I am so excited about this week's team building exercise. If you have any fond child hood memories of playing dodge ball on the playground, this exercise is for you and you can play it at work!

​
Paper Dodge Ball
Use: Ice Breaker, Afternoon Energizer, Welcome Back, New Hire Orientation
Purpose: This exercise is fun, it ss silly and it is a reminder of one the favorite childhood games. Use this an icebreaker before an event, a refresher after lunch a welcome back after a long weekend or a perfect getting to know you game. This game is meant to allow the participants to get up and use their body and well as a little bit of their mind.
Materials: This exercise requires several sheets of paper, at least one sheet of paper per person playing the game. This can be played in a conference room, an office, over a desk, a dining table a rec room, training room or living room. This game can even be played outside in good weather. Each team member will need a pen or a pencil.
Setup: It’s so simple…I mean that! See below

• On each sheet of paper write a question. Keep the questions light and fun or centered around the theme of your meeting. A few example questions are included on the next page.
• Crumple up each sheet of paper into a ball!
• Chose the venue for a game. The venue should have room for two teams and a central line like a desk, conference table, tape on the floor to separate the two teams like a “court”
• Set Up complete

Activity:

• Separate the group into 2 teams. This can be played with 4 -100 people
• Ask each team to pick a side of the “Court”
• Divide the pieces of paper equally and distribute equal halves to each team.
• Explain that each team will be playing paper dodge ball. The goal is to get most of the paper balls on the other team’s side before the round is over. Each round should last between 30 – 60 seconds. At the end of each round, the teams will open their paper balls and write down their name and the answer to the question on the paper ball.
• At the beginning of the next round, the team members ball up the paper again and start with the same rules above. Complete this cycle as many times as you like. I recommend a minimum of 7-10 rounds.
• At the end of the game, unroll the paper balls and give everyone a few minutes to read them. If you have time, allow everyone to share and discuss the answers. This info can be used as a way to connect with, appreciate or motivate team members.
• Post these in a public place for everyone to see and share for at least a week after the game. This is a great way to learn about the people you are working with in any capacity and its just fun to throw paper!

 
Conclusion
I believe I said it best above so here it is again. At the end of the game, unroll the paper balls and give everyone a few minutes to read them. If you have time, allow everyone to share and discuss the answers. This info can be used as a way to connect with, appreciate or motivate team members.
Post these in a public place for everyone to see and share for at least a week after the game. This is a great way to learn about the people you are working with in any capacity and its just fun to throw paper!

This is one of my absolute favorite exercises to do with all kinds of teams. This exercise works as a fun energizer for well functioning long standing teams and can be made very silly and fun! This exercise may also be used to identify challenge areas in communication and trust within teams. Why is this important? Why should we engage in an activity where we are trying to highlight our perceived deficiencies? When building teams, whom are there to accomplish the same goals, it is important that we pay attention to areas that are weak. These areas will keep teams from functioning well and achieving their goals. So we need to acknowledge these deficiencies so we plan and implement changes or actions to correct them and improve them. Working with a team of people is not very different from a professional sports team. Coaches and players are constantly watching past game footage, finding mistakes and creating plans and strategies to constantly improve on their past performance. We as teams, can follow suit and become the best team that we can be!!! The full instructions are available below for download. As always please leave me a comment and let me know your opinion! Have a wonderful day!

The Marshmallow Challenge is a wonderful way to begin a meeting or an announcement. It will help your team mentally prepare for the meeting ahead. The game itself is fun and a wee bit sticky! It will help the team members "break" ties with previous tasks or preoccupations they have on their mind and even helps reduce stress or anxiety they may be feeling. The actions of the game providing to focus on a fun and challenging task. At the end of this short game, they will better prepared to focus on the new information or topic at hand. The instructions are included in this post as well as in a downloadable file. Please leave me a comment and let me know what you think or better yet, what impact this game had on your team!
​

​Thank you for joining me on my Facebook Live or Linked-In to watch the first installment of 52 Weeks of Team Building. This week I discussed the importance of building a culture of "Play" within your team. Remember, a team may be the people you work with, live with, friends, volunteer groups and more. You can use these concepts with any group you interact with regularly to develop a mind set and culture of "Play". Its about taking actions to help yourself and those around you more engaged, more active, less stressed, more focused and happier.  Whether you are starting with us today or you find this post 5 months from now, I want to hear from you! Tell me how you used the Declaration of "PLAY" and what were your results! If you have questions leave me a comment or feel free to email me at [email protected]
Like us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/creativelearningsociety

The File for The Declaration of Play is Below. Please Click the File to view and save.

Thank you
Beth Ackerman-Ornelas
Chief Creative Officer