Acid River Exercise

Objectives:

• To emphasize the responsibility in teamwork and the connections everyone plays in
  accomplishing the group’s goals.
• To allow for observation of team interaction while exploring problem solving,
  communication skills, cooperation, planning, roles and expectations.

Group Size:
Groups of 12-24

Materials:
Carpet Squares (1 tile for every 2 people)
4 lengths of rope

Instructions:

1. Divide space into 3 sections of river (you can do two sections, and reuse one). Make
   the river wide enough to be a challenge for the group to get from one side to the other
   (look at about 15 – 25 ft.) Mark the river with rope.
2. Distribute the carpet squares – 1 tile for every 2 people.
3. Explain to the group that the river is acid and will eat up everything that touches it,
   except for the magic tiles. However, the magic tiles must be touched at all times
   they are in the river. If the tile is not touched, no matter for how brief of a moment,
   it is lost, swept away in the current.
4. Everyone must get over to the other side of the river. If using two sections of river,
   no one can cross the next branch of the river until everyone is over the previous
   branch. If any one touches the river, or falls (a foot half on the tile and touching
   river, hands in, whatever), everyone must go back and start again.
5. No scooting or sliding on the squares. This can be a safety issue and it emphasizes
   individual work versus teamwork.
6. Once the group has started the process, your role is to take carpet squares that are
   “swept away by the current” and to watch for safety issues.
7. The facilitator can take away (or give) carpet squares arbitrarily.

Processing Questions or Debriefing Questions:

Instruct participants to speak from their own experience.

1. What happened during the process? What worked? What didn’t or what hindered the
   process?
2. Was leadership demonstrated during the process? How so? What did you observe?
3. What were the individual roles people played? Were members comfortable with their
   roles?
4. Who knew what the process for crossing was? Who didn’t? How did you
   communicate the plans to group members?
5. What might the different aspects of the exercise represent in your organization: the
   carpet squares, the river, the loss of tiles, the facilitator, etc?

Variations:

1. The tiles can only go forward. They cannot move backwards.
2. No one can finish until everyone has left the “bank” of the river.
3. You can choose to add challenges like muting individuals, using only 1 arm, eyes
   closed/blindfolded, no one can talk.
4. You can give them an object that they need to carry with them to safety and discuss
   what that might represent.You can create situations for them to draw from that are connected directly to theirorganization; e.g. their budget has been cut - lose ½ of their tiles, your last three meetings have been unproductive and full of inside jokes - lose 1 person, you’ve just come back from a retreat where you set goals for the year and did teambuilding with the group members - add a tile.

Fun exercise. Visit http://dsa.csupomona.edu for more team building games.

Helium Stick

This is one of the most popular team building games that you can use to explore the value of trust and team work in the workplace. The complete instruction is taken from wilderdom.com.

Helium Stick

• Deceptively simple but powerful exercise for learning how to work together and communicate in small to medium sized groups.
• Line up in two rows which face each other.
• Introduce the Helium Stick- a long, thin, lightweight rod.
• Ask participants to point their index fingers and hold their arms out.
• Lay the Helium Stick down on their fingers. Get the group to adjust their finger heights until the Helium Stick is horizontal and everyone's index fingers are touching the stick.
• Explain that the challenge is to lower the Helium Stick to the ground. The catch: Each person's fingers must be in contact with the Helium Stick at all times. Pinching or grabbing the pole in not allowed - it must rest on top of fingers.
• Reiterate to the group that if anyone's finger is caught not touching the Helium Stick, the task will be restarted. Let the task begin....
• Warning: Particularly in the early stages, the Helium Stick has a habit of mysteriously 'floating' up rather than coming down, causing much laughter. A bit of clever humoring can help - e.g., act surprised and ask what are they doing raising the Helium Stick instead of lowering it! For added drama, jump up and pull it down!
• Participants may be confused initially about the paradoxical behavior of the Helium Stick.
• Some groups or individuals (most often larger size groups) after 5 to 10 minutes of trying may be inclined to give up, believing it not to be possible or that it is too hard.
  The facilitator can offer direct suggestions or suggest the group stops the task, discusses their strategy, and then has another go.
• Less often, a group may appear to be succeeding too fast. In response, be particularly vigilant about fingers not touching the pole. Also make sure participants lower the pole all the way onto the ground. You can add further difficulty by adding a large washer to each end of the stick and explain that the washers should not fall off during the exercise, otherwise it's a restart.
• Eventually the group needs to calm down, concentrate, and very slowly, patiently lower the Helium Stick - easier said than done.

How Does it Work?

The stick does not contain helium. The secret (keep it to yourself) is that the collective upwards pressure created by everyone's fingers tends to be greater than the weight of the stick. As a result, the more a group tries, the more the stick tends to 'float' upwards.

Processing Ideas

• What was the initial reaction of the group?
• How well did the group cope with this challenge?
• What skills did it take to be successful as a group?
• What creative solutions were suggested and how were they received?
• What would an outside observer have seen as the strengths and weaknesses of the group?
• What roles did people play?
• What did each group member learn about him/her self as an individual?
• What other situations (e.g., at school, home or work) are like the Helium Stick?
• More information on Facilitation and creative debrief and processing tools