find a variety of downloadable forms to help you prepare for your teambuilding or adventure instruction program. Please feel free to contact us with questions, or if you are having trouble with your downloads.
Thanks again, and we look forward to working with your group!

Downloadable Forms (PDFs):

GO-NEXTeams Waiver

What to Bring – Team Building

What to Bring – Adventure Instruction

Teambuilding Forms

Adventure Challenge Sample Itinerary

Portable Team Challenge Sample Itinerary

ROPES Challenge Sample Itinerary

Team Project Event Sample Itinerary

RACE Day Sample Itinerary

NEXTeams Team Development Sample Itinerary

Adventure Instruction Forms

Introduction to Caving Sample Itinerary

Introduction to Mountain Biking Sample Itinerary

Introduction to Rock Climbing Sample Itinerary

Introduction to Wilderness Skills Sample Itinerary

Building a foundation of trust has lasting benefit, long beyond the teambuilding experience.  Trust leads to cohesion, cohesion leads to an environment where team members are willing to take a chance with their ideas and suggestions.  Those fresh ideas often lead to innovation, and an environment that supports innovation is more likely to breed success.  It all begins with trust.

Here’s an activity that doesn’t require much in the way of expert facilitation.  I run it with nearly every group whose main focus is building trust.  The activity  is almost always received positively, and often leads to a rapid gain in vulnerability-based trust.

My Favorite Scar -

Find a quiet place for a discussion.  Frame the activity as a trust activity, and one that should be taken relatively seriously.  Ask your group to select and share a story about one of the following topics:

• Your favorite scar – where is it and how it happened
• A funny childhood story
• The coolest thing that ever happened to you
• The scariest thing that ever happened to you
• Something people would be surprised to learn about you

This is not meant to be a therapy session, but the activity does give the group an opportunity to share stories that they might not normally share with their fellow team members.

I always hold a short debrief, often asking quite simply, “what is the value of an activity like this?” and then follow with a quick, fun, moving activity.  For many of my corporate groups, this simple trust activity has been one of the highlights of the day.

Hope it works for you!

Adventure Gift Certificates are available in a variety of denominations:

Choose from $20, $25, $40, $50, $95, $200, $380 and up!

Private Guiding – Valued at $200, this certificate entitles the bearer to a one-day privately guided course, to take your skills to the next level. Courses include: Intermediate to Advanced Rock Climbing, Caving, Mountain Biking or Wilderness Survival.

Adventure for Four – Valued at $380, this certificate entitles the bearer to a one-day adventure instruction program for four (4) participants in one of the following activities: Rock Climbing, Caving, Mountain Biking, Wilderness Skills

Rock Climbing – top-roping courses teach the basics of the simplest and most popular form of rock climbing – knots, belaying, anchors, and movement.

Mountain Biking – learn the basics of trail-riding, or push yourself through challenging single-track with our expert riders.

Caving – beginners and experts alike will be challenged as we explore the wild caves of West Virginia.

Wilderness Skills – orienteering, building fires, finding water, making a shelter etc… Learn valuable outdoor survival skills with our wilderness expert.

To Purchase or Redeem a Gift Certificate, please contact Eriq Powers

Eriq Powers
(240) 603-4150
email:  info@go-adventures.com
facebook:  www.facebook.com/go.adventures
twitter:  www.twitter.com/go_adventures

Learn more about Gift Certificates for Adventure…

Here’s an easy teambuilder that can be run by anyone, and gets the group working on foundational trust with very little lead-in.

‘Tell Me’

The idea of this exercise is for two ‘partners’ to share with one another answers from a list of questions.  Once the two partners have shared with each other, the ‘number 1′s’ rotate to the next person on their right.

• split the group into partners, and have them choose who will be “number 1″ and “number 2″.
• ask the number 1′s to form a circle facing away from the center of the circle.
• ask the number 2′s to form a circle around the number 1′s and facing towards their partner.
• during this exercise, the inner circle (number 1′s) will rotate clockwise, while the outer circle (number 2′s) remains in their fixed position.

Once you have asked around 15 questions, take a few minutes to ‘debrief’ the activity.  Here are a few appropriate debriefing questions:

• What was the most surprising thing you learned about someone in the group?
• What did you have in common with someone in the group?
• What is the benefit of doing an activity such as this?
• Was this challenging for anyone?  If so, why?
• What was the funniest joke you heard from someone in the group?
• What other questions do you think would work for this activity?
• What does an activity like this have to do with improving the cohesion of the group?

I’ve run this activity with 4th graders up to adults, and the outcome is almost always the same – increased cohesion among the members of the group with minimal effort.

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List of Questions:

1. What is your favorite scar?  Tell the story behind an injury that you sustained.
2. Describe your ultimate vacation – either one you’ve taken, or one you dream of taking.
3. Describe a dream that you remember – either from last night or from your past.
4. Describe your last meal – what would you eat if you could only have one more meal – and why?
5. Describe your first or oldest memory.
6. If you could be any animal, what would you be and why?
7. Describe your least favorite thing to do, and why you hate it.
8. Describe a moment when you felt like a winner.  What happened, and how did you do it?
9. Tell your favorite short and repeatable joke.
10. Describe something you fear, why you fear it, and how you cope with that fear.

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Any other questions you can add to the list?
Good Luck – and if you have any feedback, variations, or criticisms, leave a comment!

Here are a few of the things we are in the midst of designing:

• Adult Camp – A weekend of adventure instruction (rock climbing, caving, mountain biking, canoeing, backpacking, etc.), combined with a wilderness medicine component and a fitness and nutrition component.  Imagine going to a mountain retreat, waking up early and getting a fitness boot camp to stretch you out and warm you up before you head out to climbing a secluded rock face.  After lunch, you learn how to splint an arm or treat heat exhaustion, and then you return to the campsite for a delicious and nutritious meal that you prepare under the supervision of a nutrition expert.  That’s just one example.

• Ice Climbing – Meet us in the Shawangunks of New York for two days of ice climbing instruction, with an overnight stay in a luxurious cabin near the ice, and excellent meals prepared for you – or by you – depending on your interest.  The town of New Paltz, New York, nestled in the ‘Gunks’ is known far and wide for its excellent ice climbing opportunities, yet is within a 6-hour drive of Washington, DC.

• Flight to Freedom – Visit an 1850s farm and experience a simulated journey from slavery to freedom. Participate in authentic plantation chores and experience the rigors of plantation life, before making your journey to freedom marked by night shadows, slave catchers, and the great unknown. This real-life journey will carry you across fields and thickets to secret hideaways along streams and culverts. The journey culminates after dark when you reach freedom at the “Circle of Light” where your experiences and impressions of the day are revealed.

And more…

Stay tuned to see how these projects unfold!

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Here are a few of the partnerships we are building to help us create these unique experiences:

Rebecca J. Scritchfield, MA, RD, LD, ACSM Health Fitness Specialist is a leading nutrition and exercise expert for the metro Washington, D.C. area. She helps people reach their full wellness potential through realistic approaches to behavior changes that fit their busy lives. Her motto “nothing changes until you do” exemplifies her belief in the power individuals already possess to realize the lifestyle they want.
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Occasions, Inc. is a full-service boutique event & meeting management company and tour operator with a strong focus on delivering personalized customer service.  We provide innovative and strategic planning services, specializing in high quality meetings, incentives, special events, and customized group tours and excursions. Our distinguished clientele includes corporations, associations, non-profit organizations, educational institutions, government, and private individuals.

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Combining her passion for emergency medicine and her love of adventure sports led to the development of Dr. Ellen Smith’s Wilderness Medicine Field Course.  Originally designed to teach medical students how to apply and adapt emergency patient assessment, diagnosis, treatment and procedures to the outdoor environment, the course has evolved to include adventure racers, tri-athletes, and outdoor adventure enthusiasts, as well as nurses, physician assistants, athletic trainers, police officers, paramedics, EMT’s, and many others interested in outdoor medicine and safety.

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A former Dental Tech & Fitness Instructor with the US Navy, Avon, 47, has channeled his passion for health and exercise into an intense, effective, yet extremely enjoyable fitness regimen known as, “The Sergeant’s Program.” Why the military focus? Because everyone knows how tough basic training is — you can’t make it through without getting into shape! Now a military veteran, Sarge has completed ten marathons, two full Ironman triathlons (Lake Placid 2001 and 2003) and at age 41, received his Black Belt in Korean martial art Hapkido. Recently asked what his greatest athletic strength is, Avon replied “perseverance… At 5″10 and 200 pounds, I’m not very fast…. sort of a slow moving tank that never quits”.

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The Menare Foundation, Inc. is a nonprofit organization dedicated to the preservation of Underground Railroad history, historic sites and environments and to the creation of associated educational programs. Through assistance and training, Menare works with individuals and organizations to preserve the Underground Railroad legacy using history as a resource for community revitalization, race dialogue and cultural growth.

Participants experience a sensory journey through taste, touch, smell, sights and sounds of plantation life as they conduct authentic plantation tasks before making the harrowing journey to freedom.

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From time to time we highlight a team building game or problem-solving initiative that has been particularly successful, popular, or just plain fun. These activities are easy to set up, take very little skill or experience, and require little or no specialized equipment. If you try an activity and you like it, let us know! And if you would like to learn what it takes to be a team building facilitator, check out our Training page on the website…

Good Luck!

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Silent Opera

This activity was ‘borrowed’ from another excellent online team building resource – www.teampedia.net – a ‘wiki’ that has been set up to collect great team building activities.

Objectives:
Communication, collaboration, team strategy

Group Size:
Small to Large

Materials:

• 10 – 20 Objects (Cones, Balls, Hoola Hoops, etc.)
• Blindfolds
• Rope Boundary
• Activity Description

Set Up:
Select one volunteer to be blindfolded (this person will be “the collector”) and one volunteer to give vocal instructions. The remaining members of the group are not allowed to speak. Set up the room and position participants according to the diagram below.

Directions:
This activity works on alternative methods of communication. Inform the group that the blindfolded member can speak, but will need to be told what to do in order to accomplish a given task. The person in the middle can only look at the large group but must tell the blindfolded member what to do. The large group will know the task and must communicate that to the middle person without speaking and without crossing the barrier represented by the rope. Lastly, inform the large group of the task (the more specific the task, the more challenging). Tasks may include: collect as many objects as possible or collect specific objects (by color, shape, type, etc.)

Variations:

• multiple collectors

Debrief Questions:

• What happened?
• What was the biggest challenge and why?
• What was it like to be – collector – speaker – actors?
• How is this activity like – school – work – life?

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Silent Opera Diagram