This weeks team building exercise has a very special place in my heart because it helps you tie in customer service. If a business wants to be successful it needs to help their teams become successful with customers. In today's world where everyone wants it bigger, faster and better; our customers have access to a virtual 31 flavors of providing customer reviews and feedback. You cant move two clicks without seeing a customer review. Smart companies will make time to focus on how their employees are performing in customer relations and will invest in the learning and support their teams need to succeed. This weeks exercise, emphasizes the need for our teams to explain themselves when communicating with customers. Our customers need to know the how, who, what, why , when and where. We are the experts in our fields and we know why we are asking "the questions" but our customers do not. It is an easy skill to forget as we are all weighed down with more work and more deadlines, but a simple reminder of how uncomfortable a poor exchange between a company representative and a customer can be when things are not explained may be all your teams needs to jump start their engines. Please enjoy this weeks team builder!

​Are you talking to me?
Purpose: Demonstrate the importance of explaining the who, when, where, why and what of a process when working with a customer. This exercise also builds team awareness of how they can support their team in customer service interactions.
Materials:

• Paper and Pens
• Instructions Sheets
• Various items mentioned in the instruction sheets
• Small slips of paper with A, B and C written on them and a fishbowl or hat to draw the papers from

Activity:

• Using the fishbowl and slips of paper allow the team members to blindly select their roll. The fishbowl should have one slip of paper for every participant. If you have 15 participants, you will have 5 slips of paper with A, 5 slips of paper with B and 5 slips of paper with C. If you do not have an even number of participants, you may choose to reduce the groups to 2 people or assign 4 people to a couple of teams (this fourth person should be a C) .  Once all assignments are selected ask the participants to form groups with one A, one B and one C.
• Hand out a blank piece of paper and pen to all C members and Hand out one Instruction sheet to all A members.
• Explain to the group:
  • C members will observe and take notes for their group. They are not allowed to speak to or intervene in the activity.
  • B members are a “customer” in the scenario
  • A members are to follow the instructions on their papers
• Without further instruction ask A members if they are ready to begin. Once they all respond yes, begin the activity. You may pull them aside to answer any questions they have (do not let B and C members hear). You may choose to set a time limit of 5-10 minutes on the activity
• Make notes of your observations and take photos during the activity.
• At the end of the activity spend a few minutes in debrief.
  • Address each group and ask them to share their reactions to the activity
    • How did you feel during the activity?
    • Were there any points during the activity where you felt frustrated?
    • Was this a good customer service interaction? Why or Why not? What would you do differently?
    • To group C – Describe your observations, What was the most difficult part of being on the sideline? How could you have jumped in to assist?
• If desired you may repeat the activity in one of two ways
  • A – repeat the activity allowing the A members to explain their actions as they are doing them and answer questions from the B “customer” members and allow C members to jump in and assist if needed
  • B – switch the roles in the group and give B members a chance to run through the activity. This can be repeated for group C. ( I suggest switching scenarios between each round)
  • Debrief again!

 
Conclusion
The key component the participants should take away from this exercise is the importance of explaining your actions with a customer. When a customer is well informed they are more likely to respond positively because they understand the reasons for your actions or questions. It is also a great way to build trust in the customer relationship and that goes a long way when looking to strengthen the likelihood of return business.

I am so excited about the One Minute Obstacle Course! This is a challenge I would love to participate in. This is just the right kind of silly fun to facilitate real team learning! Ready-Set-Go!


The One Minute Obstacle Course
Purpose: Develops a team’s ability to rely on each other, without outside resources, to succeed and or complete a challenge. This is a great challenge to bolster trust, communication, problem solving and listening skills and simulate working under pressure or deadlines
Materials:

• Random Items to create an obstacle course or maze
• Awards for teams that complete the challenge successfully
• Poster Board or Flipchart paper and markers

Setup:

• Find an area that can be used by the team as an obstacle course or maze. A few examples are included at the end of the instructions
• Invite your team to the challenge and ask them to bring comfortable shoes. Safety comes first!

Activity:

• Divide everyone into teams. The teams can be as small as 2 people per team up to 5 people per team.
• Collect all watches, phones, clocks etc from your team or that are present in the room. You do now want the participants to have the ability to “time” the activity.
• Inform the team that their goal is to complete the obstacle course/ maze as a whole team in one minute. A team will be deemed a winner when they complete the course in exactly one minute only. Times that are less than one minute or more than one minute are considered losses.
• Give the team’s 5-7 minutes to strategize.
• Next…you may permit up to three test runs in the course per team. Do not exceed three test runs as the teams will get to play multiple times in the game.
• Start the game, run one team through the course at a time. Either you or another designated person (who is not on a team) will be keeping records of their time. You may allow the teams to attempt the course multiple times taking turns with the other teams. I recommend a minimum of three and a maximum of 6 runs. Between each run, allow the teams to re-strategize. At the end of each run, give the team’s their current time. You can always use a poster or flip chart to post the times for everyone to see.
• At the end of the course runs, review the times and select the winning teams based on who came the closest to one minute.

 
Conclusion / Debrief
To conclude the activity. Announce the winners and if you chose, have a metal ceremony like the Olympics! Stores such as Party City have these metals and small award statues for purchase at a very economical price. After the awards are given out, ask the teams a few questions to help them cement what they learned from the activity.

1. What was the most challenging aspect of the game? How did you overcome it?
2. What is one thing that happened that surprised you? How did you react?
3. What would you do differently next time?
4. How did your team make decisions on the strategies used?
5. What was the most difficult part of working with your team? Were you able to overcome it and how?
6. How much importance did your team place on watching the other teams and learning from them?

Obstacle Course
Typical courses involve obstacles the participants must climb over, crawl under, balance, hang, jump, etc. Puddles of muddy water, ropes/nets, and "no touch" restrictions are often used to make the course more difficult. Items you can use in an Obstacle Course
1.Hoola Hoops
2.Pool Noodles
3.Paper Plates
4.Balloons
5.Chairs
6.Stackle Blocks or cups
7.Ropes
8.Laundry Baskets from the dollar store
9.A Pinata
10.Small orange cones
11.Spoons and hard boiled eggs
12.A kids golf set
13.Trash Can Basketball
14.Sand or Water Pails – to carry or fill another object
15. Dominos
16.Bouncy Balls
17.Toilet Paper Toss
18.Nerf Dart Board
19.Pool Floats (big funny ones to make someone wear to increase difficulty)
20. Frisbees
 

​Are you looking for a super quick and super easy way to do some team building that wont feel like forced fun? This activity is the answer to your team building dreams! Well not really, but it's close. This activity is made for the long hall. Its something you can use all year long and actually allow team members to engage in at their own pace...no more "Forced Fun"! Best of all, this is a great activity for REMOTE teams. It encourages engagement and can help build relationships without the need to set aside time for a meeting or separate activity. It's a break room, roll at your own pace activity!
Prompt and Circumstance -  is a journal activity. You start the journal with a prompt and let everyone contribute. Each week you add a new prompt and perhaps even let your team members add a prompt. As the weeks go by, your team will open up and hopefully share some laughs. You can even try photo prompts for a "Caption This" or a What's the story"
Check out the attachment below for instructions.

Get outside and go on a Bear Hunt with your Team!!!
This activity is so much fun and it gets you and your team physically "out of the box". This is a great energizer and can help improve their interpersonal skills and reliability of the team members. Give this a try on a Good Weather Day and you and your team will thoroughly enjoy!

​Use: Ice Breaker, Afternoon Energizer, Team communication, Team Reliability
Purpose: This is an outdoor exercise that can be used as an energizer or as a tool to improve team communications and influence teams to begin relying on each other rather than the leader for support and direction.
Materials:

• Version #1 - 12 print outs of the “bear”. The PDF is included in this document. A group of people between 2-50 people. Writing pad to document the location of the hidden clues, rewards such as gift cards, get out of jail free cards (return 10 min late from lunch or arrive 10 min late to work), chocolate etc…
• Version #2 - 12 print outs of the “bear”. The PDF is included in this document. A group of people between 2-50 people. Print out of the Clues for each team, rewards such as gift cards, get out of jail free cards (return 10 min late from lunch or arrive 10 min late to work), chocolate etc…

Setup:
Version #1

• Print and cut out the 12 bears. Number the bears 1-12
• Find a location like a park or town center for the event
• The day of….Hide the 12 bears around the chosen location and make a note of where each bear is hidden.

Activity:

• Remind the team to bring their phones
• When the team arrives separate the group into teams of 2-3 people. Tell them they are going on a Bear Hunt. Show them a sample of one of the Bear Cards and then instruct them to find each of the 12 cards that you have hidden, When they find a card, they take a picture of the card and move to the next one.
• Give them 30-35 minutes to complete the task
• You may give them 2-3 lifelines, which they can use to text you or the other teams to get help finding one of the bears. I recommend having the teams reach out to another team before they attempt to use a lifeline on you. It is an honors system
• At the end of the 35 minutes all teams need to be back at the starting line. Each team that successfully completes the challenge will win a prize of your choosing.

Setup:
Version #2

• Print and cut out the 12 bears. Each team gets 2 bears
• Find a location like a park or town center for the event
• The day before or the da of find 12 spots where you want the bear card photographed. Make a note of where each bear is hidden and turn those notes into clues. Prepare a one-page document with all 12 clues. Print enough, one for each team.

Activity:

• Remind the team to bring their phones
• When the team arrives separate the group into teams of 2-3 people. Tell them they are going on a Bear Hunt. Give each team 2 bear cards and instruct them to write a team name on each card.
• Tell the teams their objective is to find the correct location using the clue sheet provided and photograph their “Bear” in that location.
• Pass out the clues – always do this after the instruction to keep everyone’s attention
• Give them 30-35 minutes to complete the task
• You may give them 2-3 lifelines, which they can use to text you or the other teams to get help finding one of the locations. I recommend having the teams reach out to another team before they attempt to use a lifeline on you. It is an honors system
• At the end of the 35 minutes all teams need to be back at the starting line. Each team that successfully completes the challenge will win a prize of your choosing.

 
Conclusion
This quick and fun exercise will be the ultimate refresher on a good day. There is no need to officially debrief the group. But make note of any observations you have about how well they worked together when they needed a lifeline. Ask a few questions to guage how much interaction the teams had with each other. Praise when needed and offer positive redirection or ask for suggestions from the team for how they could improve the next time they play.

• Ask the teams if the reached out to each other before reaching out to you?
• Ask them if they found the other team’s advice helpful?
• Were any of the teams proud of the fact that they did not contact you?

 
 

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 beth@creativelearningsociety.com
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

​Crock Pot Chocolate Peanut Clusters (simplyhappyfoodie.com)

I don't know about you but I love my Crock Pot! They are magical little devices where I can dump many ingredients...walk away and BAM! I get a meal. They are so magical that my friend's Husband calls her Crock Pot Witch Majic! I hope you enjoy this recipe. It is crazy easy and something that can easily be done with the family over the holidays. Maybe even make a tasty treat or gift for someone you appreciate.

Ingredients
2 lbs White Melting Chocolate (White Almond Bark or Candy Coating) 
4 oz Sweet Baking Chocolate (such as German by Baker's)
2 cups Semi Sweet Chocolate Chips
16 oz Salted Dry Roasted Peanuts
8 oz Unsalted Dry Roasted Peanuts
8 oz Cocktail Peanuts
Instructions
1. Line your kitchen counter with parchment, or 3 baking sheets with parchment (this recipe makes a lot!).
2. In a 5 qt or larger slow cooker, add the white melting chocolate, sweet baking chocolate, and semi sweet chocolate chips. Put the lid on and set to LOW for 1-2 hours, stirring occasionally (you will want to check it to make sure it is not burning). 
3. When the chocolates are all soft and melted enough, stir to combine them. 
4. Add all of the nuts to the crock pot and stir them in well. Put the lid on and switch to Warm, or turn off the slow cooker (but leave the crock in the housing to stay warm). 
5. Use an ice cream scoop or a Tablespoon, depending on how large you want your peanut clusters, to scoop small mounds onto the parchment paper. After you have used all of the mixture, Rinse your crock with hot water. 
6. The candies will take about an hour to really set. When they are set, transfer to an air tight container. These keep well for a week or so, and are wonderful to give as gifts! 

​The Best Ever Microwave Peanut Brittle 
The holidays and winter always have m running for the sticky sweet treats and peanut brittle is one of my all-time favorites! This recipe comes from Julie's Treats and is as tasty as it is easy to make. I hope you enjoy making this for you and your family!

Ingredients
1 c sugar
1/2 c. corn syrup
1/8 tsp salt
1 1/2 c. unsalted peanuts
1 Tbsp butter
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp baking soda

Instructions
Combine sugar, syrup and salt in a microwave safe bowl. Microwave for 5 minutes on high. Stir in peanuts. Microwave 3 to 5 more minutes, stirring after 3 minutes. Microwave until syrup and peanuts are light brown. Stir in butter, vanilla and baking soda until light and foamy. Spread on buttered cookie sheet. Cool and break.