I am facilitating an afternoon session(approx. 3 hrs) for a client who wants 'fun and different' to be the order of the day. The goal is twofold - to help this group relax and recharge as they are currently going through some major re-organisation as well as focus on how well they, as a team, are working through this period.
I will have approx. 60 people at the event - from directors downwards. Does anyone have any ideas regarding an activity/activities which would work here?
The part I'm struggling with mostly is the sheer size of the group and the logisitcs of running an indoor event......my tried and tested games would work brilliantly for a smaller group but I have not delivered a session of this kind to this number of people.
Please......ANY ideas out there?
Tracy Israel
10 Responses
Fun Exercise for Large Groups
Hi Tracy
I have an exercise called “The Printer’s Devil” that is a paper-based scenario emulating the running of a small print shop. It was designed to be used for large groups, albeit they would be split down into smaller competing teams. I have used it successfully with all age groups from teenagers to senior managers. If you are interested, let me have your e-mail adress and I’ll get it across to you.
Regards
“Something Different”
Hi Tracy,
I have recenly just completed a successful Teambuilding course (full day) for 30 delegates. I used a variety of exercises to keep the momentum going. If you care to contact me I can discuss this further with you.
Anne Marie
Suggestion for an exercise
One exercise that I’ve used very successfully for a large group is to get them to make their own front cover for today’s evening newspaper. split them in to teams of around 8-10, give them a selection of the day’s newspapers and some company literature, glue sticks, scissors, marker pens. allow an hour. you judge the finished results on team work, originality, wit, visual appeal, etc. and award chocolate or another small prize for the winners. this is quite flexible, you can run this as a relaxed event or you can get each team to nominate a “team watcher” to comment on how they worked together as a team, made decisions, took roles, etc and do a formal de-brief. you could get them to make a whole evening newspaper and include their own interviews if you want a longer exercise. teams really enjoy this as everyone is on an equal footing (assuming you are not working with journalists of course!) and I’ve seen some great results.
teambuilding for 60
The most useful outcome you can achieve is to be sure that everyone has had a chance to have an interesting conversation with as many people as possible. In my experience, that’s what people value and remember.
My first reaction is that you should insist on a huge room, no breakout rooms; and 10 flipcharts at least, which mark the ‘group sites’ with ready-prepared instructions for the various activities. I’d suggest that they work mainly in small groups of not more than 8, with repeated changes of the groups (“move into a different group with people you don’t know so well. Your task is to achieve this in 2 minutes!”) Sometimes getting them to number or letter themselves inthe first group can help this (“next move into all A’s” etc)
In their groups, give them a variety of tasks, alternating betweeen ‘fun’ and ‘serious’. They don’t feed back until the end, but after each activity they write something on the static flip chart about the result of the activity. (“What we learned, what was surprising, interesting ..etc”)
Possible group tasks or activities might include:-
“If this team were an animal, it would have been an x before the recent changes, and now it’s more of a y”
“What I’ve noticed about the team in the last few months”
“Something you might not know about me is..”
“If I was advising this team (or organisation) the key recommendation would be…”
(I’m sure you have plenty of possibilities of your own. )
I’ve done this twice, in different sectors, with 80+ rather tricky people resistant to this kind of thing, and in each case they valued it greatly.
(I also like the sound of Barbara’s activity, which I’ve never tried. I can see that it would work well)
Team Building for large groups
Hi Tracy
I participated in a large group activity a few years ago and have used it myself a couple of times. Its an activity used at a ‘Brain Friendly’ workshop and is based around different parts of the brain. In essence the large group it split into smaller groups, each group is given a description of what a part of the brain does and they have to mime or act (no talking) this back to the larger group. If you want more details / info please get in touch.
Nick
25 fingers and six knees!
Hi Tracey,
I like the idea that Barbara has put across that a team viewer should be selected for several small teams that are performing an activity.
I have just stumbled across an activity that will definately fit the ‘Fun and Different’ brief you have been given.
To make sure that everyone in the team takes part change the newspaper making to a phyiscal activity called ’25 Fingers and Six knees.’ The idea of the activity is to prepare several cards with similar instructions to the name of the game so …. 5 left feet, two hands and 12 elbows could be an instruction card. The teams must then make sure all of the required parts are touching, it’s alot like twister! Once the teams are happy they have made the connections they shout JOINED and the trainers check all instructions on the card have been satisfied, if so they are awarded a point. Extra points can be awarded for creativity and use of other items in the room to make the connections.
Obviously this will only work with the consent and flexibility of those involved and its best to leave tongues out of the instructions!!
It might be a bit rowdy for what you are doing but it is great fun and people soon forget they are being observed and act naturally!
Good Luck and let us all know how you get on
Emma
Maybe use a jigsaw puzzle
I’ve worked quite often with numbers this size (60), and more, but, if you can, I recommend have at least two more co-facilitators. One fun exercise uses a jigsaw puzzle and I tend to use one puzzle box for each 6 team members, so you’d need to buy 10 boxes of the same puzzle, with a minimum 300 number of pieces. Before starting the exercise, you remove around 5% of the pieces from each box and mix them up in the other boxes.
Of course you’ll firstly get all sorts of complaints about missing pieces, but you just have to ignore them, and wait for the penny to drop. You’ll then watch the teams adopt all sorts of tactics to get the missing pieces, from theft, to negotiation, and plenty in between. It’s an exercise which illustrates well the way in which internal teams do or do not co-operate, how they communicate, inter and intra-team problem solving and so on.
Hope this is a help and we’ve got quite a number of other exercises for use with indoor and outdoor teamworking events. Don’t hesitate to get in touch by email.
Request for “The Printer’s Devil”
Hi Pwheeliker,
I'm going to facilitate a group of about 100 people and needs an activity.
Saw your post on "The Printer's Devil" and would like to request for further details on this.
If you have other activities for this large group, please share with me.
Here is my email address: ayeo99@yahoo.com
Thanks a million
Rgds,
Yeo
Hi Emma,
Hi Emma,
This "twister"-like activity sounds very interesting.
Can you provide me with more details such as:
1. I have 100 participants in total, how many groups should I divide them into?
2. Do you have instructions other than "5 left feet, two hands and 12 elbows could be an instruction card.
Thanks a million, Emma
Rgds,
Yeo
Hiya! I’d love to find out
Hiya! I'd love to find out about the Printer's Devil activity if you don't mind? Thanks!
Don (donthunk@gmail.com)