Looking for a quick and simple team building activity to do with a large group? Look no further than Discover Your Team for a challenge that affords your group the opportunity to practice problem solving, cooperation and building (silent!) communication skills.
Time Needed: 10-15 minutes
Group Size: 10 or more (Ideal for large groups!)
Materials: Colored dot (or other unique) stickers. (Participants will need to be able to group themselves based on their stickers — determined by overall group size, have 3-4 groups of the same stickers.)
Directions: In your own words, say “One of the most compelling things about many superhero stories is their quest to identify who is with them and who is against them. Often the villains can even trick the heroes into thinking that they are on the good side. In this activity, we are all going to get to experience what it is like to figure out who is on your team… and who isn’t!” [If you don’t want to use a superhero theme, feel free to change this to fit the needs of your group!]
Have the group stand in a line. Then place 1 sticker dot on each person’s back, making sure that they don’t see what color their sticker is. Once everybody has a sticker (including the facilitators), explain to the group that from this point on nobody is allowed to talk.
Share that when you say “go” their task is to find and stand together with everybody who has the same color sticker that they do. Remind them that they can’t talk and they can’t attempt to see their own sticker! Once they think that they have formed their complete team, they should all raise their hands for you to check.
Tell them to begin. Make sure to participate in the activity, but also remind them that there is no talking if needed. Once a group raises their hands, check to see if they all have the same sticker and that nobody else in the room has that particular sticker. If they are successful, tell them so and ask them to remain silently standing together until the rest of the group finishes. If they are not correct, tell them to keep trying (but don’t reveal what the error is).
Once all the teams are successfully formed, ask the group to give themselves a round of applause and to then form a circle so that you can talk about what just happened.
Debrief Questions:
- How did the group communicate nonverbally to complete the task?
- What are some ways that we communicate without words in our day-to-day lives? (Looking for responses such as body language, tone, eye contact, etc.)
- Why is it important that we pay attention to nonverbal communication when working with others?
- How well did you work as a team to complete the task?
- What would you do differently next time?