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The Communication Puzzle

Communication is a challenge for most organisations. This activity explores the nuances of how we communicate, with memorable experiences to improve interaction going forward.

Activities

Phase 1 – The Search
In twos with one partner blindfolded, pairs must search for and recover two sealed envelopes, ideally hidden outside the meeting room. This highlights the impact of tone and clarity in one to one verbal communication.

Phase 2 – Blind Discussion
Having found their envelopes, pairs return to the main room and sit in groups. Before opening their envelopes all except one ‘seer’ put on blindfolds. Envelopes are then opened revealing jigsaw pieces of different sizes and colours. A 15 minute countdown begins, during which time the puzzle pieces must be accurately sorted into sizes and colour. The seer may only answer questions by saying yes or no, blindfolds can’t be removed without the seer’s agreement. This session mimics a typical meeting in which information is distributed amongst those present. Only when this information is effectively shared can the group reach a shared solution.

Phase 3 – Puzzle Assembly
The puzzle pieces are once again shared evenly amongst the team, this time with one colour per person. New, larger groups then form based on the colour of their puzzle pieces. Around tables these groups assemble their puzzle in the shape of a ring. Taking care to establish the correct sequence to spell out communication related words and phrases written across their puzzle pieces. For example: “Listen to understand, not to reply” “Good words are worth much and cost little” “Beware of assumption, clarify”

Phase 4 – Final Assembly
Once each coloured ring is complete, the final task is to find a way to assemble the rings together to make the large target.

Key Points

  • Suits groups from 20 to 100 +
  • Indoor or outdoor options
  • We can source suitable venues on your behalf
  • Teams work together to attain success
  • Overcomes office hierarchies as natural skills come to the fore

Sample Format

The Communication Puzzle can be especially effective when included within the agenda of a conference, either as a 1 to 2 hour team building activity or as a series of 15 minute energisers spread throughout the programme.

Olympic Challenge

With the 2016 Olympics in mind, we’ve created a programme of Olympic inspired team games. The games are varied allowing all participants to engage, drawing on strengths and abilities they might not have previously bought to the group.

Whether you’re looking for a team ‘away day’ or conference ‘break out’ sessions we can modify the format to suit you.

Key Points

  • Suits groups from 20 to 100 +
  • Indoor or outdoor options
  • We can source suitable venues on your behalf, including the London Olympic Park
  • Teams work together to attain success
  • Overcomes office hierarchies as natural skills come to the fore

Activities:

Depending on the amount of time you have available, we can build the event to include some or all of the activities below:

  • Olympic Team Tasks
  • Pentathlon Play
  • Daring Decathlon
  • Archery
  • Giant Volley Ball
  • Fencing
  • Dodgeball
  • Sumo Wrestling
  • Putting simulation
  • Laser Clay Shooting
  • Cycling
  • Climbing

We can adapt the level of ‘sportiness’ depending on the ages and abilities of your team. The themed team tasks enable us to provide mental as well as physical challenges.
The event concludes with an awards ceremony – this can be fun and light hearted, but equally can be used as a platform to encourage deeper discussion.

Sample Format

Arrivals to coffee, tea and fresh juices.

Welcome briefing, group split into teams, each team then spends time at each of the chosen Olympic zones, competing against other teams for the coveted ‘gold’ medal status.

Medal Giving Ceremony – scores across all the zones are added up, to find the ultimate winning team. Parallels can be drawn between the effectiveness of the winning team, and what can be taken back into the workplace to enhance the business.

Treasure Hunts – Countrywide Locations

We’ve written and run Treasure Hunts in Portugal on Segways, Somerset in Helicopters, and York on foot. There’s more to this than solving clues and finding treasure.

Our challenges are designed to allow team members to play to their strengths, solving challenges, gathering information, capturing photographs, acquiring souvenirs and working together to win the most points. Challenges can be themed to suit the location or the audience, we even have an extreme version for more daring teams.

Key Points

  • Designed to suit analytical, creative and extrovert characters alike
  • Bonds people from across the organisation
  • Tailored to suit the participant group, highbrow or high energy
  • Highly competitive
  • A great way to explore a new location
  • Suits all budgets with on foot routes from £35 per person*

*Min 50 participants

Activities

Our Treasure Hunts vary depending on the group size and if there is any theming but to give an idea of what is included please see the list below:

  • Find and solve clues
  • Photographic challenges including the whole team in defined poses and locations
  • Match pictures to places
  • Hunt for and collect specific souvenirs
  • Solve bonus puzzles and conundrums

Sample Format

This event can be run all year round and at any time of day. A suggested sample format is below.

14.00 – Briefing
Event manager briefs teams and hands out briefing packs, cameras or iPads.

14.15 – Start Hunting
Teams race in different directions to their first clue.

16.30 – Scores Given
Deadline to reach the finish location, where the event manager greets each team and scores their efforts.

16.45 – Winners celebrate, others commiserate

Adrenaline Activities

Our Adrenaline Activities are adaptable to your group, timescale and location. We will create a programme to fit your needs for half, full-day or more.

All of our kit is mobile and most of the activities can be run at outdoor venues all over the country. The day offers the chance to try new things, get to know each other, discover hidden talents and have fun together. See the list below, or call us to find out how we can help you put on a great day.

The activities can be competitive or informal – as part of a celebration with a picnic or barbecue – or run as a series of team challenges with a winning team (and prizes for outstanding contributions!) at the end of the day.

Key Points

  • Powerful reward.
  • Appeals to all ages and fitness levels.
  • Suits groups from 20 to 200.
  • Can be sited in hotel grounds, farms or parks.
  • Guaranteed to unlock laughter and make memories.

Activities

  • Human table football
  • Radio-controlled drones
  • Quad bikes
  • Off-road driving
  • Blindfolded driving
  • Segway riding
  • Finesse driving
  • Archery & crossbow target shooting
  • Clay pigeon shooting
  • Rock climbing and abseiling
  • Falconry
  • Assault course
  • It’s a Knockout Challenges
  • Giant Scalextric

Body Percussion / Beats Working

Get out of the office and into the groove with a high-energy drum or music workshop.

Our coaches will boost the confidence and creativity of your team and get everyone working together to produce an original piece of music within a tight timeframe. Sessions can be themed using African drums, rainbow boomwhackers or a samba fiesta. A great buzz is created from the final performance which demonstrates the power of the large group working together.

This event can literally be run anywhere, indoors or outdoors, and is a great and subtle way of getting large teams to work together and achieve a shared sense of success. It can also be tailored to your theme or outcomes.

Key Points

  • Injects energy into a meeting or conference
  • Encourages movement, thereby circulating blood to the brain to aid concentration
  • Demonstrates the power of people working together
  • Instils a sense of excitement
  • Boosts confidence
  • Led by former performers from ‘Stomp’ the musical

Activities

  • Demonstration and tuition
  • Scavenging for items which can become instruments
  • Composition and performance

Sample Format

From a private workshop to a conference for hundreds of people, our body percussion event can be run in many different ways or included in one of our full-day team building programmes. To give you an idea of what is included please see our sample format below:

9.00 – Welcome
Conference hosts welcomes delegates and introduces our Body Percussionist.

9.15 – Intro Performance
Body Percussionist performs a musical piece without instruments!

9.20 – Demonstration and Tuition
Delegates are introduced to a series of hand claps, foot stamps and more.

9.30 – Performance
Led by our Body Percussionist the room is divided into sections, each section stamps or taps a different rhythm conducted from the front to create a thunderous symphony.

9.45 – Your conference begins.

This activity can be reduced to as little as 15 minute or extended to fill a half day.

Market Mayhem

London is a city built on trade, from the artists selling their work in Camden to the foreign exchange traders in the City. In this game teams must scour London’s markets, buying and selling, for maximum profit.

Each team starts with a £100 budget, a shopping list and a case containing a series of apparently random items. Within four hours* they must buy the items on their shopping list, sell the contents of their case and return to the start with a cash profit.
*Times can be varied to suit the client’s agenda

Key Points

  • Highly Competitive
  • Group size from 6 to 60
  • Negotiation, teamwork, planning and prioritising skills are brought to the fore
  • Designed to suit analytical, creative and extrovert characters alike
  • Bonds people from across the organisation
  • Great for visitors to London
  • Excellent for a morning team-building session

Activities

Activities include:

  • Creative problem solving
  • Research into items for sale
  • Negotiation and bargaining skills
  • Finding the best items, prices, and travel routes

Sample Format

This event can be run throughout the year and works particularly well as a morning event.
09.00 – Meet for a briefing and to collect items and shopping lists. Teams plan strategies and start research
09.30 – Teams race off to the markets to catch the early bargains
11.15 – Mid-morning coffee and snacks at Borough market
12.45 – Teams return to pre-arranged venue to add up their takings, display their wares and declare the winners!

The Catapult Conundrum

Teamwork is the name of the game in this collaborative construction task.

A combination of brainpower, budgeting and negotiation skills will be needed to acquire the pieces to build a catapult, which has both firepower and accuracy. The task requires planning, clear communication, and leadership. Finally, collaboration determines success.

Key Points

  • Combines construction with mental agility
  • Powerfully illustrates that even in competition we should be willing to collaborate
  • A metaphor for selecting the right targets
  • Can be run indoors or outside
  • Highlights the importance of shared goal

Activities

Catapult Conundrum is so much more than a team construction exercise, it can illustrate complex concepts such as Game Theory.

  • Problem solving both mental and practical
  • Resourceful use of talents and budget
  • Hands on construction of a real catapult
  • Testing and refining
  • Balancing risk and reward
  • Group discussion and agreement to establish the team’s firing strategy

Sample Format

This event can be run as part of a full-day programme, as a stand alone event, or incorporated into your away-day or conference. To give you an idea of how it runs please see our timings below:

14.00 – Briefing
Event manager briefs teams and hands out conundrums along with a bag of gold coins to each team.

14.15 – Solving Clues and Making Decisions
Teams attempt conundrums and decide how to use their budget.

14.30 – Collate Components
Catapult components are acquired with gold coins or correct conundrum solutions.

14.45 – Building Starts
Teams begin to build their catapults

15.15 – Testing!
Test firing takes place (in accordance with safety procedures).

15.30 – Prepare to Fire
Teams are arranged around the target area, with higher scoring targets furthest away.

15.40 – Fire!
All teams fire simultaneously, where two or more teams hit the same target neither scores. Teams repeatedly fire simultaneously with scores awarded after each round.

16.00 – Calculate Scores
Final scores are calculated while teams review their performance.

16.15 – Winners celebrate!

Team Tasks

A highly flexible event which will test and improve your team’s logical, creative, physical and artistic abilities using these fun and diverse tasks.

Planning and communication will be key to success, drawing out team strengths with plenty of laughter.

Time is optimised with teams rotating between activities to complete selected challenges against the clock. Between each task teams can be shuffled so that during the course of the programme each participant works with every other participant.

Key Points

  • High energy
  • Focused on specific team skills such as trust, communication, planning and goal setting
  • Suits groups from 6 to 600
  • Instant set-up and pack down
  • Requires a conventional meeting room or outdoor space
  • Highlights individuals’ strengths
  • Reinforces the value of team working
  • Highly adaptable, can fill 15 minutes through to a whole day

Activities

We have several hundred team tasks available, each designed to demonstrate a different aspect of team work. Some exercises will generate robust discussion while others are very light-hearted.

  • Problem solving
  • Forecasting
  • Creative thinking
  • Communication
  • Building trust
  • Leading and following
  • Handling risk
  • Reviewing performance

Sample Format

This event can be run at any time of day, all year round. Ideally we require a cabaret layout meeting room with additional floor space; although we have led Team Tasks in boardrooms, atriums, theatres and car parks!

Tasks can be as little as 15 minutes through to an hour. Typically we start with light hearted icebreakers and increase the level of challenge as time goes on, for example:

09.00 – Common Ground
This fast paced discussion exercise requires teams to identify a number of things that they have in common, within just 2 minutes. For example: all have blue eyes, all own an ABBA record, have all been to France.

09.30 – Balloon Tower
A challenge for small teams in which they must build the tallest possible, free-standing tower from a selection of balloons and a roll of Sellotape.

10.00 – Blocks Away
Starting with a handful of blocks each, participants are given details of the scores they can achieve by building towers of certain heights, before being asked to give estimates of their building capabilities. We then examine performance against targets and discuss what factors affect goal-setting and achievement in teams.

10.45 – Pyramid Challenge
This Team Task relies on communication and co-operation to operate a lever and pulley system, from up to eight separate control points, to achieve the team’s objective. An indoor or outdoor task which takes the team from frustration to elation.

11.30 – Lego Arch
Teams of 5 must build a floor-standing arch large enough to enable two team members to pass underneath. The task begins with a thirty minute planning phase during which the teams can refine their design and calculate their expected costs. Having submitted their estimated profit based on the number of bricks used and time spent building, the timed construction phase begins. On completion, profitability is compared and estimates and discrepancies discussed. Finally, each structure is put to the test as two members of each team attempt to crawl, slide or be dragged under their team’s arch.

12.15 – Group Juggling
This team exercise begins with small groups and just one bean bag per person, building to a point where the whole team form a circle, simultaneously juggling two bean bags each. Co-ordination, support and pin sharp timing are required to succeed at this challenge. It may take a little while but when it goes right the feelings of achievement are unforgettable.

12.30 – Letters Home
To conclude, we carry out an informal review based on a letter home. Each participant is given a template sheet which prompts them to answer questions such as:

“What contribution to this afternoon are you most proud of?”
“What do I regret doing/saying or not doing/saying?”
“In future I’d like to be more …….”
“I’d like to stop ………. and start ………”

These sheets are then sealed in envelopes and sent, one month later, to the participant’s home address to remind them of some of the day’s key learning points thus reinforcing the lessons learnt.

The Toy Factory

Play is at the heart of our business and for the young it’s a gateway to learning.

Children learn as they play.
Most importantly, in play children learn how to learn.
O. Fred Donaldson

We developed the Toy Factory to build teams and give something back in the process. Teams are tasked with creating a handmade wooden toy. Which, if finished to a high standard can be donated to a needy child through one of our partner charities.

Key Points

  • Encourages small teams to produce something exceptional
  • Is a practical way to demonstrate corporate social responsibility
  • Suits groups from 6 to 600
  • No specialist woodworking skills required
  • Less than an hour required to set up in a conventional meeting room
  • Creates a climate for significant conversations amongst participants

Activities

The Toy Factory allows participants to select a role that appeals to their natural talents, whether that be practical, artistic or creative.

  • Cutting out and sanding components
  • Gluing and painting components
  • Final assembly
  • Organising resources to meet production needs
  • Team decision making
  • Design and painting the finished toy

Partner Charities

Shelter, Rainbow Trust, SOS Childrens’ Homes

Sample Format

This event can be run at any time of day, all year round. We simply require a cabaret layout meeting room and some time to cover the tables in dust sheets. The activity can fit inside a 2 hour time slot but 3 hours is optimal.

14.00 – Introduction
Introduction and presentation on the value of play, with video from a benefitting charity if appropriate.

14.15 – Toy Kit Selection
Teams select their toy kit, cut out and sand components.

14.45 – Sub-Assembly
Sanded components are glued to make sub-assemblies.

15.15 – Undercoat and Sanding
Sub-assemblies are undercoated, then lightly sanded when dry.

15.45 – Finish Painting
Top coat is applied and varnished.

16.15 – Final Assembly
Final assembly of toys.

16.30 – Presentation
Toys are presented to charity representative.

Lights, Camera, Action!

A lively challenge that requires the team to think and work creatively within a short period of time, before presenting their results for all to see.

Teams can produce a short film either about their organisation or as an advert for a new product or for an entirely fictional device or brand.

Key Points

  • Demonstrates the creative power of teams
  • A highly effective way to help teams embrace change
  • The finished films can be used after the event
  • Suits groups from 6 to 600
  • Can work in any location, worldwide
  • Highlights individuals’ talents

Light, Camera, Action! Team Building Activities

This film-making team building activity enables participants to play to their strengths; in front of or behind the camera, editing or script writing.

  • Creative thinking
  • Considering how to convey a message
  • Sourcing locations and props
  • Script writing
  • Planning the shoot using storyboards
  • Filming and editing
  • Acting and performing
  • Managing, time, talent and resources

Sample Format

This event can be run at any time of day, all year round. We simply require a briefing area and spaces where teams can work on their storyboard, plan, film and edit. We use iPads so there’s no need for cumbersome cameras and edit suites. The activity can fit inside a 2 hour time slot but 3 hours is optimal.

14.00 – Introduction and sample films

14.10 – Briefing
Teams are briefed on the subject and duration of their film.

14.20 – Planning
Teams begin by considering their primary message. This should generate the script and storyboard.

15.00 – Filming
With their iPad and props, teams visit various filming locations to record their scenes.

15.30 – Editing
Editing and adding music, captions and special effects.

16.00 – Break
Teams take a break while their films are cued for playback.

16.15 – Film Show
Each team introduces and shows their film.

16.45 – Winners Chosen
Scoring and presentation of prizes/Oscars.

17.00 – Close

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