A NOTE ON TEAM BUILDING TASKS AT TIMBER TRAIL

BLIND FOLD ROPE SQUARE

Type of Activity: Team building exercise Participants: 40 equally divided in two groups Timing: 180 mins Key themes: Communication, Trust, Teamwork, OVERVIEW The activity included dividing the members of the social team into two groups of 20 each. The exercise advocates the divided teams to communicate amongst them while they cant see each others progress. The challenge of the activity is to frame a perfect square by taking equal length of the rope by laying it out on the ground. Throughout the entire activity the members of the team are blindfolded. PROCESS DESCRIPTION 1. Each of the participants is given a blindfold 2. Participants are explained that the task requires effective communication amongst themselves 3. Participants are taken to the venue where the activity is to be carried out 4. The rope was laid down on the ground silently within the reach of the participants 5. The participants were then told that the rope on the floor must be located and they had to work together to position the rope in the shape of a perfect square on the floor 6. The group was then observed by the facilitator and an independent observer. The observer intervened in case if she found that the participants were about to hurt themselves 7. The groups were given eight to ten minutes to complete the task in entirety 8. The members were then asked to remove their blindfolds and were then allowed to see the formation created by them. 9. A reflection session was carried out for the participants post the activity and each participant was given two to three minutes to share his or her experience during the course of the activity. PROGRAM OBJECTIVES The timber trail programme was built around the following objectives 1. Facilitate effective and smooth communication amongst the team members 2. Encourage team members to support each other during the course of crises 3. Reflect on oneself and openly express their thoughts and feelings 4. Explore new possibilities, set high expectations and achieve higher goals 5. Manage difficult conversations at the workplace with colleagues and parents 6. Understand how to exercise effective leadership through trust, hope and example

REFLECTIONS FROM PARTICIPANTS I was confident that I would be able to do it I followed what was told to me, I was listening to the leader instead of taking initiative There were too many leaders in the group and due to the many voices within the group I felt we were misguided and so we could not make the square Confident in the initial phase of the activity but got lost and left hopes by the end of the activity Maine sochan kar sakta hoon aur maine wahin kiya jo mujse kaha gaya I involved myself in the given task and took the task as a challenge Our team was not there from the very beginning and I believe we lost motivation right from the start INSIGHTS ON PARTICIPANTS The workshop was taken seriously by most of the participants as a majority of them were eager to learn and hungry for new ideas. 1. Many of the participants accepted the fact that they followed and listened to the instructions provided to them rather than thinking out of the box. 2. Participants could relate real life experiences and also conveyed that the refrained from taking initiatives and decision as they were not confident of the outcomes of their initiatives. 3. Participants accepted that overconfidence sometimes did not lead to right results and often lead to lack of interest after a certain period of time 4. Participants need to step out of their comfort zones and should strive for achieving more as the group strongly reflected a feeling that they were satisfied with a moderate degree of achievement. 5. People mostly accepted that there was a need for change and were not cynical or negative. CONCLUSION Participants left the programs inspired, reflective and with concrete ideas to bring about change in themselves and in their work domain. The need for change was felt by all the participants however any deep-seated radical change should start from self and not just by changing the structures and systems

LEARNING MOMENTS AT THE TIMBER TRAIL PROGRAM