Team Building Exercise: Take it Without Touching

Purpose

This is a simple but fun team building exercise most suitable for outdoors. This exercise can also be a fun activity for kids. You can run competitively and give a prize to the winner. It helps to train people to stay focused while being totally aware of their environment as the dynamic changes. The winner must be good at predicting what others are going to do while keeping them guessing on he would do.

Objective

Take objects from a central location while making sure you do not touch other people.

What You Need

• A large area so people can easily move around
• 50 small objects of the same shape. You may need more depending on the size and agility of your delegates. The objects can be anything so long as they are easy to pick and safe to handle in a rush (i.e. no sharp edges). Examples are:
  • Golf balls
  • Small stress balls
  • Large buttons
  • Plastic coins
  • A container
  • Papers
  • Rope of about 20m

Setup

• Place all the objects in a container and place the container in the centre of the area.
• Place a rope on the ground in the shape of a circle with a radius of 3 meters with the container at the centre of the circle. Ultimately you need to choose the size based on the number of delegates, so it is small enough to be challenging and large enough not to be silly.
• Distribute one paper to each delegate and ask them to write their names on it in a large scale. Optionally, they can write a unique alphabet letter in a large font for better visibility from a distance.
• Ask delegates to place their paper with equal spaces from each other just outside of the circle. The name should be easily visible. Ask them to place a hard object on their papers to make sure the papers are not blown away.
• The papers placed on the ground represent each person’s “base”.
• Ask everyone to stand at their base.
• Explain that the objective of the game is to collect as many of the objects as they can in the given time and bring them back to their base while following these rules:
  • They can only take one object from the central container at a time.
  • Once they have an object in their hand they must return it to their base before attempting to collect another one.
  • They cannot pass an object to another person.
  • It’s ok if an object is dropped, they can pick it up and continue.
  • They cannot drop the object back to their base. They should be touching the base with their foot while placing the object on it so that it counts as a collection.
  • They should not touch another person for the duration of the game.
  • If at any point two people touch each other, they are out of the game. They must raise their hands above their heads to show to others that they are now out of the game. Whatever they have collected up to that point would count towards their score. If they had objects in their hands at the time of contact they must return those to the central container first and then must return back to their bases. It is Ok to touch a person who is out of the game. Those who are out should clear the area as soon as they can without disrupting other people.
  • The person with the highest number of objects collected at the end of the allocated time is the winner.
  • You will be judge and you can disqualify anyone who doesn’t correctly follow the rules or abuses the rules.
• Start the game and allocate 5 minutes for it. You can extend the time depending on the number of delegates and the size of the area.
• Repeat the exercise three or more times expecting delegates to evolve their strategies as they become more familiar with the game.
• At the end, count the total score for all rounds and give a prize to the winner with the highest score.
• Follow with a quick discussion

Timing

Explaining the Exercise: 15 minutes including setup

Activity: (3 rounds * 5 min) = 15 minutes

Group Feedback: 5 minutes

Discussion

What strategy worked best? Why?