This is a Group building activity called “Build anything”. Group-building activities are super important because they help us to bond with participants who don’t know each other. If group building is done well, then your project will have much better results. Activity:
- Split a big group in small groups*
- Move one desk to the place so it can be approached from 4 sides. Or use one long board.
- Put on the desk 20 zip ties, 4 knives or scissors, and around 50m of rope.
- Give task: “Build something useful and you have 1 hour”.
- When they are back, each group presents their tool/creation. Give applauses. Trainers tips: - You may say that they should build something useful for this week's event. Don’t tell too much as participants have to sit in the group and brainstorm. The less we say (as trainers) better. An easy trick to tell less and escape the trap of infinite questions is to tell: ”You have one hour, see you at 12:45 here at the same spot where you will present your creations. And then you just disappear”.
*There are many ways to split participants into groups. One easy way is to assign each participant one number (from 1 to 5 if you want to split them into 5 groups). Then you say: Number 1 (ones) goes with other number ones. Number 2 (twoes) goes with the other number 2 etc. It is easier if they are in the circle when we decide to assign them a number. What will happen is that participants who know each other will stand together (thinking they will go in the same group) and then each of them will get a different number (from 1 to 5) because they are close to each other and we will give numbers in order 1,2,3,4,5. Like this, people who know each other will be in different groups and that is very good. They will start becoming friends with new people.