A very simple exercise
to set up, Don’t Touch Me! will challenge the team to think outside the box and challenge the actual
and implied rules. If you want your group
to discover the value of creativity and imposing their own
limitations in the form of implied rules, this is a great
game to use.
Warning: this event can lead to major paradigm shift. Once a team discovers the self-imposed rules they will begin to see the solutions.
A glimpse of Don't Touch Me:
The group gathers in a circle around the Don't Touch Me! Pad. Each person picks a partner across the circle. Without touching anyone, each person must touch the pad and switch positions with their partner. (The touching rule was discarded for the picture due to the large group in the picture).
This event has now been accomplished in under one (1) second. This is due to intense out-of-the-box critical thinking and problem solving. Most groups can get under 10 seconds with some work.
Communication:
Communication is key to solving this event because of the need to assess many potential solutions. Frequently, good ideas are discarded because of the way it was communicated.
Also, it becomes clear that some individuals tend to control the communication. Discussing why this is so, whether it benefits the team and how it impacts the group is an important dialogue to have after the event is over.
Just as some individuals tend to control the conversation and communication, others get ignored. As their ideas are presented, no one even acknowledges they have spoken. This is very common in groups and teams and this is a great way to talk about what is happening and how it affects the team. Using this event as a safe space to discuss this, the team can decide how it can change at work to not produce the same behavior.
Problem Solving and Critical Thinking:
In this event, these are almost one in the same. Participants will be required to put on their thinking caps to come up with new solutions to a simple task. What makes this very interesting is that the group is solving a way to make the task more efficient, not to accomplish it.
This is frequently required at work, but many times it is difficult for both groups and individuals to see alternative solutions.
Interesting things that happen:
Part of the communication involves the facilitator as the group will continually ask the facilitator for more direction. As the group gets no additional information from the facilitator, they will begin to understand that thinking outside-the-box will be necessary to get them to their goal.
This brings up an interesting point about unwritten rules. An interesting point of discussion revolves around what other unwritten rules are inhibiting the group and their work.
Do not let the low cost of this exercise fool you, this is a POWERFUL exercise. Be sure to allow as much time as possible for the team to debrief the event. Many groups will need to establish new groundrules moving forward.
Whether inside or outside,
be sure to have enough room for the group to try different
ideas, but be careful not to let them try something dangerous.
Groups frequently become very creative and will try things
they normally would not.
Listen
to an impromptu audio clip describing the benefits of the
Don't Touch Me team building activity...
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an event, please do contact us at 800-513-8759.
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